BY DAVID JINRIGHT
PHOTOS BY JAYCEE DALE
Lewis Field Stadium was the location of a classic edition of Friday night lights. The Hays High School Indians hosted the Garden City Buffaloes in a league matchup reminiscent of the power days of football in which Garden City edged out the win, 27-21.
Hays High started the contest with possession of the football and could not find anything early. Their short first drive was capped by a successful pooch kick inside the 10-yard-line by Clemson Football commit Jaren Kanak.
Garden City responded with a tough mid-90s, Nebraska-esque, wishbone offense that ran the game clock from 8:36, all the way to the end of the first quarter. The Buffaloes finished the first quarter with a touchdown run from Junior halfback Colin Kleysteuber.
The Indians responded to open the second quarter with a Kanak keeper, tying the game, 7-7. Midway through the second quarter, HHS increased their lead with a 67-yard touchdown pass from Kanak to Junior TE Bryce Salmans.
Garden was quick to respond after recovering a fumble and scoring on a halfback pass from Emmanuel Charite to Cooper Ramsey, evening the game at 14 apiece. Coming out of halftime, not a whole lot changed. Both teams had a feel for the other and they just butted heads. Garden City finally opened up the second half scoring with 2:06 left in the third. They did so with an incredible 97-yard touchdown pass, this time from Caleb Wiese to Jerry Arteaga.
On the other sideline, Kanak made some very accurate kicks by pinning the Buffaloes inside their own 5-yard line on three different occasions. The Indians, as expected, did not go away quietly. They tied this game up with a 1-yard touchdown run from Kanak. Garden City followed this up by executing in their wishbone offense by running the clock all the way from 8:18 to 1:58 and capping it off with a touchdown run from Colin Kleysteuber to go up 27-21 after a blocked PAT.
The Buffs were saved multiple times along the way with a defensive pass interference saving the drive on third down, a first down conversion on a QB scramble, and the Indians roughing the kicker on the field goal attempt prior to the touchdown. No timeouts for the Indians were to their detriment after receiving the ball with almost two minutes to play. The Buffaloes improved to 3-1 and will battle 2-2 Liberal next week. The Indians drop to 3-1 and will look to get back on track next week against an 0-4 Abilene team.
Across Ellis County, Victoria High School picked up a win by defeating Sylvan-Grove 36-22. Trego tallied a win in the win column by defeating Hoxie 60-40. Thomas More Prep defeated Syracuse by a score of 62-0. On the other end of the column, Ellis was defeated by Lakin 10-0.
Beyond prep play in the area, Fort Hays State University might have been the only team to have something to be happy about. FHSU traveled to Missouri Southern State and picked up a convincing win, 42-21, improving to 2-2 before this weekend’s homecoming matchup with the Lopers of Nebraska at Kearney.
Kansas State debuted in the top 25 this weekend as well, but couldn’t pick up the victory at Oklahoma State, losing by a tally of 31-20. Kansas State will take on Oklahoma at home next Saturday at 2:30. On the far East end of the state, the University of Kansas lost a tough contest to Duke University by a score of 52-33. Kansas will travel to Ames, Iowa to take on the Cyclones from Iowa State next Saturday.
