By Dustin Armbruster
Midway through the second quarter it looked as if the Hays High Indians were going to run away with their third victory of the season. Leading 28-0 the Indians had forced Liberal to punt on four consecutive possessions. Hays in the meantime had scored touchdowns on their first four. Alex Delton scored on the first play of a drive twice on runs of 57 and 49 yards. Adam Klaus scored on a 10 yard run and Isaiah Blackmon scored from four yards out.
Liberal needed something positive to happen and they found their spark on an 85 yard kick-off return for a touchdown by Mershek Wiltshire, cutting the score to 28-7. Liberal had one more chance to score before the end of the first half following an Indian punt. The Redskins drove to the nine yard line but could not score before the clock expired.
Hays High received the football to open the second half, but fumbled on the first play setting up Liberal for a 10 play, 41 yard drive that resulted in a Jared Hasik 16 yard touchdown run. With the lead cut down to 28-14, Hays drove inside the 20 on the next possession, but again fumbled the ball. Liberal was forced to punt, but Hays turned the ball over on downs.
Liberal wasted little time scoring, using a 48 yard run by quarterback Jared Hasik to make it a one score game at 28-21.
Hays though would get the offense in gear, but it took a little luck. Delton broke off a 42 yard run, but fumbled at the one yard line running through a tackle. The ball traveled into the end zone where it was recovered by Maddux Winter for the score. It was the second time in two weeks the Indians fumbled inside the five yard line, but recovered the ball for a touchdown.
Hays led 35-21 when Liberal had a luck play of their own. Hasik passed to the left side, only to have the ball go through the hands of a receiver and end up in the grasp of running back Jared Carrol who raced 63 yards for a 35-28 score with 7:27 remaining in the game.
It took Hays just three plays to score using runs from Delton of 48 and 4 yards, to set up a 12 yard score from Klaus. The Indians sixth rushing touchdown of the night proved to the final points of the evening at 42-28.
Delton ran for 265 yards on 13 carries as the Hays High piled up 451 total yards, 388 on the ground. Liberal totaled 311 yards in the loss.
Hays is 3-0 and 2-0 in the Western Athletic Conference. Liberal drops to 1-2 and 0-1 in league play. Hays travels to 1-2, 1-0 Garden City Friday. Liberal is home to 2-1, 0-0 Dodge City.