By Travis Mounts
TSnews
The Garden Plain Owls ran over the Sterling Black Bears last Friday, scoring nine rushing touchdowns in a 60-0 home victory. The Owls improved to 2-0 with the win.
Reed Adelhardt led the way with 220 yards and four touchdowns. Garden Plain also got scoring runs from Cooper Scheer, Daniel Mans, Taegen Gallagher, Gage Lee and John Stuhlsatz. The Owls ran for 411 of their 431 offensive yards. Scheer had 75 yards, Mans picked up 54, and Gallagher ran for 35.
Stuhlsatz completed just 1 of 4 passes for 20 yards, but the Owls did not really need their passing game. Elijah Atkins had the Owls’ lone reception.
Garden Plain’s defense held the Black Bears to just 150 yards – 101 rushing and 49 in the air. Sterling gave up three fumbles to just one by the Owls.
“I thought we did a nice job in all three aspects of the game,” said Garden Plain head coach Danny Adelhardt, talking about the offense, defense and special teams.
The Owls started the game by recovering an onside kick. Scores by Adelhardt and Mans made it 14-0 after one quarter, and three second-quarter scores gave the Owls a 34-0 halftime lead. The route was truly on when Adelhardt ran 64 yards for a score just 14 seconds into the third quarter, giving Garden Plain a 40-0 lead.
Adelhardt said the Owls were able to get a lot of players into the game, and that they got players on and off the field well. He said Sterling did not have the depth of Garden Plain, and that contributed to the Owls’ domination. The teams did not play a junior varsity game this week.
The coach also had praise for middle linebacker Will Tice, who had big shoes to fill taking over for the graduated Anthony Hays. Tice is being counted on to lead the defense on the field, not just play his position.
The competition will get much tougher this Friday when the Owls head to Cheney to take on the Cardinals. Both teams are ranked – Garden Plain in Class 2A and Cheney in 3A.
The Cardinals got the win last year in Garden Plain, using big plays to secure a 37-point victory. It was the Owls’ only regular-season loss, a defeat they would like to avenge.
Both teams are undefeated. The Owls are currently No. 3 in Class 2A according to Catch It Kansas and No. 4 according to kpreps.com. Both polls have Cheney at No. 3 in 3A.
