Airline upends No. 4 Union Parish

BOSSIER CITY – For a second consecutive week the Airline Vikings had more firepower than an opponent that came into the season with a lot of fanfare.

On Friday, coach Bo Meeks’ club dominated Class 3A’s No. 4 ranked Union Parish, winning 21-0, despite drawing a multitude of penalty flags throughout the contest. In last week’s Bossier Lions Club Jamboree, Airline outscored 5A No. 7 Parkway 14-9.

The Farmers moved the ball consistency between the 20s, but the Viking defense clamped down anytime Union reached the red zone.

“You don’t expect to play championship football in the first week, but you do expect to play well enough to win,” Union Parish coach Joe Spatafora said. “We’ll go back to the drawing board this week and work our butts off.”

The Farmers (0-1) simply didn’t have an answer for Airline speedster Shuncee Thomas, who rushed for 203 yards and three scores on the night. Thomas didn’t get many touches after intermission but his team didn’t need him.

“I want to give a big shoutout to my offensive line because without them, I wouldn’t have all these yards,” Thomas said. “They blocked their schemes and I saw green grass. The coaches say, ‘When you see green grass, just run like you’re crazy.’ So that’s what I had to do.”

The Vikings got the game off and running needing just four plays to get in the end zone with a power running attack. Thomas took the ball around left end, wasn’t touched until the 5 and leaped into the end zone for a 59-yard score.

A Union Parish fumble at the 33 was recovered by Bryson Vance for the Vikings. It took quarterback Thomas McKain a little longer to direct a scoring drive this time but after a helmet-ripping 18-yard run by Brian Fielding, Thomas scored from 6 yards out for a 14-0 Airline lead.

The Vikings continued their offensive mastery in the second quarter with Thomas going 34 yards around left end to make it 21-0 with 7:32 to play in the first half. The Farmers were able to get a couple of deep penetrations in the frame, but the Airline defense stopped them on fourth down both times.

Thomas rolled up 128 rushing yards in the first half, while the Farmers managed just 85 yards of total offense.