JAYTON – The No. 5 Garden City Bearkats overcame adversity Friday night to beat No. 9 Valley 30-26 in the Jayton Gridiron Classic. Valley is an electric team and wanted to put Garden City out early. Just 10 seconds into the game, Valley rattled off a 60-yard run for its first six points. Two minutes later Garden City answered with a Blain Walts 1- yard touchdown run to tie the score at 6-6. Valley would score two more times in the first quarter to take a sizable 18-6 lead.
With two minutes to go in the first quarter, Garden City’s Logan Seidenberger dropped a dime to Alejandro Tala-mantes for a 25-yard touchdown. Brock Braden added the extra kick making the score 18-14. Both offenses were much tamer in the second quarter, but Valley did manage an 18-yard run to push its lead 26-- 14. After not scoring the entire second quarter and most of the third, Garden City’s offense erupted for 16 quick points. The first came with just over three minutes to go in the third when Seidenberger found Mason Walker for an 18-yard touchdown. The second touchdown happened at the one-minute mark in the third quarter when again Sei-denberger connected with Walker for a 17-yard score. Braden added both extra point attempts giving the Bearkats a 30-26 lead.
The entire fourth quarter was dominated by the defense’s as neither team scored and Garden City held on for the victory.
I was extremely happy with the way we battled adversity after having two players get injured early in the game. I was also happy with how we came back to win versus a top ten team,” said Garden City coach Jeff Jones. “They are a very well coached and disciplined team and they came out of the gate hot and had a lot of momentum. They were able to shed our blocks pretty easy, so we need to work on that. They had a good offensive game plan, also...so that took some adjusting on our part.”
Garden City outgained Valley 394 yards on 54 plays to 299 yards on 45 plays.
Both teams were heavily penalized with each committing 11 penalties for 95 yards. Seidenberger led the Bearkat’s offense throwing 14 of 24 passes for 225 yards and three touchdowns. John Lopez was 2 of 3 for nine yards. The ground attack picked up 160 yards by committee. Walts led the way with seven carried for 62 yards followed by Lopez with 12 carries for 54 yards and Walker with five carries for 43 yards. Keith Latch, Jordan Jones, and Tal-amantes rounded out the rushing stats with six, two, and one yard respectively.
Garden City’s top receiver was Walker with seven receptions for 128 yards and two touchdowns. Lopez had four catches for 48 yards and Talamantes hauled in one pass for 25 yards and a touchdown. Preston Dehlinger caught one pass for 16 yards while Nathan Balcazar caught two passes for 11 yards and Keith Latch had one catch for six yards. “Great games by Seidenberger with 225 yards passing and three touchdown and Walker who had two touchdown and over 100 yards receiving,” said Jones. “I was really happy with Latch and Dehlinger, both had to step in and play a lot more than expected because of injuries.” Defensively, Lopez led the Kats with nine tackles and Walker added four. Seidenberger finished the game with three tackles and an interception.
Owen Seidenberger recorded three tackles while Walts added 2.5 tackles and Balcazar and Dehlinger had two each.
Talamantes finished with 1.5 tackles and Braden, Walton Marshall, and Latch had one tackle each.
“Walker, John Lopez, and Owen Seidenberger all had good games on the defensive side of the ball,” stated Jones. One big factor in the win was the kicking game. While both teams scored four touchdowns, it was Braden for Gar-den City making three kicks for six points and Valley only managed one extra point kick for two points.
Garden City will host Menard for Homecoming on Sept. 2 at 7:30p.m.