By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
The TMP-Marian Monarchs offense could never get going and the big-play Kingman offense was more than enough to knock off the Monarchs in the 2A state quarterfinals Friday 35-0 at Lewis Field in Hays.
Friday night marked the first time since week three of the 2019 season that TMP was held off the scoreboard, ending a streak of 25 straight games with at least a touchdown.
Kingman struck first, after a three-and-out on TMP’s first drive. The Eagles scored a 37-yard touchdown pass on fourth down to go up 7-0.
The Monarchs had a promising drive going on their next chance but a penalty stalled all their momentum inside Eagles territory.
In the first half time was able to get inside Eagles territory only once and were forced to punt three times and turned it over twice.
An interception of Kade Harris and a return to the TMP 41-yard line set up the second scoring drive of the first half by Kingman.
They took a 14-0 lead on 23-yard touchdown pass.
Kingman led 14-0 at the break.
They opened the second half with a third scoring drive and capped off the drive with a 19-yard touchdown run to lead TMP 28-0.
In the second half TMP punted twice and turned it over on does twice while Kingman added a two-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter on their way to the 35-0 win.
Unofficially TMP was held to just 130 total yards of offense.
Harris rushed for a team-high 44 yards.
TMP finished the year with just the fourth ever trip to the state quarterfinals and they won their first two playoff games since 2002. The eight wins in a season is the most since 1977.
Kingman (10-1) will play Beloit after the Trojans held off a late rally for Hillsboro for a 32-27 win.