Facing a struggling Van Horn team which had very limited varsity experience, Truman head coach Gregg Webb decided it was time to go back to basics.

His Patriots worked on snapping the ball without fumbling, making solid tackles, handing the ball off to running backs correctly and reducing turnovers. They did all those things well and scored more than 70 points for the first time in school history as they rolled to a 75-13 homecoming win over the Falcons Friday.

Truman rushed for 549 yards, forced seven turnovers and scored on its first eight possessions. The varsity offense only failed to score on one drive and that’s when it got the ball back with 33 seconds left in the first half.

“We really took this as a back to fundamentals week,” said Webb, whose team improved to 2-3 overall. “We just make so many silly mistakes and we did tonight, too. The penalties we had today have killed us all year and would have this game also if it wasn’t such a lopsided affair as far as talent goes.

“We changed some things and went back to a Week 1 thing. We just worked on the basics like handoffs. We wanted our kids to go out there and be able to make adjustments as the game was occurring. In some games, we haven’t been able to do that because our football IQ isn’t very good.”

Added Patriots fullback Juan Flores: “This was just a good opportunity to work on our basic plays – trap, keep, sweep – so it’s good to get back to the basics and work hard.”

Preparing the way they did this week helped Truman prepare for next week’s opponent, St. Joseph Central, which Truman quarterback Aaron Lehman said runs similar plays to Van Horn.

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