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In Temple’s first six games this season, none had a margin of greater than 10 points and three were decided by four or fewer.
In the latest installment of their rivalry series Friday night at nearly full Wildcat Stadium, none of those trends continued.
Not even close.
Lache Seastrunk, Adrian Reaves-Brown and Quentin Tuck all surpassed the 100-yard mark as Temple’s Wing-T offense racked up 537 rushing yards, and the Wildcats’ defense contained explosive Belton backs Keith Daniels and Khiry Robinson to produce a 56-0 thrashing of the Tigers.
Temple won its third straight game to improve to 4-3 overall and 3-0 in District 13-5A, good for a one-game lead over College Station A&M Consolidated, which the Wildcats edged 35-34 last week.
Temple’s second consecutive win against Belton extended its series advantage to 27-6-5, and it was the most lopsided score in the series since the Wildcats beat the Tigers 74-0 in 1934 - 62 years before the rivalry resumed.
“This feels great. Temple-Belton is our biggest game - the Central Texas Super Bowl,” said senior fullback Reaves-Brown, who ran for 158 yards and scored on runs of 51, 1 and 1 yards. “We’ve been wanting this and we played with a lot of heart.”
Temple third-year coach Bryce Monsen tried all week to keep his surging team focused. The Wildcats were, and it showed all night against the Tigers (3-4, 1-2).
“It’s a district win - a big district win,” said Monsen, whose Wildcats have won twice as many games this year as they did in his first two seasons at the helm. “The kids played hard, and we had a couple of things go our way early.
“This was a continuation of our first two district games, and any district win you get you feel fortunate.”
First-year Belton coach Rodney Southern, whose squad clipped Killeen Shoemaker 47-45 a week earlier, was matter-of-fact following the Tigers’ defeat.
“You’ve got to give Temple credit for playing great the whole game,” he said. “They ran the ball and ran it extremely well. The thing they do with their running game is you can’t key on any one back, because No. 15 (Seastrunk) is so good and so are No. 25 (Reaves-Brown) and No. 32 (Tuck). They did a good job blocking and they can eat the clock up.”
Sophomore running back Seastrunk ran nine times for 164 yards, highlighted by a 75-yard touchdown sprint early in the second quarter for the game’s first score. Senior wingback Tuck gained 105 yards on 12 carries, and Tevin Reese, Chase Moore, Kevin Lock and Darnelle Tubbs each added a TD run for Temple.
Meanwhile, Belton’s dynamic senior duo of Daniels and Robinson never really got going against the Wildcats’ aggressive defense. A week after his school-record 362-yard outburst, Daniels ran for 107 yards on 19 carries. Robinson had 70 yards on only nine tries.
“We expected a closer game, because they have two good running backs,” Temple senior rover Robert Black said. “The two things we talked about all week were being physical and wrapping up, and we came ready to play. It was amazing, what we did. It’s a feeling I can’t explain.”
Temple missed an opportunity to seize a first-quarter lead when Reaves-Brown rumbled 15 yards to the Belton 3-yard line but fumbled into and out of the end zone for a touchback.
Three minutes into the second quarter, Seastrunk took a handoff to the right side, used solid blocking to get outside and sprinted down the sideline for a 75-yard touchdown - his seventh rushing score of 45 yards or longer.
The Wildcat defense forced a quick punt, then Reaves-Brown went off left tackle, followed his blockers and made the last defender miss for a 51-yard touchdown and a 14-0 lead midway through the second.
The short-but-fast Daniels then helped Belton drive to Temple’s 13, but the defense stiffened and Hugo Cruz missed a 35-yard field goal.
Seastrunk’s 31-yard run, Tuck’s 16-yard scamper and Reaves-Brown’s 17-yard rush set up a 1-yard TD plunge by Reaves-Brown with 28 seconds left, giving Temple a 21-0 halftime lead.
Black pounced on a Belton fumble 2½ minutes into the third quarter, and the speedy Reese got the ball coming right on an end-around play and raced 31 yards to make it 28-0.
Moore’s 1-yard TD on a quarterback sneak pushed it to 35-0 with 1:49 left in the third, then Cody Monsen recovered a Cole Dominguez fumble and Reaves-Brown’s last 1-yard scoring rumble gave Temple two scores in 28 seconds for a 42-0 lead.
“It was a team effort, and that’s the best feeling,” said Reaves-Brown, whose team will play Harker Heights on Thursday in Killeen. “But we can always get better.”
gwille@temple-telegram.com