KINDER — The Kinder Yellow Jackets remained perfect in District 4-2A play with a convincing 35-6 win over the Lake Arthur Tigers Friday night.

The win sets up the a Week 10 matchup on Thursday with unbeaten Welsh for the district championship.

The Yellow Jackets (8-1, 4-0) offense wasted little time getting points on the board early in the first quarter. On their first drive they drove the field and scored on a Leonard Williams 28-yard run to take a 7-0 lead. Taylor Johnson scored on the next possession for a 14-0 lead.

Five plays after picking off a Lake Arthur pass, Leonard Williams scored his second touchdown of the night on a 7-yard run to give Kinder a 21-0 lead with 9:30 to play in the second quarter.

“We knew coming in that we needed to start to fast because Lake Arthur is not a team you want to give any kind of momentum or let them hang around in the game,” said Kinder coach Bret Fuselier. “They have some tough, hard-nosed football players. If you let them hang around, they will make you pay for it.”

The Tigers (5-4, 2-2) scored on a 4-yard Trey Hargrave run to trail 21-6 with 4:55 to play before half.

Nathan Hibbetts intercepted a Welles Cooley pass to get the ball back to Lake Arthur. But the Tigers gave it right back, fumbling it away 57 seconds before the end of the half with Kinder’s Joey McNeely recovering it.

It was enough time for Kinder to squeeze out one more touchdown before the half when Welles Cooley connected with Williams on a 5-yard pass with 2 seconds remaining to take a 28-6 lead.

“I’m real proud of our guys on our 2-minute offense as we finally put it into motion as we practice it every week for those situations,” Fuselier said. “Our guys did a great job of clock management. I was proud of us to be to be able to stick in their for the score.”

The Yellow Jackets put the game out of reach early in the third quarter. A 16-yard run by Zach Rider gave them the final score of the game with 7:40 to play in the third quarter.

Kinder finished with 329 rushing yards. Johnson led the way with 146 yards on 12 carries, while Williams followed with 85 yards rushing, 5 receiving yards, and was in on three touchdown scores.

“Our running backs are tough football players,” Fuselier said. “Taylor Johnson gets better as the game goes on as you saw tonight. Leonard Williams is almost a forgotten man as he doesn’t get a lot of carries but makes the most of them. Our offensive line did a great job opening the holes for them tonight.” 

Lake Arthur finished with 293 rushing yards. Michael Ware led the way with 140 yards and on 23 carries. Hargrave finished with 80 yards on 24 carries.