By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Friday’s football game may have been a road contest for the No. 2 Panthers, but the new stadium at Hays High School featured many Great Bend trademarks: Panther fans helped fill the facility with more than 4,000 people, senior Ian Premer kept up his torrential scoring pace, and a 43-19 win was even capped with fireworks at both ends of the field.
“We just kept our composure knowing it’s a big game, obviously,” said Panther junior Cooper Ohnmacht. “They’re a great team, we’re a great team. We knew it was going to be a battle. We kept our cool and stuck together as a team.”
The first half played out like the battle it was supposed to be. The offenses combined for three turnovers on downs, three punts, and an interception in the first two quarters. Great Bend was able to take advantage of a short field on its second drive. Premer scored the first of five touchdowns on the night on a 12-yard run with 1:08 to play in the opening period.
Hays threatened to tie the game just before the half. The Indians marched 81 yards all the way to the Panther 1-yard line. With time running out and no timeouts, Hays was able to run just two plays inside the 5-yard line. The Panther defense forced an errant pass as time expired to hang out to the 7-0 halftime lead.
The offenses proved unstoppable in the second half. Just three plays in, Premer put together a 54-yard highlight run just 94 seconds into the third quarter. Freshman Giovanni Cruz’s PAT bumped the Panther lead to 14-0.
Hays got on the board via its workhorse in senior Holden Lind, who punched it in from two yards out on the next Indian drive. Lind finished the night with 234 yards on 34 carries but managed just a pair of touchdowns.
“He’s a great player,” Ohnmacht said of Lind. “Coming in, we knew we had to stop him. Once again, it was just teamwork – each guy having the other guy’s back. It was just one big team.”
It was off to the races again for Premer on the next Panther drive. Senior Daxton Minton dumped a pass to Premer in the backfield. Premer broke more tackles and found space to complete a 64-yard touchdown pass. Hays answered with its best drive of the night, marching 58 yards on 14 plays before junior Braxton Basgall scored from 10 yards out but the PAT sailed wide for a 21-13 score early in the fourth quarter.
Minton used his legs on the next Great Bend drive. Facing third-and-long, Minton used a design run to keep the drive alive. A few plays later, he ran 25 yards down the Hays sideline, diving at the pylon to cap a 25-yard touchdown run. That pushed the Panther lead to 28-13.
Hays scored its final points of the night on a 54-yard touchdown run from Lind. The 2-point try missed to keep the Great Bend lead at two possessions 28-19. But it did not matter. Premer took the next play from scrimmage 44 yards, then added his fourth touchdown of the night on a 2-yard run. On the next Hays play from scrimmage, Premer returned an interception 35 yards for the final points of the game with 3:05 to play.
“We knew we would put up some points,” Ohnmacht said. “We know what we’re capable of. We knew we could run some of the stuff we wanted. Forty-three is a great score for us, especially against this team.”
Premer finished with 133 rushing yards and three scores on just nine carries. He added 114 yards and a touchdown on five receptions. At safety, he had the pick-six and delivered one of the hardest hits across the high school football season this fall.
Minton entered the night with 348 yards, 12 touchdowns, and no interceptions on 21-of-24 passing over his last three games. He finished Friday’s win with 192 yards and another touchdown on 12-of-18 passing. Ohnmacht caught six passes for 64 yards.
Basgall ran for 60 yards on his 10 attempts for Hays, and Indian senior Zane Viegra threw for 83 yards and an interception on 8-of-15 passing.