‘I wanted the ball’: Goddard receiver breaks school record in opening win over Buhler
Catch Jake Shope any other day of the week and the Goddard senior is quiet, mild-mannered and soft-spoken.
But on Friday nights during football season, Shope allows those repressed emotions to boil over and come to the surface. And entering his senior year, there’s more anger than there’s ever been because he feels like he has been overlooked.
Shope should command the respect he’s after following his season debut on Friday in Goddard’s 35-20 victory over Buhler. The 6-foot-1 receiver was the breakout star of the game, catching a school-record four touchdown passes and racking up 242 yards on 12 receptions.
“He is like a quiet assassin,” Goddard coach Tommy Beason said. “He doesn’t say two words. He internalizes every bit of anger and when he gets the opportunity to bring it out, he’s like the Hulk ripping his shirt off. He’s like a whole different human. When he gets heated, he’s a dude’s dude.”
Sometimes Shope doesn’t even need outside motivation.
In the midst of his breakout performance, Shope was perhaps the most angry in the third quarter by his quarterback Kyler Semrad’s decision not to go his way on a third-down play near the goal line. After the incompletion, Shope was incensed, yelling at the sideline and pounding his chest as if to say “they can’t stop me.”
Sure enough, on fourth-and-10 from the 21-yard line, Semrad floated a jump ball to the corner of the end zone and Shope shed his defender and came down with the touchdown grab to put Goddard up 28-7.
“I knew as soon as I got one-on-one I wanted the ball,” Shope said. “I know we need to spread it around and all, but I wanted it there. I guess that’s the greedy part of me. I wanted to really prove myself tonight.”
Semrad laughed afterward when asked about the sequence.
That type of frustration shown by a receiver might rattle some quarterbacks, but not this duo. Friday’s breakout connection was forged through many hot, sticky days in the summer sun on a field in Owasso, Oklahoma where Semrad and Shope developed the impeccable rhythm they unveiled on Friday.
“We spent a lot of time this summer down there working for hours and hours and hours,” Semrad said. “There where times where he didn’t want to go, but he would get dragged along and we would get work done. That’s where we built our connection.”
“There were some hot days that I didn’t want to be there all the time, but I knew it was going to work out for us in the long run,” Shope added.
Shope’s big numbers didn’t come as a shock to those within the program. He’s been a starter for Goddard the past two seasons, including the 2018 Class 4A state championship game. And even without Semrad for the second-half of last season, Shope was productive enough to earn all-league honors at receiver.
But still, 12 catches for 242 yards and four touchdowns? Not even a little surprise?
“I feel like I knew something like this was going to happen,” Shope said. “I am pretty confident in my ability. I feel like I’m pretty underrated, so I just wanted to show people what I can do.”
For Semrad, who missed the second half of his junior season due to a knee injury, it was a near-perfect return to the field. The senior completed 26 of 36 passes for 344 yards and five touchdowns without an interception.
While Shope and Semrad were the ones who put up eye-popping stats, they both gave credit for their performances to a Goddard offensive line that entered the season as a question mark with only one returning starter. But the blocking from Rhett Brown, MJ Owings, Levi Derksen, Edjuan Belling and Easton Shaner-Palmer on Friday help swing the game in Goddard’s favor.
“We were never able to get to the quarterback,” Buhler coach Steve Warner said.
“I only got knocked down one time and no sacks,” Semrad said. “I’m so proud of those guys.”
Buhler actually controlled the game for the first 19 minutes, holding a 7-0 lead after Bradley Neill found Ryan Henderson wide open on third down for a 57-yard touchdown pass early in the second quarter.
But that’s when Shope started to take over. His first big strike came on a 58-yard bomb over the top of two defenders courtesy of a well-placed ball from Semrad to tie the score with 4:32 remaining in the second quarter. Shope gave the Lions a 14-7 halftime lead by bringing down another jump ball in the end zone for a 34-yard score just 14 seconds before the break.
Buhler’s chances significantly diminished after its offense failed to register a first down on its opening drive of the second half, then a botched punt gave Goddard the ball inside Buhler’s 10-yard line. Semrad made quick work of the opportunity, finding Tyler Haskell for a three-yard touchdown score for a 21-7 lead. Shope added touchdown catches of 21 and 54 yards to close out the game for Goddard, which led by at least two scores for the final 21 minutes.
“The first half was a great chess match, but once we got down 21-7, things went downhill from there,” Warner said. “We kind of fell apart, but we’re a young team. We’ve only got nine seniors. We’ll learn from this and get better. We’ll have to get better.”
This story was originally published September 5, 2020 at 12:49 AM.
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