Buffaloes Lose Season Opener for Third Straight year
Garden City, KS (www.westernkansasnews.com) – The Garden City High School Football team opened their 2012 season in a brand new facility at the new High School on Buffalo Way last Friday night. However, it was not the beginning that Coach Brian Hill had in mind to start his 3rd year with the Buffaloes at their new venue, as Bixby Oklahoma had their way with the Buffs from the 2nd quarter on and beat Garden City 42-7.
The Buffs defense played pretty well through the first 18 minutes of the game forcing the Spartans to punt twice and turn it over on downs two times. Garden City’s offense was out of synch for most of the night. Punting for his 3rd time in the first half, Buffalo punter Mitchell Hernandez pinned Bixby back on their own 6 yard line, but on the very next play, Spartan tailback A.J. Hardin took the hand off and rambled around the right end and down the sideline for a 94 yard touchdown run, the PAT failed and Bixby was up 6-0. Garden City would punt a couple more times in the 2nd quarter and lost a fumble, but the Spartans continued to roll in the second period connecting on a couple of aerial strikes from Marshall Ray to Andrew Pence for a 62 yard touchdown and then Cole Garland would haul in a 39 yard touchdown strike late in the 2nd quarter, the Spartans also completed a two point conversion and kicked a PAT, to make it 21-0 over the Buffaloes at the break.
Garden City showed some signs of life in the 3rd period on their second offensive possession, getting the ball with a short field at the Bixby 26 yard line and four plays later, it was a quarterback keeper around the right end by Greyson Tempel for the 1 yard touchdown run, the PAT was good by Rudy Chavez making the score 21-7. That would be all Garden City could muster for offense on the night, but the Bixby Spartans were not done, as they came right back to score on their next three possessions with a couple of short touchdown passes and a 29 yard touchdown run in the 4th quarter to make the final score 42-7. Coach Brian Hill was not pleased with the way his Buffs played on their opening game and vows that his staff and team will be ready to turn it around next week on the road at Woodward Oklahoma. Be sure to catch all the action on your “Voice of the Buffs”, 99.9 KWKR and the live Video Webcast at www.westernkansasnews.com, with Jerry Jones, Ross Miller and Donette Brown, beginning with the SWK Game Night Show at 6:00 pm and the Buffaloes pre-game show at 6:30 and the kick-off at 7 pm
