Clay Center Rolls Past Abilene

The Abilene Cowboys fell for a second straight week at home to a league opponent Friday Night. The Clay Center Tigers won 48-6.  Clay Center had lost 4 in a row and 11 of their last 12 to Abilene prior to the victory.  The Tigers are now 4-2, 3-1 while the Cowboys slipped to 2-4, 1-3 on the season.

Clay Center set the tone from the start as Senior Quarterback Peyton Lane scored on the first play from scrimmage on a 60 yard run.  Lane would have a huge night as he scored on runs of 60, 22 and 4 yards. He also had a fumble return of unofficially 90 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter. 

The Tigers forced 6 Abilene turnovers in the game and scored 26 points off of takeaways.  The Cowboys had 5 turnovers last week in their loss to Concordia.  Clay Center’s first defensive touchdown came in the second quarter by Senior Garrett Craig on an unofficial return of 17 yards to give Clay Center a 28-0 lead with 4:36  left in the second.  Gavin Siebold added the 2 point conversion on that touchdown and that would be the score going into the half. 

The Tigers also got two touchdowns out of Senior Wingback Caleb Mendum on runs of 14 and 29 yards.  Clay Center totaled 202 yards on the night which all came on the ground. 

The Tigers, with the win, moved one step closer to a share or outright NCKL title which they can achieve next week at Chapman.  It would be the Tigers first piece of a league title since 2006. 

Abilene will travel to Wamego next Friday to open district play.  The Cowboys have defeated the Red Raiders three straight times which includes last year’s 50-14 victory.