By KLINT SPILLER

The Hays Daily News

Even though the Hays High School football team won a lopsided game against Chapman on Friday night, very few Hays High players walked off the field with smiles on their faces.

The Indians defeated the Fighting Irish 46-6 on Lewis Field Stadium in the season opener, but HHS committed numerous miscues, including 11 penalties for 80 yards, and six fumbles.

"I thought they were excited to play," second-year Hays High coach Ryan Cornelsen said. "I think a little bit of that got to us. We created a lot of mistakes and had a lot of miscues, penalties and turnovers, but as far as effort, it was good."

Hays High dominated the ground game, gaining 312 yards to Chapman's minus 37 yards.

However, even senior running backs Josh Balman and Casey Sedbrook, the top rushers, had a difficult time finding positives.

Balman led the team with two touchdowns and 114 yards on 10 carries, and also led the team in receiving with two receptions for 46 yards and a touchdown. However, he also was responsible for one of the team's fumbles.

"I need to hold onto the ball better," Balman said.

"We need to attack more. We need to get off the ball faster. We need to make a lot of improvement."

Sedbrook carried the ball 11 times for 71 yards and a touchdown and had a reception for 28 yards.

"We definitely could have played a lot better game," Sedbrook said. "We did a lot of things well, but we also didn't do other things well."

In junior Austin Unrein's first start at quarterback, Cornelsen said Unrein has room for improvement but added he was pleased with the effort and intensity.

Unrein completed 4-of-10 passes for 84 yards and a touchdown and ran six times for 17 yards and a touchdown.

"I thought there was some desire and passion there to win, and that is what you need out of your quarterback," Cornelsen said. "I'm excited to see his improvement over the next three weeks. I think it will be drastic."

The Hays High defense shut down Chapman's spread attack, allowing 164 yards passing and 127 total yards, but Cornselsen thought his defense was playing on its heels at times.

"With as much as they were passing, sometimes that does that to you," Cornelsen said.

The Indians dominated early in the game, scoring on their first three drives.

Unrein executed a fake handoff and ran off right tackle for a 2-yard touchdown to cap the first drive with 9:34 left in the first quarter.

Sedbrook capped Hays High's next drive with a 1-yard touchdown run, and Balman caught a 37-yard touchdown pass from Unrein on the first play of the third drive.

In the second quarter, Balman got loose off the right side for 46-yard touchdown to extend the lead to 27-0.

Hays High added two touchdowns in the third quarter, a 20-yard run by Balman and a 1-yard run by Sedbrook.

On the first play of the fourth quarter, sophomore running back David Cardinal ran for a 19-yard touchdown.

Cardinal took the opening kickoff for a 34-yard return, and he picked off Chapman senior quarterback Chad Williams and took it back for an apparent touchdown. It was negated due to a block-in-the-back penalty. He also carried the ball twice for 43 yards.

Williams completed 19-of-35 passes for 164 yards and a touchdown.

Cornelsen said his team is going to need to be "hitting on all cylinders" heading into Friday's game at Goddard.

"This is our first chance to evaluate at full speed," Cornselsen said. "We'll go back to the drawing board and see what our mistakes were. It is always a big learning curve from Week 1 to Week 2."