The Atlantic Trojans imposed their will up front and showed off their wheels in a 56-17
win over the Storm Lake Tornadoes on Friday night at the Trojan Bowl. Ethan McNeal
raced for four touchdowns on the night including scores of 72 and 55 yards. Sophomore
Benny McLaren added two rushing scores of his own and fellow Sophomore Skyler
Burcham took an interception back 60-yards for a score.
It didn’t take long for McNeal to set the tone as he raced for that 55-yard score on the
fourth play of the game. The Trojan defense then forced a three and out from the
Tornadoes to get the ball back but came up short on a fake punt attempt to give it right
back. That didn’t matter, because that’s when Burcham stepped in front of a flare to the
sidelines intended for Storm Lake top receiver David William and took it down the
sideline to put Atlantic up 14-0 after a two-point conversion from McNeal.
Storm Lake got a 40-yard field goal from Julian Muniz-Rodriguez to make it 14-3 but
Atlantic would get the next two scores on McNeal runs. Storm Lake got into the
endzone following an interception by Jay William with just over a minute left in the half
but Atlantic would add one more score by Benny McLaren to take a 42-10 lead to the
locker room.
McNeal added his final score just after half and a running clock melted away the rest of
the game pretty quickly. Brandon Wagner added Atlantic’s last touchdown on a beautiful
bootleg late in the third quarter.
The Trojans improved to 2-2 and will now head into district play with a tough Creston
team coming to Atlantic for Homecoming. We’ll have that game once again on KJANTV.
Storm Lake falls to 1-3 on the season and will head back home to host Sioux City West
next week.
