Wichita’s Bishop Carroll Catholic High School’s punishing defense was everything as advertised against Great Bend Friday night during a Class 5A opening-round state playoff game.
The Golden Eagles’ offense was equally explosive, especially in the opening half.
Carroll bottled up Great Bend’s passing game while scoring early and often, building a 42-0 halftime lead and registering a 49-13 victory over the Panthers at Memorial Stadium.
“Wichita Carroll has a great football team,” Great Bend head coach Bo Black said. “We made too many mistakes early to give ourselves a chance.”
Carroll intercepted Panthers quarterback Greg Hildebrand five times in the game, including four times in the first half and a trio of times in the first quarter alone.
Hildebrand, who had thrown only six interceptions entering the game and had guided the Panthers into the playoffs by winning three of their previous four games, threw picks on the Panthers’ first three drives.
“Greg is a great young man, and he had a tough game,” Black said. “He had a couple really bad throws (in the first quarter).”
Meanwhile, the Eagles (8-2) scored six opening-half touchdowns and never looked back. Carroll neutralized the Panthers’ passing game by controlling the line of scrimmage, and its speed-rush package produced five sacks of Hildebrand for minus-38 yards.
Carroll will play host to McPherson, a 42-19 winner over Andover Central, this coming Friday.
Carroll quarterback Tyler Nance broke loose for a 57-yard touchdown run on the third play from scrimmage for a 7-0 lead with the game not even a minute old.
On the Panthers’ opening play from scrimmage, Hildebrand’s pass was intercepted by Carroll’s Alex Hill. On their next possession, Great Bend gained three first downs, including a third-down completion from Hildebrand to Connor Sell, in driving to the Carroll 41.
After Hildebrand was sacked for a 5-yard loss on first down, he threw his second interception, with standout defensive end Chadd Tucker making the pick. Carroll later had its scoring drive come up shy, when it was stopped a yard short of the first-down marker near the Great Bend 20-yard line.
But Hildebrand was later intercepted a third time, this time by Aaron Jackson and returned to the GBHS 22. On the next play, Nance threw to the end zone, where Danny Crippen made a leaping 22-yard TD reception on a jump ball for a 14-0 lead.
Carroll proceeded to score four touchdowns in the second quarter, the last on Jalen Hernandez’s 47-yard punt return for a score in building its lead to 42-0 at halftime. Hernandez also opened the third period with a 47-yard touchdown run to increase the margin to 49-0, effectively slamming the door shut on the Panthers.
Great Bend, which never could get untracked offensively, finishes its season at 4-5.
“I just think that we had a resilient group that overachieved all season,” Black said.
The Panthers finally scored late in the third quarter, when Hildebrand scored a touchdown on a 20-yard keeper with 1:18 left in the third quarter. He also had a 3-yard touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Jace Bowman with 1:56 left in the game.
Coming off a district championship-clinching 42-21 win over Salina South, Hildebrand had perhaps his finest hour, accumulating 355 yards of offense — 255 passing and 100 rushing.
Against Carroll, it was one for Hildebrand to forget.
“He went from having his best game to his worst game,” Black said. “It was disappointing.”