Tavian Patrick brought the Washington crowd to its feet Thursday night with a 93-yard kickoff return and a pair of 33-yard touchdown runs, but Kenneth Plume also got a standing ovation at Kingston Stadium.

Don't know Plume? He's a starting offensive lineman for the Warriors and was crowned the homecoming king on a soggy night at Kingston as the eighth-ranked Warriors belted Linn-Mar, 49-14.

So which is better: A 93-yard kickoff return or homecoming king?

"A 93-yard kickoff return. Any day," said Plume, who'd like to try it some day.

But don't get him wrong, he was happy to be king. "I kind of wanted to cry a little bit," he admitted.

Patrick agreed with Plume: A 93-yard kickoff return trumps royalty. "But I'm glad he got homecoming king. That's nice," said Patrick, a gregarious senior with great talent.

Linn-Mar (1-3) struck first for a 7-0 lead on a 32-yard touchdown pass from Reese Phillips to Daniel Gorisch on their first possession, but the rest of the night belonged to Washington (3-1).

Patrick got things started for the Warriors when he fielded the ensuing kickoff at the 7-yard line and took off.

"I saw a seam right away," he said. "I saw an opening on the outside and cut on the hash mark. I'm very confident in my kickoff return team. I know they'll make good blocks.

"I went on with the right return and I had to be patient on that last block. Then I got outside and I just hit the jets."

Washington's offense was rather ho-hum in the first quarter, but the second period belongs on a highlight reel. The Warriors exploded for five touchdowns in the second quarter in 10 minutes, 43 seconds to take complete control at 42-7.

Johnny Dobbs scored on a 4-yard run, then Dobbs broke loose for a 35-yard TD to make it 21-7.

Isaiah Nimmers caught a little flare pass from TJ Vogel and raced 77 yards for a touchdown.

Patrick broke loose for the first of his 33-yard scampers, then Dallas Hobbs caught a 3-yard pass from Vogel to make it 42-7 at halftime with all the PATs by Ross Kennedy.

It was an impressive 15 minutes of football, but coach Paul James refused to gloat. "We're just trying to get better and improve," he said simply. "And whatever happens, happens."

Nimmers, a speedster, has college scholarship offers from Northern Illinois, Illinois State and South Dakota, with some bigger FBS schools also in pursuit. He showed why when he took that little flip pass from Vogel and turned it into six points.

"I saw probably one guy out there, I think," he said. "I knew if I made one move on him that it would be just me and the corner(back) from the other side. And I just took it to the house."

Phillips, the Linn-Mar quarterback who broke the school record with five touchdown passes last week against Clinton, hurt his leg and limped off the field in the second quarter with his team trailing 28-7 and never returned to action. He spent the second half on the sideline in his jersey and shorts, but appeared to be moving OK and not seriously hurt.

The entire second half was played with a continuous clock. Patrick popped loose for his second 33-yard touchdown in the third quarter to make it 49-7 and finished the game with 106 yards on just six carries.

Linn-Mar scored late in the game on a 3-yard run by Cevan Walton.

WASHINGTON 49, LINN-MAR 14

.                           L-M      WASH

First downs             13            14
Rushes-yards    38-116      28-215
Passing yards        130           141
Comp-Att-Int     8-18-0       7-12-0
Fumbles-lost          4-1           3-1
Punts-avg.       6-31.2       2-40.5
Penalties-yards    3-23          6-50

Linn-Mar       7   0 0 7 - 14
Washington  7 35 7 0 - 49

Scoring plays

LM - Daniel Gorisch 32 pass from Reese Phillips (Austin Cochrane kick)
CRW - Tavian Patrick 93 kickoff return (Ross Kennedy kick)
CRW - Johnny Dobbs 4 run (Kennedy kick)
CRW - Dobbs 35 run (Kennedy kick)
CRW - Isaiah Nimmers 77 pass from TJ Vogel (Kennedy kick)
CRW - Patrick 33 run (Kennedy kick)
CRW - Dallas Hobbs 3 pass from Vogel (Kennedy kick)
CRW - Patrick 33 run (Kennedy kick)
LM - Cevan Walton 3 run (Brendan Healey kick)

Individual statistics
Passing

Linn-Mar - Phillips 5-11-0, 94; Hollinger 3-7-0, 36.
Washington - Vogel 7-12-0, 141.

Rushing

Linn-Mar - McGaffe 15-64, Luehring 5-35, Streicher 5-30, Hollinger 7-14, Walton 1-2, Kerry 1-minus 2, Phillips 2-minus 9, Team 2-minus 18.
Washington - Patrick 6-106, Dobbs 6-55, N.Nassif 7-34, Vogel 4-22, Thomas 1-0, Stewart 1-0, B.Nassif 1-0, Dostal 1-0, Malcolm 1-minus 2.

Receiving

Linn-Mar - McGaffe 3-53, Gorsich 3-35 Kerr 1-40, Luehring 1-2.
Washington - Nimmers 2-91, Leonard 2-23, Patrick 1-15, Stewart 1-9, Hobbs 1-3.