By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
The game many media outlets in Kansas billed as the "Game of the Week" lived up to the hype Friday night in Hays. Great Bend and Hays scored a flurry of points early and late, punctuated by a pair of touchdowns in the final two-plus minutes. In the end, the fourth-ranked Indians took advantage of a missed extra point to escape with a 28-27 win.
"These guys have just seen a lot of winning," said Hays coach Tony Crough. "I think that's what pulled them through tonight. I don't know that we played well enough to win but there were no losers out there tonight. Both teams, hats off to Great Bend. They definitely didn't deserve to lose that game."
The teams split 28 points in the first quarter but that 14-14 tie was still the score in the final minute of the third quarter when Panther freshman Cooper Ohnmacht, filling in for sophomore quarterback Daxton Minton, found senior Colton Brack in the end zone for a 16-yard touchdown. Great Bend pulled ahead 21-14.
Hays answered on its next drive with a 3-yard touchdown run from junior Ian McGuire. Great Bend drove the field on a potential game-winning drive, eating up more than five minutes of clock before sophomore Ian Premer went 18 yards on a Minton pass to give the Panthers a 27-21 edge with 2:15 to play.
Hays came up with a final answer, converting a fourth-and-four to keep a last drive alive. With no timeouts and facing a fourth-and-eight from the 16-yard line, standout running back Malik Bah went to the air to find junior Johnny Cano in the end zone with under 30 seconds to play. The extra point gave the Indians just their second lead of the night at 28-27.
The Panthers nearly mounted a miracle comeback. With no timeouts, Minton used short sideline passes to Premer and senior Maddox Spray to move the ball downfield. Premer nearly pulled in a touchdown pass in the corner of the end zone with just seconds left on the clock, but he was ruled out of bounds. That gave freshman kicker Omar Razo a shot at redemption. With two seconds left, his 39-yard field goal would win the game. Instead, Hays came up with a blocked kick to end the game.
The teams scored 28 points in the first 10 minutes of action. Hays quarterback Carter Graham found a wide-open Jarek Purdy for a 36-yard strike on the first drive of the game. Minton answered with a 49-yard touchdown pass to Spray just a few minutes later. Premer picked off a Graham pass to set up a 9-yard touchdown run from Minton for Great Bend's first lead of the night at 14-7. Bah ran 72 yards down the sideline just a few plays later for the equalizer.
Bah carried the ball 40 times for 218 yards in week one against Junction City. Friday, he finished with 231 yards on 37 carries. He was held to five yards or fewer on 14 of his 19 carries in the second half, and 102 of his total yards came on just two carries.
Minton threw for 299 yards on 21-of-26 passing with two more touchdowns in his second varsity start. Premer caught seven passes for 99 yards, Spray caught six balls for 106 yards, and Brack had three receptions for 67 yards. Premer also had two interceptions to bring his season total to three. Cody Miller finished with 57 yards on 17 carries.
Great Bend takes a 1-1 record on the road to Buhler next Friday.