When Notre Dame High School football coach Charles Fant and his staff sat down to view video on the Fighting Irish's opponent for Friday night, they came up with an offensive blueprint they felt pretty good about.
"They told me they were going to put the ball in my hands this week," senior running back Auston Banks said.
Banks made the Irish staff look like quite the perceptive group as he ran for 281 yards with four touchdowns in the first half and scored a receiving TD in the second half and Class AA Notre Dame handed Class A Boyd-Buchanan a 50-7 whipping at Notre Dame.
After winning the coin toss and taking the ball, the Irish completed a pass to highly touted and Louisville-bound wide receiver Kareem Orr for 5 yards. But that ended up being his only statistical contribution.
After two runs for short gains by Banks, his third carry went for 65 yards and a touchdown.
The Buccaneers responded with a first-play pass completion from Cooper Hodge to Jack Keebler down the Boyd-Buchanan sideline that went 80 yards for a score. Will Greer's extra point gave the Bucs a momentary 7-6 lead. But Banks remedied that with a 63-yard touchdown run on the first play after the kickoff.
Jared Andrews' 74-yard punt return set up Banks' third TD -- a 5-yard run off left tackle. Freshman Daniel Hodges' 32-yard field goal at the 1:54 mark gave Notre Dame (3-1) a 23-point first quarter.
"We had our best week of offensive practice," said Fant, who thought again and added, "Really it was our best week of team practice. We knew we were going to have some success, but it kind of surprised me we were able to hit a couple of plays so quickly."
And they continued. Not only did Banks add an 83-yard scoring run at 8:43 of the second quarter, but his backup, junior Ricky Ballard, duplicated the feat 3:17 later.
Fant said the Irish "cleaned some things up" recently and the backs are reaping the benefits.
"Our offensive line has been amazing the last two weeks," Fant said. "We made some adjustments there and we've really been focusing on our technique. Our boys up front deserve most of those yards for Auston."
Banks finished the first half with 250 yards on 13 carries. He ended the game with 20 carries -- all in the first three quarters -- and caught two passes for 43 yards.
He, too, praised the offensive linemen and the gaps they were able to create.
"They were giant," Banks said of some of the holes he ran through. "The line was just working hard for me, like they usually do."
Hodge ended up 10-of-15 for 160 yards for Boyd-Buchanan, which because of some injuries has not had its regular starting lineup intact since the first half of the first game.
Noah Bankston had an interception for the Irish and Demaris Macon had one for the Bucs.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.