Landon Essig returned two kickoffs for scores as part of a four-touchdown night to lead Hannibal to a 56-18 win over Moberly on Friday night. Essig scored touchdowns three ways; rushing, receiving and returns in helping the Pirates improve to 4-3 and 3-1 in the NCMC.
Essig took the opening kickoff 75 yards and a botched snap led to a successful two-point conversion. After back-and-forth punts, the Spartans answered on a seven-yard touchdown run by Keegan Graves, after a 49-yard run by Jackson Engel. The extra point was blocked and it was 8-6.
Hannibal scored back-to-back second quarter touchdowns on a 4th and nine pass play from the 10. A Moberly interception set the Pirates up with a short field and quarterback Waylon Anders scored on a seven-yard run to make the score 22-6. The Spartans got back in the game on this special teams play just before halftime…
Brad Boyer with the call on NEMOPressbox.com. It was 22-12 at halftime. Moberly went three-and-out on the first possession of the second half and fumbled on their next play. That led to a stretch of three straight Hannibal touchdowns to blow the game open. The Spartans got one more score on the last play of the third quarter on a 50-yard connection from Engel to Ka’Von Tiger.
Drew Smothers scored his first varsity touchdown on the blocked punt recovery and made several tackles on defense to earn our Freeman Financial and Insurance Player of the Game.
Moberly drops to 2-5 overall and 2-2 in the NCMC. The Spartans host Mexico next Friday for Senior Night. We will have the broadcast.
Postgame with Cody McDowell:
