WEBSTER CITY – Never one to mince words, Avery Fuhs had plenty of painful memories to use as fuel in Webster City’s season opener against Gilbert Friday night at Lynx Field.

“We all know how this game went last year. It was bad,” Fuhs, Webster City’s senior spinback, said. “We might as well have been playing (junior varsity). It was embarrassing.”

Fuhs and company were able to return the favor this time around.

An action-packed first quarter that featured a swarming defense and special teams that were, well, special, WCHS built a 21-0 lead after 12 minutes and eventually built the cushion to 28-0 on its way to a statement-making 42-19 thumping of the Tigers in a quagmire as the rain pelted down throughout.

The Lynx (1-0) improved to 5-1 all-time against Gilbert (0-1), the only blemish coming a year ago when the Tigers christened their new state-of-the-art stadium by blitzing the purple and gold, 38-6.

“It felt good to get that knot out of our stomach from last year,” WCHS senior offensive tackle and linebacker Victor Jergens said. “I felt that for sure.”

Payton Kannuan and Gavin Dinsdale scored a pair of touchdowns each, Jordan Moen reached the end zone once and picked off a pass, and Avery Fuhs hooked up with twin brother Alec on a touchdown pass to help seal Gilbert’s fate. The Tigers may have actually done that themselves prior to kickoff when they ran through the gate straight to midfield and jumped up and down on the Lynx logo to send an already amped WCHS sideline into a frenzy.

WCHS hardly needed the extra motivation though.

“I think we played a pretty solid game,” Moen said.

Dinsdale finished with 86 tough yards on 24 carries as he dealt with a Tigers’ defense that overloaded to his side on every play. Avery Fuhs tacked on 82 yards on 14 totes, and Kannuan picked up 59 yards on 11 rushes.

Moving the ball wasn’t always easy for the Lynx, who were their own worst enemy at times with a plethora of procedural penalties. The flags put them behind the chains and stalled drives.

“It feels good to see all the kids’ hard work pay off, but there’s a lot of stuff to work on,” WCHS head coach Bob Howard said after he collected career victory No. 301. “You hope that you’re going to move it better and we had a couple of really nice drives, but what stopped us as much as them was the penalties. Hopefully we can clean that up.”

The saturated field didn’t help Avery Fuhs when he dropped back to pass. But he wasn’t about to use the conditions as an excuse after he completed just 1 of 9 passes and was intercepted once.

“I was throwing horrible balls the whole time and then I finally got lucky one time,” he said. “I had guys open and I was trying to force things. It was just bad and there’s no excuse.”

But for all of the deficiencies the Lynx found in themselves, they were in control throughout.

Kannuan ignited the early onslaught with a 55-yard punt return to the house less than 6 minutes into the game. He took off up the middle, used three big blocks and then cut back right to outrun the Tigers.

“I thought I was going to get smoked at first because I didn’t think I had much time, but I had great blocking down the field,” Kannuan said.

Jergens forced a fumble a few minutes later and that set up Dinsdale’s first TD from 1 yard away late in the first period.

Another three-and-out by Gilbert was compounded when Zane Williams raced through the left side, dove and blocked Steven Lawrence’s punt. The ball careened towards the home sideline; Moen was the first one there and he went unimpeded to the end zone to make it 21-0 with 40 ticks left in the first.

“Howard has been talking that if (the ball) is behind the line of scrimmage, just scoop and score and that’s what I tried to do,” Moen said.

Sean Vogelbacher intercepted Gilbert quarterback Cole Drzycimski on the final play of the first quarter. Dinsdale opened the second by sprinting off tackle and taking it 36 yards to paydirt.

Gilbert reeled in momentum right before the half on a 12-yard touchdown pass from Drzycimski to Cody Dvorak, and the Tigers crept even closer on a 8-yard scoring burst by the QB early in the third.

It remained 28-13 until the final minute of the third when the Fuhs boys connected down the sideline for a 26-yard TD on third-and-13. But Gilbert had the quick answer – a 91-yard kickoff return by Eric Swart to get it back to a 16-point game, 35-19, with 40 seconds left in the period.

“The special teams certainly gave us a boost, but then let them back in the game,” Howard said. “We can’t have that.”

Gilbert looked to get even closer after stuffing WCHS on a fourth-and-inches play at the Lynx 26 early in the fourth. The Tigers reached the 10 and one play later Dvorak took a toss around the left end and out ran the defense across the goal line. But the TD was called back on a procedure penalty and Gilbert eventually found itself staring at a fourth-and-goal from the 21. Drzycimski took a shot in the back of the end zone, but the pass was batted down by Vogelbacher.

The Tigers never threatened again. A last gasp deep in their own territory ended when Cole Briese sacked and stripped Drzycimski, and James Cherry was there to fall on his second fumble recovery.

Kannuan got to the outside a few plays later and scored from 18 yards out to finish it off.

WCHS out-gained Gilbert, 253-208. Drzycimski rushed for 36 yards and passed for 97 more, but he completed just 7 of 26 passes. The Tigers averaged just 3.5 yards on their 32 rushes.

Linebacker Ryan Ferrari made five solo tackles and recorded seven stops in all. Collin Oswald sacked Drzycimski twice and joined Jergens with 41?2 tackles.

“I thought (Jergens) had a great opening game and I thought Ryan Ferrari also played well on the inside,” Howard said.

WCHS will attempt to go 2-0 to start the season for the fourth time in the past six years on Friday when it hosts longtime rival Clear Lake (0-1) at Lynx Field.