Parity in the American Professional Football League took a step back Friday night at Landon Arena.
The Kansas Koyotes, now 7-0, had played a string of close games this season, but that string was broken in a 52-6 pummeling of the Missouri Minutemen.
After close games against Iowa and Springfield, Koyotes coach Jim Green said it was good to see his team get a dominant win.
"This was nice because the guys needed to have some fun,"
he said. "This will help them relax but it also helped us open up the playbook a little bit and do some things we weren't able to do in the last couple of games."
"I'm happy to have won like this and it will set the stage for going on to the next week."
Kansas forced the Minutemen into nine turnovers, six of them interceptions of Missouri quarterback Andre Roberson. The Koyotes were just as strong offensively, scoring on all but one of their possessions.
"We asked both the offense and defense to step it up, especially the offense,"
Green said. "We really wanted them to come out and have a stand-up performance and they did. This was a great game for us and now we've got to get ready for Nebraska."
The onslaught started with a four-play, 32-yard drive that was capped with an 11-yard touchdown run by Mike Steen.
Missouri threatened on its opening drive, taking the ball down to the Kansas 2-yard line, but the Koyotes' Morgan Dewey recovered a bad snap and raced 38 yards for a touchdown to put Kansas up 14-0.
The first quarter ended with Koyotes cornerback Henry Talley getting an interception return for a touchdown wiped away by penalty.
The Koyotes went up 20-0 with 13:02 left in the second quarter when lineman Jermaine Smith recovered a Ricky Lee fumble in the end zone. Talley then picked off another Missouri pass and scored on an 18-yard return.
Talley came up with a third interception that set up a 42-yard touchdown pass off a reverse from Josh Freeman to Justin Wrecke. The last Koyote score of the half came on a 9-yard interception return by Donte Pettis to give Kansas a 41-0 lead.
Missouri committed six turnovers in the first half, including five interceptions off Roberson.
The Koyotes will be home again next weekend when the face the Nebraska Extreme on Saturday.
Missouri 0 0 0 6 — 6
Kansas 14 27 6 5 — 52
Kansas — Steen 11 run (Wrecke pass from Bolden)
Kansas — Dewey 38 fumble return (pass failed)
Kansas — Smith fumble recovery in end zone (kick failed)
Kansas — Talley 18 interception return (kick failed)
Kansas — Wrecke 42 pass from Freeman (Steen run)
Kansas — Pettis 9 interception return (Thompson kick)
Kansas — Bolden 2 run (kick failed)
Missouri — Hullett 1 run (Carter returns fumble for safety)
Kansas — Thompson 24 FG
Individual statistics
Rushing — Missouri: Hullett 5-minus-2. Kansas: Bolden 5-36, Steen 2-23, Lee 4-14, Birhiray 1-6.
Passing — Missouri: Roberson 12-24-6, 64 yards; Marrow 0-3-1, 0. Kansas: Freeman 1-1-0, 42; Bolden 3-6-0, 35; Birhiray 1-4-0, minus-1.
Receiving — Missouri: Hullett 4-11, Harris 3-36, Smith 2-13, Scott 2-minus-2, Reimer 1-6. Kansas: Allen 2-29, Wrecke 1-42, Steen 1-6, Lee 1-minus-1.
