It’s the Buffaloes But Barely in Redskin Field

The 100th game in the history of the Liberal-Garden City series was a dandy.  Garden City hadn’t played a close game with Liberal since 2009 (15-13 Garden win) and hadn’t lost to the Redskins since 2007.  So this may not have been what the folks in ragin’ Brown expected.  But Garden City escaped the Cornelsen Sports Complex with a 28-27 win over the upset minded Liberal Redskins Friday night on a cloud night with temperatures in the upper 50’s.

Liberal’s defense hadn’t seen a spread team who passes like Garden City and it showed early.  Despite Liberal driving from the LHS 19 to the Garden 24, GCHS’s Kaleb Lapointe intercepted a pass and took it to the LHS 35.  Four plays later, the Buffaloes found the red paint of the Redskin north end zone as Quinton LaPointe plunged in from one yard out at the 6:06 mark for a 7-0 lead.  Syris Dunlap sprinted 70 yards untouched into the south end zone for a score to tie the game at 7-7. That was the first offensive touchdown the Buffs had allowed this season.  GCHS quarterback Garret Doll found David Arteaga for a 51 yard score to lead 14-7 at the 1:04 mark.  The Redskins marched back down the field using 5’10” 260 pound Jose Alarcon in the back field to block primarily for Cesar Burciaga.  Burciaga was injured on the drive which would prove costly.  However the drive did lead to a 4th and 1 conversion by Alan Marquez on a four yard touchdown run.  LHS went for two without their kicker Burciaga and scored with Alan Marquez for two to give the Skins the 15-14 lead.  Tyrique Chandler intercepted a Doll pass and took it to the Buffaloe 19.  Dunlap walked the tight rope down the sideline for a 14 yard score to make it 21-14 with 1:46 to play in the half.  Liberal went for two and failed.  Garden City quickly moved down the field for a score as Doll found Arteaga for a 26 yard touchdown with 52 second left in the half.  The halftime score was 21-21.

Liberal controlled the ball for most of the third quarter but did not score in the quarter.  They missed a 45 yard field goal.  Garden City took the lead on a clutch play by their quarterback.  On 4th and 11 for the Redskin 30, Doll lofted a perfect pass over the top to Tye Davis to give the Buffs the 28-21 lead.  The Buffaloes got the ball back with a chance to ice the game but fumbled and Cesar Burciaga scooped up the ball and raced down the west sideline about 45 yards for a touchdown to make it 28-27.  The snap for the extra point was low leading to a miss with 5:26 remaining.  Liberal got the ball back twice once with a fumble recovery but Garden City interceptions thwarted those two drives.

Liberal had 292 yards and Garden City had 328.  Dunlap rushed for 106 yards.  Liberal falls to 3-2 and 0-2 in the WAC.  Garden defeats Liberal for a 10th consecutive season and it 5-0 and 2-0 in the WAC.  Liberal hosts Wichita Southeast Friday night at 7 with Redskin Pre-game at 6 on 1270 and kscbnews.net.