Clay Center Tigers Fight the Abilene Cowboys
The Clay Center Community High Tigers are a pretty good
football team, and after two possessions on Friday night at Paul Dennis Field
they found themselves leading the undefeated Abilene Cowboys by a score of 7-0.
The Cowboys had not trailed yet this season, and senior Harley Hazlett and his
offensive teammates apparently didn't much care for how it felt. Following the
Tigers’ early touchdown, it took the
Cowboys all of two plays to respond with a score of their own. Hazlett took a
quarterback keeper fifty-five yards right through the teeth of the Tiger
defense for the first of his two touchdowns on the ground. Ryan LaCombe tied
the score booting the first of his five extra points on another perfect night
for the senior kicker.
For the remainder of the first half, Nathan Howard
’s
defense seemed to figure out how to stop the speedy Tiger attack. Shortly after
Hazlett tied the score, the Cowboy defense rose to the occasion on a fourth
down as the Tigers attempted to run an option to the short side of the field.
The problem for Clay was not that the side of the field they chose to attack
was the short side, the problem was that it was the side of the field where
Jovany Garcia, Trey Bender, and Sam Burt happened to be hanging around. Garcia
hit Clay
’s
quarterback, causing him to pitch the ball before he was ready. Bender attacked
the pitch man instantly, and with help from Burt and several others, the
Cowboys had stopped the Tigers to regain possession for the offense.
Ryan Wilson continued to make catches over the middle of
the field for the Cowboys, making a critical catch on a third down dart thrown
by Hazlett. The drive concluded with Parker O’Neal, pink spatted shoes and
all, scoring the first of his two touchdowns on the night. The Cowboys next
drive was nearly a carbon copy of the previous one, complete with a critical
third down connection between Hazlett and Wilson. The lone difference being
that the touchdown at the end of this drive was provided by Parker Base, no
pink spats. The Cowboys would take a 21-7 lead in to half-time.
Clay Center would answer in the third quarter with a
touchdown following a time consuming drive to close to 21-14. The answer from
the Cowboys again came in the form of a Hazlett touchdown run. This time for 42
yards. It is getting difficult to find superlatives to describe the play of
Steve Simpson’s
standout senior quarterback. On the night, Harley ran for 183 yards and passed
for 153 while completing 60% of his passes. Even perhaps more important than
his numbers has been his leadership as the season has progressed. The senior
quarterback has found ways to distribute the ball across a very talented
Abilene roster. Wilson has become his favorite target, but Dylan Ford, Ben
Veach, Trey Bender, and the Parker Brothers have all been recipients of passing
from the talented signal caller. This distribution will become more important
as the Cowboys begin district play next week at McPherson. It is important to
note here that Hazlett’s success is due in large part to a very fine offensive
line in front of him. Sam Burt, Bailey Fitzgerald, Andy Tope, Cale Mayden, and
Hayden Funston rarely get any attention, but make no mistake, they are the
foundation for the Cowboy offense.
Defensively, the Cowboys were good again Friday night. In
particular, Jason Tarn has become a weapon at outside linebacker for the
Cowboys. Tarn made several plays all night long against Clay Center. Howard’s
two corners, held down by senior standouts Trey Bender and Dylan Ford proved to
be very difficult to get around for Clay on Friday night. In addition to Bender’s
huge fourth down stop early in the game, he made several other tackles in
space. Ford was great against the run all night, and even better defending the
pass when the Tigers tried. Along the line, Sam Burt, Jovany Garcie, and Hayden
Funston were strong as well.
As the horn sounded, the Cowboys would finish their
second unbeaten league championship in as many years under Steve Simpson by a
score of 35-14. The Cowboys committed their share of penalties on the night,
and Clay Center’s
offense moved the ball against them at times, but this game, this NCKL
championship, was never really in doubt for the entire regular season. The
fourth quarter looked like many of the fourth quarters this year for Abilene as
senior clock eater, Colten Liby, chewed up the clock and protected a lead on
the ground for Simpson.
Congratulations are due Coach Simpson and his Cowboys to
be sure. This team has the pieces to continue their magical run. This coming
Friday in McPherson, the Cowboys will find out how far their run will go.
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