MONTEZUMA — The Central Plains High School football team’s high-octane rushing offense fell flat on Saturday night against the Montezuma-South Gray Rebels.
The Rebels shut down the Oilers for a 52-6 win in the Eight-Man Division-I state playoffs.
The game was ended two minutes early as a result of the 45-point mercy rule.
“Our offense was off all night,” Central Plains head coach Chris Steiner said. “South Gray has a good team, don’t get me wrong. We moved the ball quite a bit in the first half, but we couldn’t score.”
Steiner said that the Oilers made it to the “Red Zone,” within 10 yards of the end zone on several occasions, but couldn’t punch the ball in for the score.
“We dropped three touchdown passes,” Steiner said. “Two of them were in the end zone, and one was inside the five. We just picked a bad night to be off our game.”
In spite of the slanted score, Central Plains was down 14-0 at halftime.
“We felt pretty good going into halftime,” Steiner said. “Two missed tackles resulted in their two touchdowns. We knew going in that we had to tackle well. We knew if we missed a tackle, they’d score on us. Overall, I thought our defense played well in the first half.”
Steiner said that they tried to pass the ball a little more than the Oilers usually do.
“The pass was open,” Steiner said. “It was there. Of course, throwing four or five interceptions, that didn’t help us much.”
Oilers quarterback Bryce Steiner scored their only touchdown.
Central Plains finishes with a 9-2 record in its first season as a team. Quivira Heights and Claflin, longtime rivals, merged together.

                                                                                                                                — Kevin Price­