No matter how much they would prefer not to have one, Bryce Beck is trying his best to make a quarterback controversy for the Great Bend High School Panthers football team.
Just this past week, Great Bend head coach Bo Black revealed plans for senior Matt Marshall to take over the starting quarterback position for Friday night’s game with Wichita North, providing his bruised knee healed.
But Marshall was unable to play, and Beck, a junior, took most of the snaps during a 41-0 Homecoming romp past the Redskins. Beck and running back Josh Lopez each rushed for 97 yards, and Beck ran for a pair of touchdowns, including a 24-yarder on a reverse on the game’s opening play while lining up as a wide receiver.
“No matter where we move forward from here, both of those kids are really important to what we’re doing on offense,” said Great Bend head coach Bo Black of his team improving to 3-1, as they prepare for a critical Western Athletic Conference road game this coming Friday at Dodge City. “The quarterback position is kind of the kingpin of the offense, the quarterback is the visual that every eye in the stands looks at.
“It takes 11 to play the game and no matter what we do or how we do it, Matt Marshall and Bryce Beck are a big part of what we do offensively.”

Harrison leads way on defense
Senior linebacker Hunter Harrison entered Friday’s game as the leading tackler amongst WAC players, and he did nothing to damage that status against Wichita North.
Harrison, who entered the game with 43 tackles, added 17 stops to his total against the Redskins, including three for loss.
“The win was really important to us,” Harrision said. “But what was even more important was playing as a whole and having enthusiasm and connecting all of the dots.
“In the past three games, the coaches said we hadn’t played a full game and we never connected it together, and it feels good that we connected it together. It just seemed like everybody was swarming to the ball.”
Lopez, who also had a first-half punt block for the Panthers, said Black asked the team to bond.
“This week, he wanted us to be a family and talked to us about pulling together as a team,” Lopez said.