Minimizing Liberal High School’s big-play capability is foremost on the minds of the Great Bend Panthers.
When Great Bend (4-1, 1-1) travels to Liberal (1-4, 0-3) tonight for a 7 o’clock Western Athletic Conference football game, the Panthers’ offense will be trying to eat up the clock with time-consuming drives, thus keeping Liberal and its explosive offense off the field.
“For us this week, it is the key,” GBHS head coach Bo Black said. “We want to keep them on the sideline. The best way to describe them is they’re scary. They average over 40 points per game, and they have great speed at wide receiver and make big plays. They’re very formidable.”
Great Bend is coming off a 24-7 road triumph over Dodge City last Friday night, bottling up the Red Demons’ potent air game while shutting them out the final three quarters.
Liberal, which lost to Garden City 37-14 last week, gave Dodge all kinds of fits two weeks ago. The Redskins battled the Demons before falling 62-48 in a shootout in Liberal, a game where there was 978 yards in total offense, including 540 from the ’Skins.
“They were doing anything they wanted to do (against Dodge City),” Black said. “They were throwing the ball, they were running the ball and they were running back punts and kickoffs.
“Two or three of their wide receivers are the fastest kids on the field, hands down. They’re quarterback is really capable of throwing it and running it with a lot of physicality. They put up points on everybody they play, so they’re a scary team.”
Liberal quarterback Britton Abbott leads the WAC with 1,399 passing yards. He has a conference-leading 13 touchdown passes and has completed a WAC-best 99 out of 178 attempts (55.6 percent).
“We also have to stop their run game, which has been centered around their quarterback,” Black said of Abbott, who ranks No. 4 in the conference with 394 rushing yards.
“They do a lot of things on offense that will be tough to defend. It will be a big test for our defense.”
Liberal wide receiver Trenton Hammond leads the conference in receptions (36) and receiving yards (635). He is tied for the league lead with Dodge City’s Dakota Duckett and Hays’ Adam Deterding — all three have five scoring catches.
Liberal wideout JJ Lewis ranks as the fourth-best receiver in the WAC with 344 yards. Within his 19 receptions, he has four receiving touchdowns.
“We’ve got to keep them in front of us and tackle them,” Black said. “We need to account for them and know where they’re at because if they get by us, we’re not catching them.”
Besides positioning itself in the upper echelon in the conference standings, tonight’s game also should provide a springboard for the remaining three regular-season games. The Panthers will play host to Hays next Friday night in the opening round of Class 5A District 6 play.
“The big thing is that it’s another opportunity for our kids to play and get better,” Black said. ‘It’s a big point in our season. We’re finishing up our sixth week, and now we’re getting ready for the last three.
“The truth to the matter is, the way the playoffs are set up, it all comes down to the last three games. This is our last chance to go in (to district play) with momentum. It’s a very pivotal game.”
The Panthers used both Matt Marshall and Bryce Beck at quarterback against Dodge City. The duo combined for 487 yards in total offense. Marshall completed 11 of 15 passes for 151 yards and had one interception, and Beck rushed for 39 yards at quarterback, and totaled 33 receiving yards in four catches from his position as a receiver.
Wideout Zach Reynolds led the Panthers with two catches for 43 yards against Dodge.
Running back Johnny Allende rushed for 107 yards in 11 carries, including a 30-yard touchdown run. Senior back Josh Lopez, who ranks No. 5 in the WAC with 370 rushing yards, had 10 carries for 79 yards, including a 45-yard touchdown bolt.
“Matt Marshall was at quarterback 35 times last week and Bryce Beck was at the quarterback position on 30 plays,” Black said. “More than anything, we’re just pretty balanced out of that. We have a lot of different looks in trying to keep the defense off-balance.
“We haven’t had to use it a whole lot yet. We’re still working hard at throwing the football, but if we’re effectively running the ball, we’re going to run the ball. If we can run the football and eat up the clock, that would be a priority for us.”
For the season, Marshall has completed 25 of 43 passes for 322 yards.
Panthers linebacker Hunter Harrison remains atop the WAC tackling chart with 79 stops, 10 more than Liberal’s Mike Troutner, who ranks second with 69.
GBHS defensive end Chad Touslee has 52 tackles, ranking No. 5 in the conference.
Hammond has also caused and recovered two fumbles for Liberal this season. Great Bend defensive tackle Jayce Brack has a pair of fumble recoveries, and defensive back Brock Ibarra has two interceptions.