Chase Gommert threw three of his four touchdowns passes to Chase Reeders and ran for two scores as the Bees sped away from a game Granger team 54-23 at John Glover Stadium.
Reeders hauled in a pair of 59-yard scoring passes and another for 16 to ignite the Bees, who moved to 2-0 for the season.
“You don’t slow down against a bunch like that,” said Academy coach Royce McAdams. “We have the tools to be explosive. (Reeders) really came into his own. And he blocked so well at tight end.”
Granger, now 1-1, moved the ball well enough to collect 20 first downs and more than 300 yards of offense. But three critical turnovers and the susceptibility to the big play proved too much to overcome.
“At times we saw the lines,” said Granger coach Allen Dews. “We just made a lot of mistakes. We’ve got to get rid of those mistakes.”
Gommert rushed for 143 yards and threw for 258 in a stellar performance. He didn’t take long to heat up.
On just the second play of the game, Gommert hooked up with Reeders for the first 59-yard touchdown. Gommert hit Reeders at the Granger 40, where he slipped a tackle and raced in for the touchdown. Cody Sultenfuss’ PAT kick gave the Bees a 7-0 lead just 43 seconds into the contest.
Bradley Sims set up the Lions’ only first-half score with a spectacular 67-yard punt return. Reeders, the punter, saved a touchdown at the 1. Sims got the honor to take it in from there on the next play to even the score at the 4:39 mark of the quarter.
Academy was dominant the remainder of the first half, scoring 20 consecutive points to take a 27-7 halftime advantage.
Gommert fired a 45-yard pass to Andrew Sodek to key an 80-yard scoring drive in 10 plays before the end of the first. Layton Willis finished it off with a hard-driving 9-yard sweep around the left side to put the Bees back on top, 14-7.
Noah Hamill snared a bomb from Gommert behind the Lion secondary for a 61-yard score and a 20-7 margin.
With just 47 seconds left in the half, Reeders hauled in another 59-yarder from Gommert along the right side for the score.
Granger came out for the second half with a vengeance with a 53-yard scoring drive in six plays. Sims went 21 yards on an option to the Academy 3. On the following play, quarterback Kenny Sifuentes fumbled into the end zone and tight end Kyle Janke pounced on it for a touchdown. Sifuentes ran in the two-point conversion to close it to 27-15.
The two teams traded touchdowns - Gommert broke loose on a 57-yard romp and Sifuentes went in from the 5 and converted the two-pointer - to make it a 34-23 game midway through the third quarter.
But the Bees took charge from there, reeling off the final 20 points. Gommert went over the top to find Reeders on an 11-yard scoring strike and the Bees took advantage of a Lion turnover with Gommert going in from the 2.
Willis finished the scoring by breaking loose on a 69-yard jaunt in the fourth. Willis finished with 102 yards.
Sims led the Lions with 98 yards on 17 carries.
“They were pressing us underneath and that allowed us to go for the home-run ball,” said McAdams. “We didn’t know what we were going to be like. It was a good night.”
