TOPEKA, Kan. – The Washburn Ichabods scored early and often in the first half scoring 31 unanswered points rolling to a 45-3 win over Lincoln in their season opener on Thursday night in Yager Stadium. Washburn will now turn its attention to Central Missouri on Sept. 8 in Warrensburg in the first road contest of the season.
 
After the Ichabods held the Blue Tigers to a punt on their first possession, Washburn needed only four plays capping a 90-yard drive with James Letcher, Jr. pulling down a 69-yard touchdown pass from Kellen Simoncic with 11:11 to play in the opening quarter taking the 7-0 lead.
 
On the Blue Tigers' second possession, Washburn forced a three-and-out and this time Washburn marched 10 plays in 61 yards ending the drive with a 28-yard field goal by Kameron Lake as Washburn pushed its lead to 10-0.
 
The Blue Tigers punted on their next possession and Simoncic hit Collin Wilson for 13 yards with 2:44 to play in the first quarter with the Ichabods going up 17-0.
 
Lincoln drove down to the Ichabod 3-yard line, but fumbled near the endzone as Patrick Altenor forced a fumble and Nicholas Wright scooped it up for a 9-yard return with Washburn taking over.
 
Washburn capped its next drive with a 5-yard run up the middle by Tyler Bowden with 11:40 to go in the first half as WU went up 24-0.
 
Lincoln missed a 35-yard field goal and Washburn needed five plays going 80 yards when Bowden scored again, this time from 14-yards out.
 
The Blue Tigers picked up their only points of the game on a 30-yard field goal with three seconds to play in the half as Washburn led 31-3 at the break.
 
Washburn scored on its first drive of the second half when Simoncic hit Peter Afful for 17 yards for the score.
 
On the ensuing Lincoln drive, the Blue Tigers drove down to the Ichabod 10-yard line, but Derrick McClendon picked of a pass to end the threat.
 
Washburn wrapped up the scoring with 5:14 to play in the game when Jared Taylor connected with Cole Keller for 3-yards and the 42-point win for the Ichabods' ninth-straight win over the Blue Tigers.
 
Washburn rushed for 163 on the ground and had 585 total yards of offense on 68 player averaging 8.6 per play holding Lincoln to 250 yards of total offense and 3.3 yards per play.
 
Simoncic was 15 of 21 passing for 351 yards and three touchdowns in his second career start. Letcher, Jr. led the Ichabods with five catches for a career-high 177 yards with 99 of those coming after the catch. Letcher's previous high-water mark was 166 against Pittsburg State in 2019 on eight receptions. Afful had 104 receiving yards on four catches. On the ground, Taylor Peters had 36 yards rushing on 10 carries. Letcher also finished with 208 all-purpose yards.
 
Grant Bruner led the Ichabods with 10 tackles and seven solo stops and Channon Ross and Patrick Altenor each had six tackles.
 
Kameron Lake was 4 for 4 in touchbacks on kickoff attempts and Jake Zeller in his first game as punter had three punts for 163 yards averaging 54.3 per attempts with a long of 61 yards.