GARDEN CITY – The No.4 Garden City Bearkats were firing on all cylinders last week blowing past the Menard Yellowjackets 54-8.
The Bearkats found the endzone eight times in the mercy-rule shortened game with six touchdowns through the air and the other two scores on the ground. “I thought our offense did a good job. I was pleased with the passing game again, and the two back-up running backs (sophomores Preston Dehlinger and Carson Goodwin) did a great job coming in and performing in their first varsity action as running backs,” said coach Jeff Jones. The first four touchdowns were Logan Seidenberger dimes dropped to three different receivers with the longest covering 42 yards.
With one minute to go in the first half John Lopez ran in a 16-yard touchdown. Preston Dehlinger opened the second half with a 28-yard touchdown run followed by a 41-yard touchdown pass from Lopez to Mason Walker. The touchdown that ended the game was a 10-yard pass from Walston Marshall to Keith Latch. Brock Braden converted three point after touchdown kicks. Garden City’s offense finished with 333 yards of total offense averaging 11 yards per play.
“There are still some little things we need to work on after watching video. We will have to keep our feet moving when blocking. We were able to overpower Menard on the line, but we need to keep working on fundamentals when we run into these top-10 teams coming up,” said Jones.
The Bearkat’s defense allowed the Yellowjackets just 82 total yards and three first downs. Sixty of those yards came on one pass play in the third quarter after a breakdown in coverage in the Bearkats secondary. Garden City finished the game with three takeaways, two interceptions and a fumble.
“We were happy with the defense overall. Their one score came when we were trying to sub in a few guys, and we got out of position. We should have called a timeout to do that, so that was on me,” stated Jones.
Seidenberger led Garden City in passing with four completions for 42-yards and four touchdowns. Lopez had one pass completion for 41-yards and a touchdown. Marshall was a perfect 1 of 1 for 10-yards and a touchdown.
Leading the ground attack was Dehlinger with 96 yards on seven carries.
Walker carried the rock three times for 59 yards while Lopez ran the ball four times and gained 34 yards.
Carson Goodwin picked up 22 yards rushing followed by Latch with six and Brock Braden three.
For the receivers, Walker topped the chart with three catches for 46 yards and three touchdowns followed closely by Lopez with one catch for 42 yards and one touchdown.
Latch hauled in two passes gaining 25 yards and two touchdowns.
Garden City’s stingy defense was led by Owen Seidenberger, Nathan Balcazar, and Lopez with 4.5 tackles each.
Walker ended the game with 3 tackles followed by Dehlinger with 2.5, Latch 2, and Logan Seidenberger 1.
In other stats, Latch returned an onside kick 12 yards and Owen Seidenberger returned an onside kick five yards.
Garden City starts a threegame road trip on Friday with a stop at Midland Trinity. The Chargers lost to the Lubbock Titans last week 56-0.
Jones added, “We still want to rest up some injuries this week, so it’s a great time to keep developing some depth as we move forward. Midland Trinity is strictly Spread on offense, so it will be good to see that on defense. We want to keep playing fast on offense and execute well.