Led by a ground game that racked up a whopping 323 yards — including 171 by workhorse back Brayden Wallace — and a defense credited with three goalline stands, the Evanston High School football team celebrated some Homecoming Heroics Friday with a 32-7 win over Green River.

“There was just a lot of good stuff — the kids came out and played physical football,” said EHS head coach Steve Moore. “Offensively, we executed pretty much what we wanted. We didn’t punt in the first half — we moved the chains, controlled the ball well. Defensively, we bent a little bit, but we didn’t break — we had some great goalline stands, and kept them scoreless until their final drive. There were just a lot of very good things.”

Evanston received the opening kickoff, and drove down to the Green River 2-yard line, where Wallace punched it in for the first Red Devils score of the night. The Evanston faithful welcomed the return of senior placekicker Jordan Mendez — injured in practice prior to the first game of the season — who booted the extra point, and the Red Devils led 7-0 with just under three minutes gone in the game.

Green River answered with a sustained drive of their own, working the ball down to the Red Devils 10-yard line. On 1st and goal from the 10, Ryker Pace blitzed through the line to wrap up Green River quarterback Maddux Hitz; Hitz shook the tackle, but that allowed Clayton Cook to finish off the sack at the 15. Evanston defensive back Brooks Searle made a touchdown-saving tackle on the next play at the 3-yard line to bring up third down; a handoff up the middle was stuffed at the line of scrimmage by Brecken Rich to make it 4th-and-goal. Opting to go for it, Green River tried a short pass in the flat; Jesse Page read it perfectly and drove the receiver out of bounds short of the goalline for the turnover on downs.

The Red Devils marched 97 yards on their next possession, culminating in a 6-yard touchdown pass from Braunson Sims to Clayton Cook. Mendez’ PAT split the uprights, and Evanston led 14-0.

The Wolves once again drove deep into Evanston territory, eventually making it to the 8-yard line, 1st-and-10. Once again, the Red Devils’ defensive unit proved up to the task, turning Green River away on 4th and goal for the second consecutive drive.

“Green River’s first two drives, they marched down the field and were doing some really good things on their end,” Moore explained. “We tell our kids, ‘We can bend, but don’t break.’ They were inside the 5-yard line a couple of times, and we held them out, which was good to see.”

With the clock winding down in the first half, the Red Devils appeared to have yet another touchdown, this time on a pass from Sims to Brooks Searle in the corner of the end zone. The refs saw it differently, however, and Evanston was forced to settle for a 31-yard field goal by Mendez, as time ran out in regulation. After successfully knocking it through, Mendez went directly from the field to a golf cart on the track to perform his duties as Homecoming King.

Wallace had over 150 yards rushing in the first half alone, and Moore was quick to give credit where credit was due.

“The offensive line played phenomenal on Friday night — Jordan and Jeran Welling, Tarrin Haws, Keenan Batt, Grady Ivie — they played lights out,” Moore said. “They were picking up blitzes, moving people, double-teaming. We always stress that we have to win in the trenches, and they did a great job.”

Green River had the ball to start the second half, and facing 3rd-and-3 from their own 25-yard line, Hintz was hit on his blind side by defensive lineman Tarrin Haws. The ball was knocked loose for an apparent fumble, though the official called it an incomplete pass, much to the chagrin of the Red Devils’ sideline and crowd.

“Those officials have a hard job,” Moore said, diplomatically. “Obviously, I see Red and Blue, so I’m a little biased. But they have a tough job. It was a great play by Tarrin, and it would have been a lot of fun, had it gone our way. But that’s OK. Our defensive line was causing No. 8 fits — I thought we did a good job of containing him. He got a few, but I thought we did a good job on him.”

Evanston’s next score was set up by a 21-yard run by quarterback Sims that put the Red Devils on the 2-yard-line; Braxton Hanks scored on the next play. The coaching staff decided to have some fun with the PAT, with holder Brecken Rich taking the snap, then rolling out and finding Cook in the back of the end zone for the 2-point conversion, making it 25-0.

After yet another stop by the Evanston defense, Hanks scored the final points of the night for the Red Devils with 4:19 to play in the game, a 9-yard touchdown run; Mendez’ extra point made it 32-0.

Green River finally got on the board with their final drive, a 5-yard touchdown run by Dax Taylor. The extra point was good, making the score 32-7. The Red Devils were able to run out the clock on their next possession, and the game ended with a decisive Homecoming win for Big Red. Fans poured onto the field, a fireworks show commenced, and, once again, Kay Fackrell Stadium came alive for the community of Evanston.

“I need to stress to our guys how lucky we are to get to play here on a Friday night,” Moore said. “It is a special environment. You can go around the state, and there’s some good crowds, and it’s exciting. But there seems to be something here that’s just a little bit more than what we see on the road. It’s an awesome thing, and we need to appreciate that. I think we’re spoiled. Friday was fun, for sure.”

The Red Devils finished the night with over 400 yards of total offense, most of it on the ground. Brayden Wallace led the charge with 171 on 16 carries and a touchdown, followed by Jesse Page, who rushed for 51 yards on eight carries. Braunson Sims carried the ball six times for 44 yards, while Braxton Hanks also carried six times for 25 yards and two touchdowns.

Under center, Sims completed 6-of-10 passes for 42 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Clayton Cook hauled in two passes for 16 yards and a touchdown; Ryker Pace and Brecken Rich each caught a pass for 10 yards and seven yards, respectively. Brooks Searle caught two passes for three yards.

“We ran the ball extremely well, and when we threw the ball, it was effective and efficient — we didn’t get a lot of yards passing, but when we did it was timely,” Moore said. “We know teams are going to load the box and try to stop our run game — that’s our bread and butter. But we’re OK with that. We feel we can open it up when we need to — the playbook is pretty much wide open. We’re getting what we thought we were gonna get.”

Defensively, Searle finished with 12 points to lead the team (7 tackles, 4 solo, 1 for loss), followed by 9.5 points each from Caden Marler (8 tackles, 1 solo, .5 for loss) and Brecken Rich (8 tackles, 1 solo, .5 for loss). Karter Moore finished with nine points (7 tackles, 1 solo, .5 sack), while Jesse Page had eight (3 tackles, 1 solo, 1 for loss, i pass defended). Tarrin Haws finished with seven points (7 tackles, .5 for loss).

The Red Devils resume 3A West conference play Friday at Cody (4-0, 1-0 in 3A West), and Moore said his team will need to be ready for anything.

“Cody runs that quick-tempo offense, so we gotta be prepared for that,” Moore said. “We’ll need to throw a lot of things at them. They’re really good up front. They didn’t lose a lot from last year — a lot of those kids were juniors last year, and they’re good. They’re well-coached, disciplined and they do a lot of really good things. We just gotta coach our guys up, get our guys ready defensively. Cody’s gonna be a handful, but I think it will be good for us.”