By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Two fumble recoveries and two touchdowns on just three offensive plays. That's how Great Bend opened Friday's home opener against a Class 6A Olathe South program that scored 35 points and lost by just a touchdown to five-time reigning state champion Mill Valley in week one. The Falcons got as close as 20-14 in the second quarter before the Panthers scored the final points of the night early in the third quarter to win 26-14.
"The way the game started was about perfect for us, to come out and have some of those big plays to start this thing off to give us that confidence we needed because that's a really good football team," said Panther coach Erin Beck. "That's one of those football teams where you knew if you got behind the sticks with them, you were going to be in trouble."
Great Bend won the toss, deferred, and capitalized on a Falcon fumble just seconds into the game. Two plays later, junior Daxton Minton was able to get around the edge from four yards out for a 6-0 lead just 45 seconds in the night.
Panther senior Owen Kaiser recovered a fumble on the next Falcon drive. Great Bend pulled out some trickery with sophomore Cooper Ohnmacht completing a 40-yard pass to senior Jacob Hall on the first play of the ensuing drive. The Panther lead grew to 12-0 less than three minutes after the opening kick.
"We've been working on that play for a couple of weeks," said Beck. "It's our double-reverse pass. The guys, tHeir ball-handling skills are something we don't even have to coach. They just did it naturally. Being able to hand it off to Ian (Premer) to flip it back to Coop, to throw it to Jake, it was a thing of beauty. To get it after a quick change of possession is what we all wanted."
The Panther defense remained stout on the next South possession. After a Falcon punt, Great Bend needed just six plays before Ohnmacht took a contested ball out of the air to complete a 32-yard touchdown pass from Minton. Great Bend led 20-0 less than seven minutes into the game.
South kept things close in the first half. Senior Max Armstrong, who rushed for 224 yards in week one, scored from a yard out. Junior quarterback Gage Lee had the big play of the night on a 65-yard completion to sophomore Anthony Harris over the middle. The Panthers held on to a 20-14 lead at the intermission.
Minton led the Panthers down the field on the first drive of the second half, completing his first four passes of the third quarter to set up his own 8-yard run for the final points of the night. The junior finished the night with 153 yards, two rushing touchdowns and a passing touchdown, and an interception, on 12-of-20 passing.
"How about the play of some of those other kids outside of Ian Premer," Beck said. "They were taking him away. They had two over him all night. He was frustrated because he wanted the ball. He wants to be that type of kid. To have Cooper Ohnmacht, to have Jacob Hall, to have Daxton Minton step up and do the things we needed and run the football effectively behind that offensive line was unreal."
The Panther defense continued to control the game, forcing a turnover on downs inside their own five yard line late in the third quarter. Later in the fourth quarter, Premer and Hall ended Falcon comeback attempts with interceptions. Armstrong was held to just 74 yards on 21 carries. Lee added 95 yards on 15 carries and threw for 149 yards and two picks on 14-of-27 passing.
"Fourteen points," Beck said. "If our defense can hold an offense like that with a skill kid like Max Armstrong is, you're going to have a chance to win a football game. Our defense just played unreal. After a few of those drives, they really just settled in."
Senior Jace Schartz paced the Panther ground attack with 65 yards on 14 carries. Ohnmacht opened the season with a touchdown return and caught six passes for 73 yards with a touchdown and threw for another. Hall caught four passes for 55 yards, and Premer had two receptions for 46 yards.