Baue is turning in Superman-like performances

WAUSA — One could say Ethan Baue can do just about anything.

Many could say he can score a lot of touchdowns.

On one magical night, the Wausa football player did both.

Wausa recently defeated O’Neill St. Mary’s 72-30 to move to 1-2 this season, but it was more about how they won it behind Baue’s all-around instant classic performance.

Baue scored eight touchdowns in myriad ways: Via interception, fumble and kickoff returns and oh by the way, six rushing scores.

“He has worked hard for the last three years and now he is at this point now where everything came together for him that day,” Wausa head coach Adrian Alonzo said. “He went from having the right blocks to making a real athletic interception. It’s not that we expected it, but it wasn’t surprising. I didn’t actually know how many touchdowns he had until after the game. I went back up to the school to look at stats and was like, ‘holy crap.’ It was nuts. He played only three quarters in that game.”

Baue also threw a touchdown pass to Taylor Kumm and there was that pesky two-point conversion.

“It was a lot of fun,” Baue said. “The team did what it was supposed to do and helped me out. I just kept running mostly. I kept going. Mostly, when I heard I thought it was cool I got the school record for total and rushing touchdowns.

“I had never done all that stuff before. The kickoff return meant the most. It’s always hard to get and everything has to be all right to do it.”

Baue didn’t find out how prolific a night he had until he had left the field and was partaking in the Homecoming dance.

“My parents told me,” Baue said. “I didn’t think it was that much at first.”

In all, Baue carried the ball 11 times for 318 yards (with touchdown runs of 55, 51, 38, 79 and 51 yards), completed two passes for 62 yards and ultimately finished with 472 all-purpose yards.

His kickoff return went for 70 yards, while Baue’s pick six went for 55 yards and his fumble scoop and score traversed for 51 yards. All told? Baue collected 598 yards with the ball in his hands.

Not bad for a young man who missed the first game due to an ankle sprain.

“Would I have expected nine touchdowns? No,” Alonzo said. “It was right after halftime and my coaches were standing next to each other. They all said ‘run him the whole third quarter and see what happens. He’s having a real good day.’ Right after that he had one long touchdown run.

“Three of his touchdown runs, he should have been tackled and he got out of it. They never stopped him.”

Quite an evening for the Wausa senior.

He wouldn’t mind bettering his mark with a 10-touchdown performance against rivals Wynot.

“I’m hoping,” he chuckled.