Defending Western Athletic Conference cham pion Great Bend High School extended its win ning streak against No. 5 Dodge City in an improbable way.
The Panthers rallied from a 27-7 halftime deficit, keyed by a pair of second-half punt blocks for touchdowns, to stun the previously unbeaten Red Demons 28-27 Friday night at Memorial Stadium in Great Bend.
“It was just two big plays,” said Great Bend coach Bo Black, who has never lost to Dodge City in the previous nine seasons. ‘(Special teams) is some thing we work on and spend a lot of time on. It was definitely the game-breaker tonight.”
More than anything, Dodge City has a very, very good football team.’ Class 6A Dodge City (4 1 overall, 1-1 WAC), which hasn’t beaten the 5A Panthers (3-2, 1-1) since 1999, appeared to be on the brink of finally snap ping the losing skid against its longtime nemesis. But the Demons’ for tunes turned sour after they were shut out in the second half, yielding 21 unanswered points.
Great Bend cut its deficit to 27-14 midway through the third quarter, when wide receiver Allan Holt caught a 26-yard touch down pass from junior quarterback Greg Hildebrand at the 7:05 mark.
Then things got wild late in the third quarter, when Dodge punter Landon Head had his punt blocked by Jordan Basye and recov ered by Brett McManaman in the end zone. The play slashed the margin to 27- 21 with 16.2 seconds left in the third quarter.
Both teams canceled each other out in the final period before Dakota Ellis came up with the Panthers’ second punt block. Basye scooped up the ball and ran into the end zone from 25 yards out with 4:02 left in regulation, tying the game at 27.
Angel Gutierrez, who made all four of his extra-point kicks and also had four kickoffs land out of the end zone for touch backs, nailed the game-winning extra point.
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