BLANKET – The Blanket Tigers intercepted four passes, recovered a pair of onside kicks, and generated 300 yards in a half as they pummeled the winless Throckmorton Greyhounds, 64-0, Thursday night to keep their perfect record intact.

Blanket (4-0) has outscored its opponents, 234-8, thus far this season, and yielded just 95 yards of total offense to the visiting Greyhounds (0-4).

“We’ve been saying since the beginning that we have a chance to surprise some people and I think so far we are surprising them,” Blanket first-year head coach Jalen Helms said of the start to the season. “But it doesn’t end here. The big games are keeping up, we just have to keep rolling with it.”

Kannon Kensing rushed for 152 yards and three touchdowns on just six carries, while Dallas Shumaker completed all three of his pass attempts to Mason Beck for 110 yards and three trips to the end zone.

“That’s always in our bag,” Helms said of the offensive balance of three rushing and three passing touchdowns. “We want to try and be pretty consistent and keep them pretty honest on the ground and in the air and we really did that tonight.”

Cameron Aultman added 32 yards on the ground, returned a punt 55 yards for a score, and picked off two passes including one that was returned 25 yards for a touchdown. Shumaker also nabbed a pair of interceptions with a 57-yard pick six that capped the scoring.

“Our defense has really stepped up this year,” Helms said. “We’ve got a lot of onsides, a lot of interceptions and a lot of fumbles so far this year. A big part of that is because of our physicality on the defensive side of the ball.”

For Throckmorton, Brice Beaver rushed for 30 yards and Canon Redwine added 22 yards on the ground, while Porter Redwine caught four passes for 27 yards as Kaden Peacock completed just 5 of 19 attempts with the four interceptions.

Blanket took the opening kickoff and needed just five plays to score as a 15-yard carry from Kensing and a two-point kick by Aultman made the score 8-0 just 1:56 into the contest.

The Tigers led 36-0 by the end of the first quarter as Beck caught a 42-yard pass from Shumaker at the 6:19 mark, Aultman recorded his pick six with 5:05 left in the quarter, and Beck hauled in a pair of 34-yard scoring tosses from Shumaker with 4:57 and 1:08 left in the opening stanza.

The second-quarter scoring included a 50-yard gallop by Kensing just 16 seconds in, Aultman’s punt return at the 7:46 mark, a 60-yard sprint from Kensing with 4:32 to go, and Shumaker’s interception return with 3:01 left in the contest.

“They came out and played like we wanted them to,” Helms said. “I felt like in the first quarter we came out a little slow but really picked it up. We got a few onsides that changed the tide for us, and got a couple of turnovers on defense.”

Next week, the Tigers venture to Woodson (3-1), which travels to Bryson (2-2) Friday night.