Goessel football goes on
By DELBERT PETERS
Contributing writer
Goessel High School football team finished second in District 5 after a rousing 58-0 victory Thursday against Centre High School.
The Bluebirds played on the road Tuesday at 8-1 Pretty Prairie, but the results of the game were not available at press time.
Three seniors on Goessel's roster anchored the victory. Dustin Peterson a 160-pound blocking back, scored once on the ground, and played well in the Bluebird defensive backfield.
Grady Stultz was in on many tackles on defense and blocked a Cougar punt in the end zone which led to a Goessel touchdown.
Defensive end and offensive lineman Kurtis Duerksen was in on many tackles and blocked for the Goessel backfield.
When the game was well in hand, Duerksen carried the ball into the end zone, to the delight of the Goessel fans, for the last two points of the game.
Goessel scored with 6:34 left in the first quarter, with Austin Unruh rolling left and then passing 16 yards to Kendall Voth for the touchdown.
After a short punt from the Cougars, the Bluebirds scored with Travis Fensky going straight ahead for five yards, behind the blocking of Bryant Miller and Peterson.
Craig Banman took a pass 50 yards which set up a Peterson five-yard touchdown run. With 36 seconds to play in the first quarter, a massive rush by the Bluebird line sent Grady Stultz into the Cougar backfield and blocked a punt which rolled into the end zone and Fensky recovered for another touchdown.
Fensky ran in the extra points and Goessel led at the end of the first period 26-0.
Unruh kept the ball after a good fake and sprinted 23 yards to his left for another Bluebird score. Banman carried in the extra points.
On the next possession, Kendall Voth settled under an Unruh pass for a 35-yard score and Banman caught a pass for the extra points.
Unruh recovered a Centre fumble deep in Cougar territory and Fensky carried in another touchdown on a one-yard plunge. Voth then caught an Unruh pass on the left side of the end zone for the two-point conversion.
With seven minutes to play in the second quarter the Bluebirds led 50-0.
Weston Hiebert, Duerksen, Stultz, Nathan Walker, and the rest of the defense came up with tackles that prevented any Cougar first downs for 18 minutes.
Unruh broke loose one more time for a 30-yard run and Kurtis Duerksen carried the ball in for two points. Goessel led 58-0 and substitutes finished the game.
After the game the three seniors shared some of the excitement for the team.
"We're 8-1 for the season. We're in the playoffs," a satisfied Dustin Peterson said.
"We didn't know what to expect when the season began," Kurtis Duerksen said. "I didn't know if we could win eight games."
"We built a 'new team' from a year ago," Grady Stultz said.
Coach Justin Coup has had a chance to look at Pretty Prairie and said: "They are almost a mirror image of our team. They are not as quick as we are, but they are a little bigger. It will be a good game. We are a lot alike."
