BY JIM MISUNAS
jmisunas@gbtribune.com
It didn't take Great Bend long to see the sheer football talent of the Hays High Indians.
The Indians scored on their second offensive snap. The Indians' first two completions were converted into touchdowns. The Indians scored touchdowns after back-to-back interceptions by Wyatt Waddell.
Tailback Malik Bah and Keamonie Archie each scored two touchdowns to spark the Indians past Great Bend 33-7 in Friday's home Western Athletic Conference football opener. The Panthers (0-2, 0-1 WAC) have lost 18 consecutive football games heading to next week's home game against Buhler.
"Up front was the big difference," said Great Bend coach Erin Beck. "They took it to us. There’s still a lot of football to be played. We’ll show everybody what we can do. They’ve worked hard. We need to stay together as a football team."
The best news is the hustling Panthers kept battling to the finish.
The Panthers enjoyed some brilliant offensive and defensive highlights. Colton Brack's hustling fumble recovery set up the Panthers' 61-yard scoring drive.
Crafty Cayden Scheuerman scored on a nifty 9-yard quarterback bootleg run keyed by Ian Premer's perfect block. Cody Miller hustled 33 yards on a perfect screen pass behind blocks by Owen Kaiser, Matthew Johnson and Danny Nieto for a crucial first down.
Middle linebacker Mathew Moeder and defensive tackle De'Onn Jones each contributed 13 tackles. The Panthers ended the first half with back-to-back sacks on Hays quarterback Kyrese Grone. Jones and Brack combined for the first loss. Johnson and Nieto sacked Grone on the next play.
Hays roared to a 26-0 halftime lead behind 213 yards rushing and two completions for 88 yards. The lightning-quick Bah rushed for 212 yards and has gained 473 yards in two games. He scored on a 48-yard dash to open the scoring.
The Keomonie Archie show started with a 13-yard touchdown reception followed by a 75-yard touchdown catch from quarterback Grone. Mah capped a 176-yard half on a 6-yard touchdown run to convert two interceptions by Waddell into touchdowns.
Miller was the Panthers' offensive spark with 65 yards receiving and 26 yards rushing. Scheuerman passed for 86 yards and added 20 yards rushing.
The Indians' defensive front of tackles Carson Spray and Brandon Yauch and ends Bryce Salmans and Grayson Walburn controlled the line of scrimmage.
"Offensively, we tried to hang out hat on trying to run the football," Beck said. "Hays quickly took that away from us and that got us off schedule. We made lays to gain some first downs, but we didn’t string enough together."
The Indians (2-0, 1-0 WAC) finished with 358 yards rushing and 119 yards passing for 477 total yards.
"Give credit to Hays because they did a good job up front offensively," Beck said. "They ran zone and counter and their quarterback beat us over the top."
Hays High 14 12 7 0 — 33
Great Bend 0 0 0 7 — 7
H—Malik Bah 48 run (Teegan Turnbull kick), 9:49; H—Keamonie Archie 13 pass from Kyrese Grone (Turnbull kick), 3:11; H—Archie 75 pass from Grone (kick fails), 10:07; H—Mah 6 run (kick fails), 8:09; H—Grone 5 run (Turnbull kick), 6:00; GB—Cayden Scheuerman 9 run (Alex Galindo kick), 6:42
RUSHING—H—36-358; Bah 19-212; Johnson 4-53; Groen 14-42; Archie 2-30; Carter Graham 6-27; team 1-(-6); GB—27-94; Cody Miller 11-26; Braylon Council 1-22; Jace Schartz 5-21; Scheuerman 8-20; Kamron Stude 2-5
PASSING—H—Groen 4-7-1, 108; Graham 2-4-0, 11; GB—Scheuerman 12-19-2, 86
RECEIVING—H—Archie 3-100; Bryce Salmans 1-8; Evan Cosgriff 1-7; Johnny Cano 1-4; GB—Miller 4-65; Ian Premer 2-15; Council 5-6; Spray 1-0
