GCCC Hangs on to Beat Cisco Texas at Memorial Stadium

Garden City, KS (www.weseternkansasnews.com) – It may not have been pretty but it was effective for the Garden city Community College Busters Football team, as they collected their 2nd straight win of the season beating Cisco Texas 24-19 in their first home game on the year. The Busters won the opening toss and deferred to the 2nd half, but the Wranglers kick-off deep back Amaris Fields, caught the ball around the 7 yard line darted around the left side to his wall of blockers and raced down the sideline before being tackled at the Garden City 32. With great field position on their opening offensive possession, Cisco couldn’t do anything with it as the Busters defense arose to the challenge, making the Wranglers turn it over on downs. The Busters were equally as inefficient on their first possession going three and out resulting in the first of their 8 punts on the night, Cisco would punt 7 times as well and could not convert on four 4th down plays.

Garden City would get the offensive production started on their next drive that started on the Wranglers 29 yard line after a short punt of only 20 yards. It took only 4 plays before the Buster signal caller Nick Marshall would call his own number and charged up the middle behind some great blocking from the offensive line and scamper 16 yards for the touchdown, Carlos Chavez would connect on the PAT and the Busters were on top 7-0. After the two teams exchanged punts early in the 2nd quarter, the Busters would get the ball back on their own 26, mixing it up with the pass and rush putting together a 74 yard 9 play drive, that culminated with a 32 yard touchdown by Jamal Tyler, the PAT was good by Chavez and the Busters owned a 14-0 advantage.

Cisco got their lone score in the first half after the Busters failed on a 4th down play, giving the Wranglers great field possession at the Garden City 35. The Wranglers went on an 8 play 35 yard drive and finished it off with a 1 yard touchdown run by Travis Turner, the kick failed to make it a 14-6 Garden City advantage. The Busters got the ball back late in the second period mixing up the playbook very well producing a couple of big pass plays and the Jamal Tyler would score again at the 1:00 minute mark on a 13 yard rushing touchdown, Chavez with the PAT and Garden City led 21-6. The Busters defense was solid again forcing a Wrangler punt after some incomplete passes and time outs, the Busters Tyreek Hill came up with a huge punt return of 48 yards, the Wranglers committed a horse collar tackle on Hill giving the Busters more yardage on the penalty, but time had run out on the clock, however, you cannot end the half or the game on a defensive penalty, so Garden City lined up for their first field goal of the season and Carlos Chavez drilled it from 27 yards out to give the Busters a 24-6 advantage at the half.

In the 2nd half the Busters struggled on offense with 6 punts and no points, but the defense continued to play well for most of the second 30 minutes. Cisco made it interesting in the 4th quarter with a couple of scores, as the Wranglers would take off on a 91 yard 14 play drive that ended with Travis Turner taking it in from the one, the 2pt conversion failed and the Busters led 24-12 with 9:56 to go. Another punt from Garden City and the Wranglers were still hot on offense led by red shirt sophomore quarterback Ross Hudson, as he connected on two long pass plays and hit Jared Mapps for an 18 yard touchdown, the PAT was good making the score 24-19 in favor of Garden City with 5:19 left in the game. The Busters still could not keep the football and run out the clock, and the Wranglers got it back with about 2:00 minutes to go and held on to the ball for a 35 yard 10 play drive that ended on a 4th down incomplete pass. Garden City ran one play to run out the clock and win the non-conference match-up 24-19. Its back to Jayhawk Conference play next Saturday September 8th, as the #14 ranked Hutchinson Blue Dragons will be in town for a 7:00 pm kick-off, the Busters are ranked at #19 in the National Poll for the first time in four years. Join Jerry Jones, Ross Miller and Donette Brown for all the action on the “Voice of the Busters”, on AM 1030 KBUF and the live Video Webcast at www.westernkansasnews.com, starting with the 6:30 pre-game show. The Blue Dragons lost their game at Navarro Texas last Saturday 54-34. Garden City is 2-0 and 1-0 in Conference, while Hutchinson is 1-1 overall and 1-0 in the Jayhawk Conference.(photo’s by Donette Brown)