GHS football beats Little River
By DELBERT PETERS
Contributing writer
On the first series of downs, the Goessel defense forced Little River to punt, which in itself was an unusual event. The Bluebirds marched down to the Little River five-yard line and then stalled. The Redskins scored with 3:10 to play in the first quarter on a 35-yard touchdown pass.
On the ensuing kickoff, Brett Goerzen (124-pound sophomore) picked the ball off the grass, got a good solid block, and sprinted to the end zone for the first Bluebird touchdown of the season. Little River's lead lasted 11 seconds and a Fensky kick was good to make the score 7-6 in Goessel's favor.
Goessel's defense held on fourth down but a fumble by the Bluebirds gave the ball back to Little River. The Bluebirds defense stalled the Little River attack at the ten-yard line. With six minutes to play in the half, Travis Fensky broke three tackles, regained his balance, and romped 69 yards to make the score 13-6.
Several minutes later, Garrett Hiebert connected with senior Ryan Janzen for 24 yards to get the ball to the six-yard line. Travis Buller scored the touchdown and the Fensky kick was again good giving the Bluebirds a lead of 20-6. Jordan Voth sacked the quarterback on fourth down to kill any Little River chance to score before half-time. Both team's defense held as neither team scored.
Evan Esau, Jake Unruh, Wayne Cooper, Tyler Schroeder, Chad Schrag along with Fensky and Buller came up with big stops to keep the Redskins frustrated.
"I wasn't too worried," said coach Justin Coup. "Our defense was playing well and we had a two touchdown lead."
The obvious strategy of running time off the clock was working for a while but with two minutes to play, Goessel faced third down and 20 yards to go. Somehow, Travis Fensky, broke through tackles around the right side of the field and ran 44 yards for another score to cinch the victory for the Bluebirds.
Little River did score with 8.8 seconds in the game and the Bluebirds took the victory 26-12. Since Little River and Goessel are the only eight-man teams left in the Heart of America League, the rest of the games on the schedule will be non-league games.
The delighted Bluebird fans can remember many games in the past few years that were dominated by Little River.
"Someone told me that the last time Goessel beat Little River was in 1993," said Coup. "We still need to work on pass coverage next week and execute better when we get in the red zone."
Goessel travels to the southern Kansas border town of Cedar Vale for a game next Friday
Four runners finish in top 20
Goessel Cross Country Goessel had four runners that finished in the top 20 at Clearwater. In the junior/senior division Evan Fast finished 6th, Zach Plenert came in 10th, Kellen Jenkins 19th and Brady Peters 20th. None of the Goessel runners placed in the medal division for the Freshman/Sophomore boys and girls.
Goessel volleyball team is 1-2
Goessel volleyball won one match against Tescott and lost a close match to Claflin and then lost to a good Lyons team on Tuesday afternoon. The Bluebirds play at home on Tuesday and host the Goessel Invitational Tournament on Saturday,.
Junior high
teams compete
The junior high football team defeated Marquette 32-8 to start their season and will host Centre on Thursday. The volleyball B Team lost to Marquette and the A Team lost to Marquette and Berean.
