The Abilene Cowboys made the playoff tonight but not quite the way they imagined it at the start of the day. Abilene needed to win at home tonight against McPherson by two points in order to win the district but the Cowboys lost 28-7. The Bullpups scored 21 unanswered points in the second half to pull away in the victory. The Cowboys got help from their NCKL rival Wamego as the Red Raiders pulled off the upset 30-13 at home over Hays which sent Abilene into the playoffs as a district runner up.
In the game tonight McPherson struck first, on their opening possession, with a Jace Kinnamon 16 yard touchdown run that made it 7-0 with 7:17 to play in the first. The Abilene defense would stiffen up and shut out the Bullpups the rest of the half.
The Cowboys would then score their only touchdown of the game on a 66 yard pass play from quarterback Ryan Wilson to Parker base with 9:25 to go in the half to make the score 7-7 which would be the score at the half.
McPherson got their passing game going in the second half as they would score on their final three possessions on Casen Hoover passes of 14 and 27 yards to Jack Reifschneider and the final score to Wyatt Siedl on a 9 yard pass play with :47 seconds left in the game to make the final 28-7.
Abilene (7-2) will travel to Buhler (8-1) in the opening round of the playoffs next Friday. The Cowboys are (0-8) against Buhler since 2007. Abilene lost at Buhler 21-7 last season. The Crusaders only loss occurred on September 16th at Home to Wichita Collegiate 45-21.
McPherson (7-2) will host Andale (8-1) next Friday. Andale’s only loss was to Buhler 28-21 on October the 14th.
