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Redmond takes to the air to burn Comets By TIM TROWER CENTRAL POINT - It was all about air time. Redmond aired out the football and Crater felt the air rush out of its ballooning hopes in the non-conference, 43-12 defeat to kick off the season Friday at Dutch Meyer Field. Redmond quarterback Josh Wagenblast piloted a first-half aerial show that would have made the Blue Angels proud, resulting in four straight scoring drives that took less time than a flyover. They came after the Comets had played solidly for more than 11/2 quarters and held a 6-0 lead as halftime ticked nearer and nearer. The ticking turned out to be a bomb. A 70-yard pass set up the Panthers' first touchdown, making it 7-6 with 5:44 left until halftime. The drive, of 75 yards, took four plays, which amounted to a laborious march compared to the others. After Crater went three and out, Wagenblast dumped the ball to shifty Tyler York, and he weaved his way downfield for a 65-yard score. The Comets went three and out again, and Wagenblast needed two pass plays, of 58 and four yards, to get into the end zone. A Redmond interception with 50 seconds left put the 6-foot-4 senior slinger on the field again for one play, a 17-yard touchdown strike to Sam Huston. It was 29-6, and anyone who left their seats momentarily must have felt a bit like Rip van Winkle. "Once we got going," said Wagenblast, who has received interest from every Pac-10 Conference school and a slew of other colleges, "man, it was like a light clicked on. We caught fire and it felt like we could score every time we touched the ball on offense." For a stretch, the Panthers did. In the first half, Wagenblast was 12 of 14 for 274 yards and the four touchdowns. He got a lot of help from his receivers. York, a flanker who is a player-of-the-year candidate in the Intermountain Conference, continually took short passes and turned them into adventurous jaunts - another such play of 86 yards for a score in the third quarter was brought back because of a penalty. Huston made a nice, leaping grab on his score, and Bruce Warden proved productive out of the backfield. "They got a lot of rushing yards after catches," said Crater safety Andrew Norum, who, as a receiver, scored the Comets' first touchdown on a pass from D.J. Beatty. "No. 42 (York), he was all right and he had some speed. We knew he was going to get the ball, but we were breaking down and lost focus." Crater coach Randy Heath was pleased with the way the Comets, who went winless last year, started out. Beatty showed off a strong arm, the athletic Norum and tight end Trevor Ryan made nice plays and Dan Casey ran with purpose. "Then they got some big plays and we deflated a little bit," said Heath, noting that poor tackling contributed mightily to the big plays. "We had one bad quarter," he said, "and we're not a good enough team to have a bad quarter." Just before Redmond went on its rampage, there was a pivotal series. With the lead and the ball, Crater appeared to move inside the Panther 30 for a first down on a pass from Beatty to David Sills. But a holding penalty negated the play and stalled the drive. It was on its next series that Redmond got untracked. "They had the momentum," said Panther coach Robby Robinson, whose own team returned a lot of players from a 1-8 campaign a year ago. "If they score on that drive, it's another ballgame. We got the stop on defense, and that was the hugest play." The second half proved anticlimactic. Wagenblast's fifth scoring pass covered four yards and made it 36-3 with 31/2 minutes left in the third. Two minutes later, Warden ran in from the 17 for the Panthers' final score. Wagenblast finished 18 of 26 for 391 yards. Crater's Casey scored early in the fourth from the 2 to cap an 82-yard march. He carried for 48 of the yards. At halftime, said Heath, "The whole thing for us was not so much physical as much as it was about confidence. The second half, I liked the effort of the kids and thought we continued to compete." Reach sports editor Tim Trower at 776-4479, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.