Panthers Fight Hard Against #5 in the State
The Concordia High School football team made their third straight road trip of the season to Marysville on Friday, September 27th and fell to the #5 Bulldogs 24-0.
Marysville (4-0, 2-0 in North Central Kansas League) is coming off one of the biggest head turning wins in the Sunflower State after defeating then #4 in Class 4A Wamego last week 22-20 and equaling last seasons win total with their 3rd win of the year. They came into their homecoming night confident, but the Panthers came out tough forcing the Bulldogs to turn it over on downs on the first drive of the game.
Concordia, still trying to get the offense going went 3 and out losing 5 yards on their first drive of the game giving the ball right back to the Bulldog offense. Marysville capitalized on good field position and scored the first points of the night. A 6-yard run by Senior Quarterback Will Otott ended a 4 play 54 yard drive to put the Bulldogs up 8-0 after the 2 point conversion with 2:58 to go in the 1st quarter.
After another Panther 3 and out and a good punt the Bulldogs were backed up on their own 18 yard line, but that didn't phase the #5 team in Class 3A one bit. At the 8:43 mark of the second quarter Senior 6'1 240 pound fullback Dakota Slupianek bulldozed his way into the endzone from 1-yard out to cap off a 10 play 82 yard drive and with another successful 2 point conversion Marysville was up 16-0.
Concordia was able to get their one first down of the entire half before another drive stalled out and gave the ball back to the efficient Bulldogs. This time Marysville executed an 11 play 73 yard drive again capped off by a 2-yard run by Slupianek. With a 2 point conversion and 1:04 left in the half Marysville went into the locker room with a 24-0 lead and a lot of confidence.
That's when Concordia decided to show fight and show some changes. The Panthers came out of the half with a new offense not seen all season. Sophomore QB Drake Blochlinger was for the first time not under center and had 2 wide receivers to either side of him. The Panthers were spreading the field, head coach Brad Wildeman joined KNCK in the Panther Postgame Show to share about this change.
Despite not scoring any points in the game the Panthers were effectively moving the football, more than doubling their number of first downs and executing some long drives including a 74 yard drive late in the fourth quarter that eventually stalled out inside the Bulldog 15. Wildeman talked about his teams effort.
The Panther defense was just as impressive. Holding a Bulldog offense that had long methodical and effective drives in the first half to 3 and outs, no points, and even a forced fumble. A truly inspiring performance from Concordia in half number two. One that Wildeman echoed.
The H&R Block of the Game belonged to Senior Drew Sterrett who in the new offense was a lot of the time the lead blocker for Drake Blochlinger, but Drew also blocked a couple of passes thrown by Otott in half number two to really slow down the Bulldog offense to being run only. The Altius Awards Player of the Game belonged to Jadrian Riley who was a key piece in the new offense at right guard pulling around and creating running lanes for Blochlinger. He also was a pest to the Marysville offense with several tackles for loss including a sack on Otott.
Concordia (0-4, 0-3 in North Central Kansas League) now look to carry this positive momentum into FINALLY a home game as they host the 1-3 Fighting Irish of Chapman on Friday, October 4th from Harold M. Clark Stadium. Be sure to catch the game on KNCK 1390 and 98.3 with the Panther Drive to the Game starting at 6:30 and kickoff at 7.