This madcap, topsy-turvy high school football season for Great Bend High School took another captivating twist Friday night at Memorial Stadium.
In a Class 5A District 6 finale between the Panthers and Salina South, Great Bend needed to beat the Cougars by seven points to qualify for the state playoffs.
Something that wasn’t foremost on the Panthers’ minds was capturing a district championship and a first-round home berth this coming Friday night. They were just trying to get to the playoffs.
But, after Great Bend throttled South, 42-21, and Hays knocked off Salina Central, 21-14, the Panthers leap-frogged past Central for the district crown.
As a result, Great Bend (4-4) hosts Bishop Carroll (7-2) Friday night at 7 at Memorial Stadium in an opening-round playoff game.
Powerhouse Hutchinson beat Carroll 21-14 Friday night.
“This is such a resilient group and resilient season,” Great Bend head coach Bo Black said. “Going into the last week, we’ve always bragged about the effort and thought we lacked a little bit of that last week.”
The Panthers responded with 374 yards in total offense and answered every Salina South bid with big plays, especially by quarterback Greg Hildebrand.
“It was one of the best single-game performances that I have seen from an individual in Greg Hildebrand,” Black said of the senior standout, who completed 17 of 24 passes for 255 yards and rushed for 100 yards in 18 carries. “He would rush out of the pocket early and find ways to make plays.
“They were doing some backside things to our zone game and then he’d cut under and make big plays. You can’t say enough about Greg Hildebrand and the game that he had and the person that he is and the competitor that he is. We rode him to a big game offensively.”
Perhaps there was a telltale indication for the Panthers that it would be their night after Dakota Ellis gave them good field position by returning the opening kickoff from the 19-yard line to the 50.
Nine plays later, Hildebrand scored a 6-yard touchown on a keeper for a 7-0 lead with 9:37 left in the first quarter.
After South went three-and-out on its opening possession, it took only six plays for the Panthers to drive 37 yards, capped by a 6-yard scoring pass from Hildebrand to wide receiver Jace Bowman.
“This win was such a great feeling,” Bowman said. “Hildebrand just kept making plays.”
After South cut its deficit to 14-7 at the 9:30 mark in the second quarter, the Panthers answered right back with a home-run play, featuring wideout Connor Sell. Hildebrand caught the Cougars off-guard with a 56-yard touchdown bomb to Sell down the left sideline to put GBHS up 21-7 with 7:39 left before halftime.
Cody Busby’s 4-yard touchdown at the 4:10 mark slashed the margin to 21-14, but Hildebrand and Co. answered with a 61-yard scoring march, capped by his 13-yard TD pass to Sam Hafner with 15.8 seconds remaining before halftime.
“All of my teammates in general do such a good job and opened up plays for me,” Hildebrand said. “My teammates make me better, that’s all there is to it.”
Late in the third quarter, with the Panthers leading 35-21, Great Bend sophomore Chad Touslee picked up a fumble off an errant snap that sailed over the head of South quarterback Christian Linenberger and rumbled 60 yards for a 42-21 lead with 3:12 left in the third period.
It was the dagger that sent the Cougars staggering.
“Touslee’s fumble return in the third quarter was a total game-changer, the biggest play of the game,” Hildebrand said. “It was a great play, and a great game.”
Touslee said it was just reaction on his part.
“We work on that all of the time, with scoop and score,” Touslee said. “What was going through my head was to keep going for it.
“It feels great, being a sophomore and making plays like that … just hearing the crowd. I just kept running and didn’t slow down.”