On a night where the seniors were honored for their hard work and dedication to the program, the Evanston High School football team ended the 2022 season in style, routing visiting Green River 44-7 for the team’s first win in the new Kay Fackrell Stadium.

The win ended a five-game losing skid by the Red Devils, and improved their record to 2-7 on the season; it also knocked Green River out of the postseason, allowing Jackson to sneak into the final 3A West playoff spot. Evanston’s 44 points was the most scored by the Red Devils this season.

“The kids did their jobs,” said EHS head coach Jim Burton. “It’s amazing what happens when we play four quarters.”

The game got off to an inauspicious start, as Green River scored what turned out to be their only touchdown on their first possession of the game, a 25-yard strike from Caleb Lake to Hunter Finley.

Down 7-0, the Red Devils answered on their first possession, as quarterback Cohen Morrow scored on a 16-yard scamper with two minutes to play in the opening quarter. Dylan Liechty brought the game back to even with the first of his five extra points on the night, and the game was tied 7-7.

Evanston’s defense took over at that point, eventually allowing just 166 yards of total offense, most of it on the Wolves’ opening drive.

“Our defense was just amazing – you hold anybody to under 200 yards, you’re having a good game,” Burton said. “A lot of those yards came on that first drive – we had a couple of big mental errors that we fixed later. They scored on us quick, and things looked kinda rough, but we made some little tweaks, and took care of it. Defense played really well.”

Evanston took the lead for good early in the second quarter on a 31-yard touchdown run by Morrow, his second on the night. Liechty’s extra point made it 14-7, and the Red Devils were off to the races.

“Really, anything we wanted to do, we did offensively,” Burton said. “We had a little trouble throwing the ball down the field – I think Green River knew that’s something we like to do, so they took that away. So we said, ‘OK, we’ll just run it on ya.’ The offensive line definitely took care of things, for sure.”

Red Devil running back Brady Roberts made it 21-0 midway through the second quarter, scoring on a nice 28-yard run that covered ground from sideline to sideline, and culminated in Roberts carrying two defenders into the end zone.

“Brady did a great job of finding the holes, and doing what he does,” Burton said. “On his touchdown play, it looked like he could have just rUn to the corner and gone in untouched, but he’s the kind of kid that thought, ‘Nah, I need to run somebody over.’ He cuts back and runs two guys over, and gets in the end zone. He’s just a tough kid.”

With just over two minutes remaining in the half, Morrow