BRAINERD — Andover showed off its high-powered offense Friday, Sept. 2, at Adamson Field.
Racking up 611 yards of total offense, the Huskies cruised to a 52-14 win over the Brainerd Warriors.
In the second quarter, the Huskies scored 27 points to take a 36-0 lead into halftime.
The Andover offense was led by wide receiver Sam Musungu who caught 10 passes for 212 yards and three touchdowns. He caught six passes for 134 yards and two touchdowns in the first half.
“This is his third year starting for us, so he has that experience,” Andover head coach Thomas Develice said. “He’s a kid that people will have to honor. Our offense works where we have enough things that we do, so if they are going to take away Sammy other guys can make plays.”
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Landyn Nelson quarterbacked for Andover, and besides two first-half interceptions, went 24-for-32 for 426 yards and five touchdowns.
The Huskies' defense also forced two safeties when the Warriors were backed up near their own end zone.
“Andover’s defense is top-notch,” Warriors head coach Jason Freed said. “There’s a lot we can improve.”
The first safety, which came on a 10-yard sack, started the scoring for Andover and they led 2-0.
Andover then found the end zone on a 15-yard pass from Nelson to Musungu to make it 9-0 after the first quarter.
The Warriors' offense compiled just 53 total yards in the first half.
Meanwhile, Andover scored on four straight possessions in the second quarter.
Nelson found Musungu for a 53-yard score. Dylan Kirchner, who ran for 82 yards on 11 carries, scored his only touchdown from 3 yards out. Nelson then found Teddy Heller for 46 yards and Ben Kopetzki for 77 yards right before the half.
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“You have to completely refocus yourself every play when you play an explosive offense,” Freed said. “We tell our kids that every time. And when things aren’t going well that’s when the focus wanes sometimes.”
Heller finished with seven catches for 102 yards.
“We are young and a lot of these guys don’t have very much varsity experience,” Develice said. “We knew our kids would calm down a little bit and then did. We know we have some guys who can make plays.”
The Warriors showed fight to start the second half, scoring on their first two possessions.
Dylan Gross, who is known for his hard-hitting on the defensive side, scored a 9-yard touchdown run out of a wildcat formation.
“We’ve wanted to use him on offense and he finally got cleared last week, so we kept it in our back pocket,” Freed said. “It’s something we have been practicing, but Dylan is a great leader and is one of the leaders for our football team not just emotionally, but in all other phases and that was a great spark.”
The drive was set up by a 57-yard run by Damien Bentho. He finished with 74 yards on 19 carries.
On the next possession, Marcello Getty scrambled in from 3 yards and the Warriors cut the Andover lead to 36-14 after three quarters.
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“You get knocked down and you get back up,” Freed said. “We got knocked down in that first half and history repeated itself. Last year (against Andover), it was the second quarter, this year it was the second quarter. Andover is a great football team and I wouldn’t be surprised if they aren’t making noise in the postseason.”
The Huskies put the game away with a safety to start the fourth quarter and then a 55-yard touchdown pass to Musungu on the first play after the free punt.
Brainerd moves to 0-2 and travels to Moorhead next week for its first subdistrict game.
“We told our guys to dig deep,” freed said. “This is a game where things didn’t bounce our way, but I thought the kids came back out with good energy, fought hard, got a couple of stops and offense got some momentum going.”
Andover 9 27 0 16 — 52
Brainerd 0 0 14 0 — 14
First quarter
And-Marcello Getty sacked for a safety 8:27
And-Sam Musungu 15-yard pass from Landyn Nelson (Nelson kick) 3:14
Second quarter
And-Musungu 53-yard pass from Nelson (pass failed) 8:52
And-Dylan Kirchner 3-yard run (Nelson kick) 5:39
And-Teddy Heller 46-yard pass from Nelson (Nelson kick) 3:12
And-Ben Kopetzki 77-yard pass from Nelson (Nelson kick) 1:50
Third quarter
Brd-Dylan Gross 9-yard run (Bennett Bernander kick) 8:20
Brd-Marcello Getty 5-yard run (Bernander kick) 3:56
Fourth quarter
And-Dylan Gross 1-yard loss for a safety 10:24
And-Musungu 55-yard pass from Nelson (Nelson kick) 10:05
And-D’Mario Davenport 4-yard run (Zachary Pamperin kick) 7:37
Team statistics
Rushes-yards: Brd 38-94, And 31-139
Pass comp-att-int-yds: Brd 9-22-73, And 26-34-472
Total offense: Brd 60-167, And 65-611
Individual leaders
Rushing: Brd-Damien Bentho 19-74, Dylan Gross 5-15, Eli Hoelz 3-5, Dillon McLaughlin 1-3; And-Dylan Kirchner 11-82, Landyn Nelson 10-37
Passing: Brd-Marcello Getty 7-18-48, Eli Hoelz 2-3-25; And-Landyn Nelson 24-32-426
Receiving: Brd-Eli Hoelz 4-21, Nolan Johnson 2-38, Jake Merseth 2-8, Damien Bentho 1-6; And-Sam Musungu 10-212, Teddy Heller 7-102, Ben Kopetzki 2-84, Anthony Micheli 1-41
CONRAD ENGSTROM may be reached at 218-855-5861 or conrad.engstrom@brainerddispatch.com. Follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/the_rad34.
Andover 52, Warriors 14
Key: Andover racks up over 600 yards of offense in win
Overall: Brd 1-1, And 1-0.
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Next: Brainerd at Moorhead 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 9.
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