After a promising start for both teams, Salina Central High School took control of the Class 5A District 6 game on Friday night.
The Mustangs broke away for a 41-15 victory.
“It’s just a very physical team,” GBHS head coach Tony Crough said. “They physically dominated us for extended periods of the game. They beat us up on both sides of the ball.
Great Bend now sits in third place in the district standings at 1-1 and zero points.
Salina South, which beat Newton on Friday night 42-14, is first at 2-0 with 28 points.
Central is in second place at 1-1 with 14 points.
This means Great Bend faces a must-win against Salina South this Friday night at home.
Things started with a 12-play drive by Central resulting in a 1-yard touchdown run by Dalton Peters.
After both teams had a drive that ended in a punt, Great Bend got its first shot at the end zone.
A drive that was highlighted by a 50-yard Trent Uselton run ended with a 1-yard plunge across the goalline by Thomas Bobbitt.
Uselton had a team-leading 74 rushing yards.
With an extra-point kick Great Bend would be tied at seven.
Crough elected to try something else, instead.
The Panthers faked the kick and Quinton Elliott completed a pass to Branden Paden for a 2-point conversion and an 8-7 lead.
The lead was short-lived as Central answered.
Utilizing a three-headed running back and a bruising offensive line, the Mustangs got a 3-yard touchdown run from Dylan Wenzrel.
On Great Bend’s next drive, quarterback Shade Wondra threw an interception right into the hands of JaVon Burse, who returned the pick back to the Panthers’ 26-yard line. It was one of two interceptions that Wondra threw.
From there, Central scored again in four plays on a Peters 1-yard dive.
The Mustangs’ kicker, Dane Hoffman, missed the extra point, leaving his team ahead 20-8.
“We were moving the ball pretty well, but once we started getting down three or four scores, we had to start opening up our offense and throwing it,” Crough said. “That’s not our game. That’s not what we’re good at. We’re good at running the ball.
“The interception in the first half really hurt. We had a guy open and we just missed him.”
That lead held through halftime, and after a 3-and-out by the Panthers, Central rattled off another big drive. This one went 12 plays and ended with a 6-yard Peters touchdown.
Peters scored another touchdown in the fourth quarter, his fourth and final of the night, a 1-yard score.
After Great Bend couldn’t convert on fourth down, Central scored for the last time, a 1-yard run by Michael McMullen to cap a short drive.
On their next drive, the Panthers went 3-and-out, but when Central dropped the punt, Great Bend was able to recover just 27 yards from the goal line.
That’s when Great Bend went to an offensive scheme they had tried once before in the game, lining sophomore Jacob Murray up at quarterback and sending Wondra to the wide-out position.
Murray ran a series of QB keepers along with a run from Uselton to set up third-and-goal from the 1-yard line.
Wondra punched it in back at the quarterback position to make it 41-15.
Great Bend recovered an onside kick, but went 3-and-out.
Central got the ball back and ran out the clock.