GARDEN CITY — The Great Bend High School Panthers have suddenly become the talk of the Western Athletic Conference football ranks.
Great Bend pulled off one of the biggest shockers thus far this season on Friday night, surprising Garden City 28-25 in the conference opener for both teams. It featured workhorse running back Johnny Allende rushing 38 times for 96 yards, defensive back-turned-running back Greg Burley scoring a pair of huge touchdowns and a suddenly-punishing Panthers defense that refused to lose.
On the final play of the game, after Garden City drove to the Great Bend 31-yard line, Buffaloes quarterback Greyson Tempel rolled to his left and threw to the end zone. Several players from both teams played jump ball, including Panthers defensive back Ty Yager, who rose into the air and batted the pass away from 6-foot-4 Buffs wideout Caleb Tramp as time expired.
The Panthers thrust their collective fists triumphantly into the air and mobbed each other, celebrating on the field after improving to 2-1 on the season. After having sub-par performances, beating Class 3A Hoisington, 35-7, and losing to 4A Ulysses, 21-14, during the opening two weeks of the season, Great Bend finally put it all together against 6A stronghold Garden (1-2).
“It was a fantastic win for our program,” a beaming Great Bend head coach Bo Black said. “What happened tonight was one of the biggest wins we’ve had in a while. To expound on that, coming into Garden City and Garden City’s got the nice new field and nice new scoreboard, they’re the high-octane offense and they’re the team to beat.
“Here’s the old, poor Panthers, who used to be there. After last week’s loss (to Ulysses), some people had lost some confidence in us and counted us out. To come out and get a win is a tribute to our kids, how hard they played and how much heart they played with.”
Of course, there were some frantic moments in the late going Friday night. And, for the third time in the last four years, the Panthers came out on the winning side, exacting revenge to a 45-28 setback to the Buffs at home last season.
Great Bend, which held a two-touchdown lead at 28-17 after quarterback Bryce Beck scored on a 1-yard plunge on the opening play of the fourth quarter, stood firm in the eye of a Buffaloes’ stampede. Garden City responded with a 69-yard scoring drive, topped off by a 27-yard scoring pass from Greyson Tempel to Tramp. The two also hooked up on the 2-point conversion, slashing the Panthers’ lead to 28-25 with 10:56 left.
Garden City fans expecting to see Greyson Tempel busting out a Johnny Manziel-like performance were undoubtedly disappointed. The Panthers’ defense neutralized Garden’s running game as it managed only 30 rushing yards in the first half, along with finishing with only 10 first downs.
“Listen, the kid is a great talent and he’s a good quarterback,” Black said of Greyson Tempel, who totaled 301 yards in total offense, compared to Great Bend’s 294 yards and 18 first downs. “And we went after him. If we were going to go down, we were going to go down with someone else beating us.
“He’s an awesome talent, and our guys got tired of hearing how good he is.”
Controlling the line of scrimmage for a better part of the first half, the Panthers clung to a 21-17 halftime lead, boosted by Burley, who caught a 15-yard touchdown pass and also ran an option play 77 yards for a score. He was the X-Factor on this night, having a breakthrough performance on offense after playing almost exclusively as a defensive back. Also factor in that Burley suffered a preseason shoulder injury and just now seems to be getting fully healthy.
“We’ve known that we have to have kids set up and makes plays,” Black said. “(Burley’s 77-yard touchdown run) was awesome. He’s been a senior defensive player for us and he’s been hurt. He had some unbelievable carries and runs.
“He’s a very competitive kid, and he just stepped up.”
The Buffaloes’ Ismael Hernandez kicked a 23-yard field goal after having the opening drive of the game stall. Dustin Tempel returned the opening kickoff to midfield, but Great Bend’s defense stiffened, forcing the Buffs to settle for a field goal and a 3-0 lead at the 10:41 mark.
The Panthers answered back with an impressive 10-play, 60-yard scoring march on their opening possession, capped by a 15-yard scoring pass from Beck to Burley, coming out of the backfield, for a 7-3 lead with the 5:47 left in the first period. With Allende carrying the ball seven straight times and relentlessly becoming a thorn in Garden City’s side, GBHS methodically moved the chains to the Garden 29 for a third-and-8 situation.
Beck then hit Burley in the flat for a 13-yard gain and a first down at the 16. After Beck gained a yard on first down, Beck went back to Burley for the touchdown pass, finding Burley wide-open for the score.
It was the first of three straight scores for the Panthers, who led 14-3 with 46.4 seconds left in the first quarter after Allende’s 3-yard TD run. It capped a six-play, 52-yard drive, highlighted by Beck’s 30-something gain to the Garden 13.
Great Bend stretched its lead to 21-3 after Burley’s lengthy touchdown scamper with 8:02 remaining in the second quarter, where he took a pitch from Beck, got to the outside and put it into overdrive, motoring across the field untouched on his 77-yard jaunt.
But Garden scored the final two touchdowns of the half, including Greyson Tempel throwing a 69-yard catch-and-run touchdown pass to Tramp at the 7:15 mark, along with a 6-yard TD run by Jared Koster with 3:38 left in the second quarter.

HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL
Western Athletic Conference

Friday

At Garden City

Great Bend 28, Garden City 25
Great Bend                            14    7    0    7   —  28
Garden City                            3    14   0    8   —  25

SCORING SUMMARY
First Quarter
Garden City — Ismael Hernandez FG 23, 10:41
Great Bend — Greg Burley 15 pass from Bryce Beck (Carlos Prado kick), 5:47
Great Bend — Johnny Allende 3 run (Prado kick), 0:46.4
Second Quarter
Great Bend — Burley 77 run (Prado kick), 8:02
Garden City — Caleb Tramp 69 pass from Greyson Tempel (Hernandez kick), 7:16
Garden City — Jared Koster 6 run (Hernandez kick), 3:38
Third Quarter
No scoring
Fourth Quarter
Great Bend — Bryce Beck 1 run (Prado kick), 11:56
Garden City — Tramp 27 pass from Greyson Tempel (Tramp pass from Greyson Tempel), 10:56

TEAM STATISTICS
                                                   GB     GC
First Downs                               18     10
Total Net Yards                        294    301     
Rushes-Yards                     59-245    15-55
Passing                                      49    246
Comp-Att-Int                        6-9-0    14-27-0
Punts-Avg.                           5-33.0    4-37.0
Fumbles-Lost                            0-0    0-0
Penalties-Yards                       4-23    5-38

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Great Bend, Allende 38-96, Beck 14-47, Burley 3-89, Trey Ibarra 1-0; Garden City, Greyson Tempel  8-21, Koster 7-34.
PASSING — Great Bend, Beck 6-9-0  49; Garden City, Greyson Tempel 14-27-0  246.
RECEIVING — Great Bend, Burley 3-28, Zach Reynolds 1-14, Allende 2-7; Garden City, Dustin Tempel 6-144, Tramp 6-90, Mitchell Hernandez 2-12.