St. Thomas Aquinas High School and its high-potency spread offense didn’t miss a beat against host Great Bend, even though the Saints’ first-string running back, Dagan Reed, was serving a one-game suspension Friday night.
Backup running back Andrew Gittemeier and his Saints teammates more than picked up the slack. The Saints rolled to a 46-21 halftime lead en route to a 52-28 victory over the Panthers at newly refurbished Memorial Stadium in the season opener for both.
In a dizzying first half, the non-conference opponents combined for five touchdowns in the final two minutes, 53 seconds of the second quarter.
The flurry of points was highlighted by back-to-back kickoff returns for touchdowns, including a dazzling 100-yard gallop down the left sideline after a fake reverse in the end zone by the Panthers’ speedy returner, Alex Reed, to slash Great Bend’s deficit to 39-21.
It was Great Bend’s first 100-yard return for a score since Brent Meter, the son of GBHS athletic director David Meter, did it in 2003 in a win over Hays.
Trouble was, Reed’s return came on the heels of an 84-yard TD return by Gittemeier, the sixth of seven Aquinas opening-half scores. Gittemeier accumulated 295 all-purpose yards — 172 rushing yards and 39 receiving yards, coupled with his lengthy return — and four touchdowns on the night to deliver the early haymaker,
“There’s a lot of scoring going on there in a one-minute period,” Great Bend head coach Bo Black said. “I liked the way that Alex ran the ball down the sideline, obviously, and rallied to give us some hope.
“And then, we give up a touchdown right before the half, too.”
On the first play from scrimmage after Reed’s bolt, Aquinas quarterback Richard Davila planted a spiral into the hands of wide-open wide receiver Clayton Henning for a 66-yard catch-and-run and a touchdown to make it 46-21 with 34.1 seconds remaining in the half.
The Panthers never recovered.
On the opening play from scrimmage in the third quarter, Gittemeier cut loose for a 68-yard touchdown run to balloon the score to 52-21 at the 11:41 mark.
Great Bend had its moments early, methodically driving downfield on the game’s opening possession. Panthers quarterback Greg Hildebrand engineered a time-consuming 10-play, 71-yard scoring drive for a 7-0 lead with 8:26 left in the first quarter. The host team had five first downs during their initial possession and, after driving into the red zone, Hildebrand faked a handoff to Jeremy Sigler, rolled to his left and tossed a 5-yard touchdown pass to Connor Sell near the left corner of the end zone.
“We had a good opening drive and as they get the ball back, obviously, we just can’t stop them,” Great Bend head coach Bo Black said. “We get the ball back and we jump offsides. Another time, we snapped the ball one time off-count. With the early mistakes, we got too far behind way too early.
“We never came close to stopping them all night.”
Davila answered by marching the Saints 69 yards in 10 plays, capped by his 2-yard scoring plunge at the 5:48 mark, although Saints backup placekicker Brendan Nachbar missed the extra-point kick, leaving the score at 7-6.
Aquinas’ Shane Nachbar, who totaled 119 yards in four catches, gave the Saints a 12-7 lead after his 56-yard scoring reception from Davila. The Saints’ senior quarterback finished 12-for-19 passing for 240 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions.
After a high snap in punt formation sailed over Hildebrand’s head on the Panthers’ next possession, they gave the Saints a short field at the Great Bend 16-yard line. A holding penalty pushed Aquinas back to the 26, but after a Davila incompletion, Gittemeier raced untouched for a 26-yard score and a 19-7 lead with 8.8 seconds left in the first quarter.
That set the stage for a 27-point scoring explosion by the Saints in the second period.
“Andrew Gittemeier started last year at defensive back for us,” Aquinas head coach Mike Thomas said. “But he is very talented. He can run the ball and catch the ball and helped us with special-teams last year, so I’m not really surprised that he stepped up and did that.”
The Saints had 522 yards in total offense — 282 yards on the ground and 240 through the air.
“On offense, we have quite a few weapons,” Thomas said. “We’ve got Gittemeier, Dagan Reed, (Shane) Nachbar and Richard (Davila). We’ll have Dagan back next week, He was actually one of five kids that we sat with one-game suspensions.”
In 2009, Aquinas finished 10-2, losing regular-season and playoff games  to Gardner-Edgerton. The Trailblazers lost to Hutchinson in the Class 5A state title game.
Hildebrand finished 16-for-27 passing for 160 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. His second scoring pass, a 7-yarder to Reed, came only 27 seconds prior to Reed’s length-of-the-field return to the house.
Great Bend had 308 yards of total offense — 160 passing and 148 rushing, led by junior running back Jeremy Sigler with 13 carries for 63 yards. He scored its lone touchdown of the second half on a 13-yard run with 6:10 left in the game.
Sell caught five passes for 42 yards to lead the Panthers. Fellow wideouts Logan Buehler (49 yards) and Jace Bowman (42 yards) each had three catches. Reed caught three balls for 23 yards.