BUSHTON – The elite Eight-Man Division-II football tilt between Quivira Heights High School and Macksville had all of the earmarks of a shootout Friday night.
Featuring explosive offenses, the duo of Great Bend-area teams kindly obliged in an entertaining back-and-forth game, where the outcome wasn’t determined until a huge goal-line stand with 27 seconds remaining.
On fourth-and-goal at the Thunderbirds’ 1-yard line, Macksville running back Adam Oak was stopped in his tracks short of the goal line, stuffed by Quivira Heights’ Taylor Siemsen and Nick Schepmann, as the defending state runner-up escaped with a thrilling 36-30 victory.
“That was big. That’s a good football team, a top football team,” Quivira Heights head coach John Phelan said of Macksville. “It was a battle from the get-go.
 “(Macksville has) good size and I underestimated their speed. I didn’t think they were as quick as they were. The quarterback (Filbert) and those backs (juniors Dakota Allison and Oak), they keep running. That’s a good football team. That was big for us to get that one, confidence-wise.”
Quivira Heights, which scored 20 second-quarter points to build a 20-14 halftime lead, improved to 2-0 on the young season. Macksville dropped to 1-1.
“It was kind of one of those things where nobody could stop anybody,” Macksville head coach Jeff Kuckelman deadpanned. “They hadn’t stopped us and we hadn’t stopped them.
“Like we talked about, if we get a stop, we win. We never got it, and they got the one that mattered. They got us. We were in position, and we just didn’t execute down the stretch and put it in the end zone.”
Trailing the Mustangs 30-28 early in the fourth quarter, Quivira Heights quarterback Gunner Phelan threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Trevino on fourth-and-goal at the 10:16 mark, giving the T-Birds a six-point lead they would make stand up.
Yet, after unsuccessful drives by both teams ensued, the Mustangs had one final chance, needing to go 69 yards in the final four-plus minutes after taking over at their own 11.
A 14-yard keeper by junior southpaw quarterback Seth Filbert, along with his 14-yard completion to a leaping Oak near the right sideline, put the Mustangs in business at the Quivira Heights 33.
Dakota Allison, a bruising junior fullback, then caught a 13-yard pass from Filbert, coming out of the backfield, for first-and-goal at the 8. Shortly thereafter, on third-and-goal at the 3, Allison picked up a pair of yards down to the 1.
But the Thunderbirds got a strong push from the left side of their defensive line and sent Oak tumbling with a 1-yard loss.
“We knew they were going to jam the middle,” Kuckelman said of the play selection, “so we tried to fake it to (Allison) up the middle and pull everybody to him and we didn’t get it to Oak in a good position and we didn’t block very well outside of that.
“We made big plays to be there. We had some nice catches and good throws.”
Gunner Phelan then took a knee on back-to-back snaps as time ran out.
Things looked bleak for Macksville, when Filbert lost a fumble after the Mustangs had driven into Thunderbirds territory at the 20 in the early portion of the final period.
But the Mustangs got their final chance after the T-Birds’ drive stalled and the hosts had to punt.
Standout running back Nick Schepmann led Quivira Heights with 174 yards in 24 carries and scored three touchdowns, — two on identical sweep plays, where he broke into the clear down the left sideline.
“He’s probably one of our biggest kids and our fastest kid,” John Phelan said of Schepmann, a 215-pound junior. “We think if he can get to the outside, he can make good yardage for us.
“That’s what we try to do, we try to get him on the outside and go.”
Gunner Phelan added 75 yards on 13 carries, scrambling around until he found open receivers or creases to run throughout the night.
The dual-threat Filbert had 288 all-purpose yards by himself —  146 rushing yards in 19 carries and 142 passing yards, completing 12 of 15.  He had a trio of rushing TDs.
Filbert’s favorite target was Oak, who dazzled the crowd with eight receptions for 87 yards.
In fact, there were several sparkling catches in the game, including the T-Birds’ Trevino making a one-handed snag on a 2-point conversion for a 28-22 T-Birds lead with 5:39 left in the third quarter.
Filbert followed with his 32-yard scoring run through the heart of Heights’ defense, and Oak ran for the conversion to put the Mustangs up 30-28.
Trevino later caught what proved to be the winning scoring pass, the only points by either team in the fourth quarter.