Ouch.

On Tuesday night, the Smith Center high school football team in (what do ya know) Smith Center, Kansas defeated Plainville, scoring 72 points in the first quarter, ultimately winning the game 83-0.

Wow.

The first thing people will say is why did they run up the score like that? I understand some people are upset with the New England Patriots for "running up the score" on the Washington Red Skins last week, winning 52-0. Basically, this means that because the Patriots were winning by so much, they should have just folded and stopped trying to score.

This is hogwash. In professional sports, there are so many things that factor into every single play in the game, including contracts that might ride on particular stats. Player goals. Fantasy football numbers. But who cares? It's a professional sport, and these are professionals. If you don't want to have the score "run up," then stop them from scoring or get a new job.

However, I don't think this same rule should apply to high school sports. This are teenagers who are not professionals and shouldn't be treated as such. There are plenty of kids who are just playing to be involved on a team, not to mention that we're dealing with young egos here that are still being shaped. I would put the responsibility on the coaching staff to say "give it a rest."

But I wasn't at the game, so perhaps Plainville was just playing so poorly that it would have seemed like Smith Center was going easy on them if they didn't take the opportunities to score when they had them. From this article, I'd say that is about accurate. The Smith Center coach seems almost embarrassed by the lopsided win. And this the second time this year that Plainville lost to Smith Center, having lost 69-0 in a previous meeting.

Smith Center hasn't given up a single point the entire season.

Well, Plainville, keep your heads up. And listen to your coach:

"Right now, for a lot of our kids, things look pretty dim," Petrie said. "But it's our job to put this in perspective. I told them after the game -- this is probably the worst thing that's ever happened to many of them. But you know what? If that's the worst thing they ever have to go through, they're going to be in pretty good shape. It's going to take time, but they'll soon realize the sun is going to come up again."

A lesson for us all.