The Hays High School varsity football team traveled for an away quarterfinals game against the undefeated Great Bend on Nov. 14.
Coming into the game, Hays was ranked No. 5 in 5A, and Great Bend was ranked No. 1 in 5A.
In the first quarter, the Indians could not score against the Panthers. This led to the Panthers scoring a 31-yard touchdown run with 2:06 left in the first quarter and giving them a 7-0 lead.
In the second quarter, the teams traded punts. Hays struck for the first time at their own 45-yard line, as senior Zane Viegra threw the ball 22 yards to senior Jarek Purdy in the back of the end zone with 6:18 left before halftime. Senior Carson Moore proceeded to kick the extra point, tying the game, 7-7.
Great Bend held the ball until there was less than a minute left in the second quarter. A fourth-down touchdown pass gave the Panthers the lead again at 14-7. The Indians returned the squib kick to the 39-yard line. With no timeouts remaining, Viegra then threw his own fourth-down touchdown pass, finding senior Holden Lind for nine yards. Moore’s extra point tied the game, 14-14, with eight seconds left before halftime.
In the third quarter, each team started with a punt. However, after the ball was spotted following the Indians’ punt, a penalty was called that forced Hays to punt a second time. This punt was blocked at the back of the end zone for a two-point touchback for the Panthers and a 16-14 lead. With 55 seconds remaining, the Panthers got a 21-yard score, sending the game into the fourth quarter with a 23-14 lead.
In the final quarter, Hays had 16 long plays on their first drive. However, the Indians were turned away from the end zone at the three-yard line. A high snap on the next Great Bend play was fumbled by the Panthers and recovered by senior Jonathan Rigler at the goal line. Junior Braxton Basgall scored two plays later. Basgall then threw a successful two-point conversion pass to Lind for a 23-22 game with 5:35 remaining.
Great Bend grabbed the onside kick and scored just three plays later on a 51-yard pass. The extra point was blocked for a 29-22 game with 4:00 left. The Indians went for everything they had on their final drive from their own 13-yard line. Hays drove the field with every yard coming on the ground. The drive, though, came up short by four yards. The Indians had first down and goal from the eight but could not manage a final score as the last pass was knocked down from the end zone, giving Great Bend a 29-22 victory.
“We played really well, had a great game plan and almost executed it to perfection,” head coach Tony Crough said. “Unfortunately, we made one too many mistakes to win. Next year, we will recover, regroup and reload! On top of that, this team had an amazing season, one of the most historic seasons in the history of Hays High football. [We] beat two teams still playing in Kansas and Oklahoma and lost to two teams still playing in Kansas. One of the 6A teams we played will play for a state championship, and likely a 5A team as well, and possibly the team from Oklahoma.”
Unified Bowling:
The Hays High School unified bowling team traveled to Topeka-West Ridge Lanes on Nov. 18 to compete for the state championship title.
To qualify for state, the unified bowling team had to place Top 5 at the Wichita-Haysville Campus regional. At this meet, they placed second and scored 1,003 points in total.
At the state meet, the unified bowling team had to compete against 20 teams across 1A and 6A divisions. In the Indians’ first three games, they scored a total of 585 points. In their last three games, they scored a total of 530 points. At the end of the meet, they placed first with a total series score of 1,115 points.
“It feels pretty good to win the state meet,” junior Keaton Brown said. “I felt like the team had a really strong mindset going into it. We got second at regionals, but we’d already finished first at all the other events leading up to state, so we were confident. We weren’t really goofing around — we were there to take care of business and get it done.”
