‘Landyn Essig is really fast’: Essig returns two kickoffs for touchdowns, scores four times in Pirates’ rout of Spartans

HANNIBAL, Mo. — Landyn Essig’s encore performance was just as impressive as his opening act.

With the Hannibal football team leading Moberly 41-18 at the start of the fourth quarter of Friday’s North Central Missouri Conference game at Porter Stadium, Essig had already run the opening kickoff back for a touchdown, rushed for a touchdown and caught a touchdown pass.

What did Essig do for an encore in the Pirates’ 56-18 victory?

He took yet another kick to the house.

In the first action of the fourth quarter after a Moberly touchdown on the final play of the third quarter, Essig caught the kickoff at his own 15-yard line, stutter-stepped, eluded the first wave of tacklers, and he was off to the races.

“The green opened, and I went,” Essig said.

He was well past blocker Dylan Bock at that point.

“By the time I got there trying to block someone, Landyn was already past me, so I’m just standing behind him,” Bock said. “I’m not catching up to him. I’m just holding my hands up hoping he scores.”

Essig broke multiple tackles and bobbed and weaved his way to the end zone. He was just able to stay inside the pylon as multiple Spartans tried to chase him down to no avail.

“Landyn Essig is really fast,” Bock said.

Essig put that speed on display as fans settled into their seats for the opening kickoff when he fielded a squib kick and pulled away from the pack en route to his first of four touchdowns.

“When I saw (the open space), I was like, ‘Here we are, there we go!’ and I was gone,” Essig said. “I was like, ‘Here’s my chance,’ and I took it.”

Hannibal coach Jeff Gschwender has watched Essig evolve as a football player right before his eyes.

“I love that kid,” Gschwender said. “He’s becoming a lot more game aware. He’s understanding his responsibilities and what he’s supposed to be doing. When he has that, he can play at full-speed. When he plays at full-speed, he’s tough to deal with. He can flat-out run, he’s got some moves, and he’s just a tough, hard-nosed ball carrier. I love seeing it.”

Essig accounted for three straight Hannibal touchdowns over a 5-minute, 21-second span. With 5:05 left in the third quarter, Essig bounced a run outside and scurried his way for an 8-yard touchdown.

A fumble on the opening play of Moberly’s next drive gave the ball right back to the Pirates, and on the second play of that possession, Pirates senior quarterback Waylon Anders found a wide-open Essig running a seam route down the middle of the field for a 40-yard touchdown, a precursor to Essig’s second kickoff return for a touchdown four minutes later. 

“Cover 3, two seams, you’ve just got to pick one. The safety can’t guard both,” Anders said of his touchdown throw to Essig.

That was the second touchdown toss for Anders. On a fourth and goal from the 9-yard line, the Pirates leading 8-6 and less than a minute into the second quarter, Anders scrambled to his right and threw a jump ball to Karter Reed. The 6-foot-1 senior wide receiver rose above the pack of players in the end zone, snatched the ball out of the air and came down inbounds.

“Fourth and goal, you’ve got to do something,” Anders said. “(Reed) did a good job of working back inside and gave me a gap to throw to. I had enough time to get out there. I just found an opening and forced it in. I honestly didn’t even know if he caught it or not, but I heard everybody cheering.”

Anders improvisational skills and play-making abilities continue to amaze Gschwender.

“He’s been doing it for three years, and I don’t know how the heck he does it,” Gschwender said. “He sees things and makes throws when I’m right behind him, and I’m like, ‘How in the world did you even see that?’ much less make the throw. The kid’s a stud, that’s all there is to it.”

Anders also ran for a 6-yard score that extended the Pirates’ lead to 22-6 with 8:57 left in the second quarter.

The Pirates’ final touchdown came on a 1-yard plunge by senior Austin Closser, capping off a second half in which Hannibal outscored Moberly 34-6.

The Pirates committed five penalties in the first quarter, one of which wiped out a first down completion from Anders to Reed midway through the quarter and another that negated a 51-yard highlight reel touchdown run by Anders on the Pirates’ next possession, eight plays before Anders’ touchdown pass to Reed.

“We still have this first half, second half type deal,” Gschwender said. “Too many penalties in the first half are killing our drives. I thought we executed pretty well in the first half, but penalties put us back behind the sticks. Those are things that have to get cleaned up, and that is 100 percent on me.

“When we do clean it up, we get a second half like we did tonight, and if we can put four quarters of that together, we’re pretty tough to deal with.”

Hannibal (4-3, 3-1 NCMC) will play its final conference game at Marshall next Friday before hosting Fort Zumwalt West in the regular season finale on Oct. 25.