It was Great Bend High School’s Johnny Allende’s time to flash and dash, his opportunity to run circles around Hoisington’s defenders on Friday night in the season opener for both teams.
Allende, a senior running back, didn’t disappoint. He rushed 25 times for 204 yards and scored three touchdowns, leading the Panthers to a 35-7 drubbing of the Cardinals at Memorial Stadium.
“He’s a good athlete and an extremely tough kid,” Great Bend head coach Bo Black said of Allende, who registered the seventh-best rushing output for a single game in GBHS history. “What makes him truly special is he’s a true competitor. He wants to be successful and he had some really good runs.
“It was just a great opening game for Johnny.”
The Panthers pulled away after halftime, outscoring their Barton County counterpart 20-0.
“We put a brand new defense in and we have nine new starters out there and a whole new scheme,” Black said. “I liked the way our defense played. I liked the aggressiveness that we played with and I liked the way we forced turnovers.”
The game was a rematch of last year’s 14-6 GBHS win in Hoisington, but this season, the Cardinals are youthful and inexperienced.
“We were competitive for a half, for sure,” Hoisington head coach Jason Ingram said. “It’s goes back to youth. When you have five freshmen on the field at one point in the second half, because of injuries, it puts you in a little bit of a bind.
“It’s the weight-lifting aspect. If you get two or three years of weight-lifting with these kids, they’re going to be very, very good. We saw a lot of good things from our kids. We’re just trying to continue to work hard and get better.”
Allende, who had a 16-yard touchdown burst in the first quarter, as GBHS built a 15-7 halftime lead, also added 27- and 3-yard scoring runs in the third quarter. Trent Uselton also had a 4-yard scoring run to help put it out of reach.
“We ran the ball with some physicality in the second half and ran right at them,” Black said. “It was a good effort from a young team in Hoisington. At the same time, we talked about this going into it, we’ve got four kids back that really were on the field last season in any significant role.
“We’ve got the first game under our belt. Now we’ll just continue to get better.”
In a mistake-plagued first half, Great Bend fumbled three times, losing two, and Hoisington fumbled three times, losing one, as the Panthers led 15-7 at halftime.
“We played well in stretches and other times, I thought we struggled, especially on the offensive side of the ball,” Black said. “It’s just one of those games where you’re very happy with the win, but at the same time, realizing that there’s a lot of things that need to be worked on and a lot of room for improvement.
“I think we struggled at the times, lacking some consistency and lacking some discipline. It’s tying all of those things together.”
Great Bend capitalized first. Allende recovered a Cardinals fumble on their opening play from scrimmage at the Hoisington 21-yard line.
Seven plays later, the Panthers were in the end zone.
On a critical third-down play, GBHS quarterback Bryce Beck gained 12 yards on third down for a fourth-and-4 situation at the 14. Opting to go for a first down instead of a field goal, Great Bend’s Keaton Elliott’s 4-yard gain gave the Panthers a first down at the 10.
After Allende’s 7-yard gain on second down planted the Panthers at the 1, Beck scored from there and Carlos Prado kicked the extra point for a 7-0 lead with 5:18 left in the first quarter.
A shanked 12-yard punt by the Cardinals gave the Panthers a short field at the Hoisington 41. Allende started the drive with a 16-yard gain on first down and capped it four plays later with a 16-yard touchdown scamper to increase Great Bend’s lead to 13-0 at the 2:11 mark in the second quarter.
Great Bend bumped its lead to 15-0 after Ramses Lopez tackled Cardinals fullback Avery Urban in the end zone for a safety with 7:30 remaining in the second quarter.
Hoisington scored its only points after Urban’s 3-yard touchdown plunge with 4:07 left before halftime. It capped a seven-play, 57-yard scoring drive that began after the Cardinals recovered a fumble off a free kick at the GBHS 43 following the safety.
HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL
Non-Conference
Friday
At Great Bend
Memorial Stadium
Great Bend 35, Hoisington 7
Hoisington 0 7 0 0 — 7
Great Bend 13 2 20 0 — 35
SCORING SUMMARY
First Quarter
Great Bend — Bryce Beck 1 run (Carlos Prado kick), 5:18
Great Bend — Johnny Allende 16 run (kick blocked), 2:11
Second Quarter
Great Bend — Safety, 7:30
Hoisington — Avery Urban 3 run (Brandon Ball kick), 4:07
Third Quarter
Great Bend — Allende 27 run (kick failed), 8:36
Great Bend — Trent Uselton 4 run (Prado kick), 4:17
Great Bend — Allende 3 run (Prado kick) :47.3
TEAM STATISTICS
HOIS GBHS
First Downs 8 13
Total Net Yards 153 319
Rushes-yards 33-100 41-263
Passing 53 56
Comp-Att-Int 5-18-1 5-13-1
Punts-Avg. 7-29.5 5-41.4
Fumbles-lost 4-2 3-2
Penalties-yds 6-35 11-90
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Hoisington, Nolan McCurry 9-13, Avery Urban 13-45, Brad Reif 2-(minus-5), Hanzlick 2-(minus-3), Brandon Ball 4-26, Taylor Richter 1-18; Great Bend, Johnny Allende 25-204, Greg Burley 2-29, Bryce Beck 6-21, Tyler Uselton 3-2, Justin McGinnes 2-9, Keaton Elliott 2-(minus-2).
PASSING — Great Bend, Beck 5-13-1 56; Hoisington, Reif 5-18-1 53.
RECEIVING — Hoisington, Chris Wright 1-29, Tyler Specht 1-14, Steffan Dolechek 2-12, Nolan McCurry 1-(minus-2); Great Bend, Uselton 3-48, Elliott 1-7, Allende 1-1.
GBHS DEFENSIVE LEADERS
Justin Henry, 9 tackles (5 unassisted), 1 sack; Jayce Brack 8 tackles (3 unassisted), 1 PBU, Caused fumble, recovered fumble; Braden Paden, 7 tackles (2 unassisted); Wyatt Bryant 6 tackles (2 unassisted); Shade Wondra 6 tackles (2 unassisted); Beck 5 tackles (2 unassisted); Elijah Conner 5 tackles.
GBHS Single-Game
Rushing Bests
Jeremy Rusco — 397 yds vs. Buhler, 2001
Jeremy Rusco — 329 vs. Wichita South, 2000
Marcus Reed — 324 vs. Wichita South, 1993
Chad Ohnmacht — 261 vs. Wichita South, 1998
Jeremy Reed — 234 vs. Liberal, 2006
Scott Scheuerman — 223 vs. Wichita South, 1999
Johnny Allende — 204 vs. Hoisington, 2013
