By Dustin Armbruster

The Hays High Indians opened their defense of the Western Athletic Conference title against Great Bend on Friday night.  The Indians had won 20 of their last 24 WAC games since the 2009 season entering this season.

Hays High held Great Bend out of the end zone after a 14 play to open the game.  On the Indians first drive, Hunter Brown ripped off a 69 yard scoring drive to go up 7-0.  The two teams would trade scores and fumbles in the first half with Great Bend taking a lead at 12-7 following a Jacob Murray touchdown run.  The Indians regained the lead at 14-12 on the next play on a double pass from Kohlton Meyers to Maddux Winter who then launched it to Keith Dryden for a 77 yard touchdown pass.

Great Bend retook the lead with 7:58 left in the first half recovering an Indian fumble 23 yards for a touchdown and a 18-13 lead.  Great Bend to that point was 0-3 on two point conversion attempts.  The Panthers regular kicker was injured earlier in the week and was unavailable.  Hays retook the lead the next play when Hunter Brown found pay dirt from 80 yards out.  A Logan Clark extra point gave Hays a 21-18 lead at half time.

Highlights:

 

The second half largely belonged to Great Bend.  The Indians fumbled on their first possession of the 2nd half setting up a 7 yard touchdown pass from Jacob Murray to Brayden Smith for the go ahead score at 26-21.  Hays couldn’t get the offense going until the fourth quarter, but did so in time to give the Indians a chance to come back.

Hays stopped Great Bend on fourth and goal from the one yard line, setting up a 96 yard touchdown drive that was capped on a one handed catch by Keith Dryden.  With 7:04 left in the Indians converted on a two point attempt to get within three at 32-29.

The play to decide the game came on the next Great Bend drive.  The Panthers converted a 4th and 2 yards into a 49 yard touchdown pass from Murray to Lytle to take a 40-29 lead following a two point conversion.

Coach Randall Rath:

 

The Indians were led on offense by Hunter Brown with 170 yards rushing and two touchdowns.  Keith Dryden caught three passes for 114 yards and two touchdowns.

Hays falls to 0-2 and 0-1 in the WAC.  Great Bend is 2-0 and 0-1.

The Indians are on the road to Liberal next Friday.