Hays Handles Liberal

Ryan Cornelsen’s Hays High Indians piled up over 600 yards in a 51-34 win over the visiting Liberal Redskins Friday night at Lewis Field in Hays. Liberal trailed 34-13 at the half in the loss.

The Redskins scored first in this game. Jorge Nunez recovered a Hays fumble. Several plays later, Brittion Abbott tossed a jump ball to Trenton Hammond for a 26 yard TD at the 9:27 mark. Hays would counter with a David Cardinal 13 yard run at the 6:49 mark and a Cardinal five yard run at the 1:55 mark to make it 14-7 Indians at the end of one.

Liberal’s Cody Arellano kicked a 30 yard field goal with 8:47 to play in the first half to make it 14-10. A 60 yard Alex Delton pass on a blown Liberal coverage set up a Chance Pitcock 13 yard run on a reverse to make it 21-10 with 7:26 to play. Liberal’s Britton Abbott fumbled a snap and Hays recovered. David Cardinal ran to paydirt for a 64 yard TD at the 6:50 mark to make it 28-10. Trenton Hammond fumbled the ensuing kick return. Liberal’s defense would get a stop but a Hays 64 yard punt pinned Liberal at the one. The Redskins would drive down the field for an Arellano 25 yard field goal to make it 28-13. But Hays came right back and a Cardinal two yard run made it 34-13 at the half.

Trenton Hammond recovered a third quarter fumble and returned it 55 yards. But Liberal turned the ball right back over for their third turnover of the night while Hays committed two turnovers. Delton found Adam Deterding for a 76 yard bomb to make it 41-13 Hays with 3:37 to play. Abbott found Nolan Larkin for an 11 yard TD to make it 41-20 with 1:36 to play.

Delton’s two yard run made it 48-20 with 11:49 to play. Lane Clark’s 37 yard field goal gave the Indians a 51-20 lead.

Liberal scored two more TD’s against Hays High backups. Abbott found J.J. Lewis for two TD’s to round out the scoring.

David Cardinal ran for 194 yards in the win for 2-1 Hays. Liberal is 1-2 and amassed 483 yards and Abbott was 30-56 for 340 yards and four touchdown passes. Abbott has 10 TD passes and no interceptions.

Liberal hosts 2-1 Dodge City Friday night at 7 at the Cornelsen Sports Complex.