After throwing an interception on his first attempt of the game, Millard South football quarterback Trae Taylor did little else wrong Friday night.
The Patriot signal-caller amassed more than 400 yards of total offense and threw six touchdown passes in No. 2 Millard South’s 49-17 win over No. 6 Elkhorn South at Elkhorn Stadium.
“Everything was working; we just scored 49 points,” Taylor said.
Following the interception, Taylor led the Patriots (3-0) on four consecutive scoring drives to close out the first half.
Millard South got on the scoreboard first with a 73-yard drive in nine plays. Taylor ended the drive with an 11-yard pass to Landon Schnieder for the score. Schnieder caught the pass along the sideline and did a toe drag to stay inbounds for the touchdown to lead 7-0.
Taylor set up Millard South’s next score with a 32-yard scamper down the sideline to put the Patriots in the red zone. Two plays later, he connected with Schnieder for his second score of the game, this one coming from eight yards out. The Patriot offensive line gave Taylor plenty of time to survey the field and find Schnieder open in the back of the end zone and push the Patriot lead to 14-3 early in the second quarter.
After two scoring drives that were under 3 minutes each, Millard South’s next scoring drive covered more than 5 minutes. The Patriots used 15 plays to go 76 yards, with Grant Scribner capping the drive with a two-yard run to increase the lead to 21-10.
Taylor closed out the scoring right before half, finding Antayvious Ellis for an 11-yard score with 16 seconds remaining in the half to take a 28-17 lead into halftime.
The Patriots added three second-half touchdowns, with each coming on a Taylor touchdown pass. He threw a 24-yard fade to Xane Krause, an 11-yard slant to Ellis and he ended the scoring with a two-yard pass to Carter Margheim late in the fourth quarter.
The touchdown to Ellis came on fourth and six and capped a 17-play, 99-yard march after Storm punter Jackson Mawson had pinned the Patriots at their 1-yard line.
Taylor completed 28 of 40 passes for 304 yards.
“It’s a big statement to everyone who said we didn’t have receivers,” Taylor said.
He added 99 rushing yards on 10 carries.
Ellis led the Patriot receiving corps with 10 catches for 108 yards and two touchdowns. Schneider added five receptions for 44 yards and his two scores. Eight Patriots had at least one catch, with five having three or more.
“It just shows the guys we have to be able to spread the ball around like that,” Schneider said.
Millard South limited the Storm (1-2) to 17 yards of total offense and just one first down in the second half.
Joey Kiscoan ran for 119 yards and a touchdown in the first half and managed just two carries for 6 yards over the final two quarters. Charlie Buller, who had a 68-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, ran for four yards on five carries in the second half.
The Patriots totaled 595 yards of offense (304 passing, 291 rushing) and had 36 first downs while limiting the Storm to 223 yards and eight first downs.
Millard South continues its road swing when it visits Cardinal Ritter College Prep in St. Louis on Friday, while Elkhorn South is at Columbus.
