Make no mistake about it, Hays High School possesses the most explosive offense Great Bend has faced all season.
The task is at the forefront for Great Bend, which needs to contain the Indians, providing it wants a share of the Western Athletic Conference crown tonight, inasmuch as a full head of steam entering next week’s second district tilt.
“They’re hands-down the best offense that we’ve played against all year,” Great Bend head coach Bo Black said of Hays (5-1, 3-0). “They’re balanced in what they do, and there’s a lot of ways they can beat you.
“They’ve found ways to put up an enormous amount of points on everybody that they’ve played early. They’re very lethal, and we have to play great, just to slow them down.”
It all starts with running back David Cardinal, who rushed for a WAC-leading 1,388 yards and 18 touchdowns last season as a junior. Cardinal currently has 688 yards — second to Garden City’s Greyson Tempel — and leads the conference in rushing TDs with 12.
“He’s a very physical runner with great speed,” Black said of Cardinal, who wears No. 25. “He’s the kind of kid that can turn an 8-yard play into an 88-yard play, any time he’s handed the ball.
“The offense is set up around him. He is the go-to guy, the workhorse and one of the best running backs in the state we’ve faced all year, hands down.”
Athletic wide receiver Adam Deterding gives the run-minded Indians a deep threat within the play-action pass. Deterding has turned his 17 receptions on the season into big plays in 518 receiving yards — third in the WAC — along with a league-leading eight scoring catches.
“He’s one of many weapons,” Black said of the 6-foot-3, 175-pound Deterding, who wears No. 1. “We all know about him. He was a 110-meter hurdle champion (in track and field) as a sophomore. As a junior, he high-jumped seven feet.
“He has great speed. Him alone can beat you, and then they set him up really nice in a package where they’re able to run the football with great effectiveness. They also mix it up with the play-action pass over the top, so he’s a very dangerous weapon.”
This brings us to Hays quarterback Alex Delton, the WAC’s third-leading rusher with 498 yards. Delton has eight rushing touchdowns, and has made the most of it in the passing game, throwing for 893 yards, completing 37 of 57 passes.
“If you want to key in on Cardinal or Deterding, the quarterback (Delton) will beat you with his legs, as well,” Black said. “He was part of their 4x100 state-champion team last year, a 10.8 100 kid ... he’s a phenomenal sophomore quarterback and you won’t find many sophomore quarterbacks that run the show like he does.”
Hays’ Preston Weigel has rushed for 432 yards, ranking sixth in the conference. He has scored four touchdowns.
“The fourth weapon is their fullback,” Black said of Weigel. “There’s a lot of ways that they’re effective. I think that’s what makes the difference from last season.
“Last year, you had to stop David Cardinal. This year, you know you have to stop David Cardinal, but you also have to stop the quarterback run, the quarterback play-action, the fullback trap or dive, and you have to account for Deterding on the deep ball.”
A steady diet of running the ball, along with the big pass play, makes Hays difficult for anyone to defend.
“They run a lot of Pro-I, a lot of Wing-T philosophy,” Black said. “It’s the same offense they’ve run the last four years, and both teams are really familiar with each other.
“It’s really hard to put pressure on a quarterback because it’s not a three- or four-wide, drop-back passing team. It’s all play-action to Deterding. Not much of it is drop-back, but you have to stop the run.”