The Great Bend High School football team needs to turn things around offensively.
The Panthers have struggled to move the ball in both of their first two games and only managed one touchdown, which came late in the fourth quarter against Hays last week.
Great Bend has suffered a 19-0 defeat at the hands of Leavenworth, and a 49-6 debacle against its Western Athletic Conference rival.
Now the Panthers will look to right the ship against another WAC opponent as Garden City comes to call tonight at Memorial Stadium.
The game starts at 7 p.m.
“We’re looking sharp,” GBHS head coach Tony Crough said. “We’ve looked focused (in practice). We look like we’re ready to put together a better game.
“We’ve been practicing like we have something to prove.”
In two games, Great Bend’s offense has only managed 54 passing yards on 12 of 33 passing. Quarterback Shade Wondra has thrown all but one of those passes.
Wondra, who has thrown four interceptions, has seen a number of passes slip through receivers’ hands.
“He’s been upbeat and positive,” Crough said of Wondra. “He looks like the rest of us, like he’s excited to go out there and prove something on the field.”
At running back, Great Bend is led by Trent Uselton, who has taken 33 of 56 carries. He has 91 yards and one touchdown.
Great Bend’s most effective running back has proven to be Adrian Falk, who has four carries for 67 yards for an average of 16.8 yards per carry.
“He had a run called back or he would’ve run for over 100 yards last week,” Crough said of Falk. “He’s new, and he’s still working on learning our offense, but as we learns, we definitely want to get the ball to  him more and more. He’s averaging almost 17 yards a carry, so yeah, we really want to get the ball in his hands.”
Defensively, Great Bend has had  more success.
Christian Rivas, Great Bend’s middle linebacker, leads the team with 15 tackles.
Free safety Ty Yager and outside linebacker Nick Gerdes each have 14 tackles.
Jayce Brack, Great Bend’s defensive tackle, will be a game-time decision after he came out late in last week’s game. He re-injured his shoulder.
“Jayce is questionable still,” Crough said. “We’re going to go through warm-ups and see what happens.”