Hays High hosted Garden City for their homecoming game Friday night at Lewis Field Stadium. The Hays High defense started out with a stop and the offense made the most of it. The second play of the game for the Indians resulted in a 73 yard touchdown run by Roy Maroni. Soccer player, and new football kicker, Matt Goodale nailed the extra point for a 7-0 lead.
Garden City got on the scoreboard for the first time thanks to a snap that went 16 yards backwards for Hays and into the end zone and was recovered by the Buffaloes. Hays responded immediately with a 65 yard Dylan Dreiling touchdown run to start the second quarter. The extra point from Hays missed but Garden City had missed theirs leaving Hays with a 13-6 lead. Garden City scored to close the gap down to one but again missed the extra point.
Roy Maroni struck again in the first half with a 33 yard score to put Hays up 20-12 following an successful extra point. Garden City fumbled the ensuing kickoff but retained the ball at the 14. Their drive then went 11 plays 86 yards and took over four minutes. Following a Carlos Acosta four yard touchdown run and a two point conversion pass tied the game up at 20 for halftime.
Highlights
Garden City struck first in the second half on a 51 yard pass from Carlos Acosta to Lane Durst. Trailing 27-26 Hays answered right back on a Hayden Brown six yard touchdown rush. The drive was set up by a long kickoff return by Brown into Garden City territory. Garden City drove into the Hays redzone but was turned away on a Tucker Veach interception that was returned to the Garden City 25.
Hays did not score on the following drive. The defense forced the Buffaloes back to their own nine yard line. A six yard punt put Hays starting at the Buffaloe 15 yard line. It took until fourth down but running back Hayden Brown threw a touchdown to Dylan Ruder in the back of the endzone for seven yard score. The two point conversion failed keeping the score at 32-27.
Garden City drove seventy yards on their next drive to take a 35-32 lead. During the drive Garden City senior quarterback left the game with an apparent knee injury. Running back Josh Janas finished off the drive on his 34 carry and his second touchdown rush then the two point conversion.
Coach Tony Crough
Hays had four minutes and two timeouts left to navigate 56 yards to win the game. The Indians received 15 yards on a Garden City penalty and used the momentum to take the ball down to the ten. On the following play Hays was called for a 15 yard penalty themselves. On 3rd and 22 and 4th and 22 the Indians heaved two passes for the end zone. The first was ruled incomplete at the one. The second pass fell incomplete following contact in the end zone on Hays receiver.
Dylan Dreiling ran for 125 yards and a touchdown. Roy Maroni ran for 164 yards and two scores on seven carries. Hays falls to 1-3 and 1-2 in the WAC. Garden City is now and 1-0 in conference play.
Hays travels to Wichita to take on the South Titans next Friday.