GARDEN CITY – No. 7 Garden City Bearkats clinched a playoff berth with a 57-8 win over District 6 opponent Grady Friday night at Bearkat Stadium in Garden City.
Grady’s offense electrified its fans and stunned Garden City with an explosive first drive. Mainly on the legs of Gunner Cherry, Grady drove the pig skin down the field with ease and capped the opening drive with a Hunter McAnally touchdown pass to Cooper Wallin. Marcus Brown added the extra point kick for an early 8-0 Wildcat lead.
The quick slap in the face jolted the Bearkats and seemed to wake a sleeping giant. From that point on, the Bearkat’s offense ran 21 plays for 334 yards and eight touchdowns while the defense held Grady to 40 yards total offense.
Garden City running back Sebastian Balcazar started the scoring explosion with a five-yard touchdown run. A few plays later, Logan Seidenberger connected with John Lopez for a 46-yard touchdown pass and a 16-8 lead.
Garden City would end the first quarter with a magic play that allowed Lopez to run 27 yards practically unnoticed.
The second quarter was fireworks as Garden City scored four touchdowns. The first was a Denton Roe six-yard touchdown pass to Alejandro Talamantes.
After Grady was stopped again, punter Kody Cates perfectly placed his kick on the two-yard line. The very next play Balcazar found acrease and bolted 78-yards for a touchdown.
The final two scores were touchdowns passes from Seidenberger to Talamantes for 24 yards and Mason Walker for 38 yards.
Lopez converted three extra point kicks, Brock Braden made one kick and completed a conversion pass to Isaac Gutierrez making the halftime score 51-8.
After halftime, Garden City took first possession of the ball. And less than a minute later the game was over when Roe scored on a 22-yard run.
Seidenberger finished the game with five completions for 132 yards and three touchdowns. Roe added one comple-tion for six yards and a score.
Leading the rushing attack was Balcazar with 114 yards on four carries followed by Roe with 36 yards on three rushes and Lopez with 27 yards on one attempt.
Gutierrez finished the game with one rush for 19 yards and Jordan Jones gained one yard on one attempt.
The receivers were led by Lopez with 55 yards and Walker added 38. Talamantes racked up 30 yards receiving while Jones chipped in with 15.
Top tacklers for Garden City were Talamantes and Jones with six each. Owen Seidenberger and Walker took down four Wildcats each and Lopez was credited with three tackles. Walton Marshall had two tackles and Balcazar added one.
Garden City will travel to No. 8 Rankin on Friday to wrap up the district season. Kick-off is set for 7:30 p.m. The winner will be crowned District 6 champion. Garden City is currently favored by two points.
The sub-varsity Bearkats had a good week with the junior beating Grady 20-19 and the junior varsity crushing Highland 46-0.