Salina South made the 90 minute trip down to Goddard, Kansas to take on the Goddard Lions (3-2) in a Thursday night matchup. The Lions, coming off of a win a week ago looked to build on their momentum back in front of the home crowd while the Cougars, coming off of a 29-23 loss last week, looked to pick up their first win of the season.
The first quarter was a quarter filled with chaos, both teams moved the ball well on offense, but neither team scored due to numerous penalties. Five total unsportsmanlike penalties in the first quarter, three by Goddard and two by South, fizzled out each of the team’s first few drives. Despite three quality drives on offense in the first quarter by the Cougars, an INT and a total of four penalties would keep South off the scoreboard, as we were scoreless after the first 12 minutes.
The second quarter started off with a bang as the Cougars picked off Lions QB Brock Sullivan and returned it to the house for six to grab an early 7-0 lead. Salina South salvaged a late field goal as they took a 10-0 lead over Goddard into the locker room. Offensively the Cougars moved the ball well in the first half but couldn’t get out of their own way as penalties continued to be drive killers. Defensively, Salina South had a terrific performance in the first half, shutting out the Lions and containing Lions star RB Erik Olivas.
On the Cougars opening drive of the second half the offense drove down the field and found themselves with 1st and Goal from the 8-yard line, but would stall out and have to settle for a field goal to build the lead to 13. After leading 13-0 with nine mins left to play in the third quarter the Goddard Lions would score 27 unanswered points to snatch the lead from the Cougars in what seemed to be in the blink of an eye. A fumble, two-three and outs, and a turnover on downs all resulted in scoring drives from the Goddard offense as with a little over eight minutes to play in the game the Cougars trailed 27-13.
Salina South seemed to have fallen out of the game in the fourth down by two scores and with all the momentum on the Lions side, but on 3rd down and 10, SO QB Telles found Kobie Henley for a 37 yard pitch and catch to cut the lead to seven with a little over four minutes to play. After a quick three and out forced by the Cougar defense, Salina South had the football right back with a chance to tie it. After driving down the field, it was Landon Huffman who punched it in for six with 1:45 to play in the game as the Cougars would tie it after the PAT.
With the game tied at 27 a piece, Goddard had the football with 1:45 left and no timeouts. A couple of chunk plays set the Lions up in South territory. With 45 seconds left in the game, it was 4th down and 10 for the Lions when Brock Sullivan found Erik Olivas in the back corner of the end zone for a 37 yard go ahead touchdown. A ball that was thrown into double coverage, was snagged out of the air on an incredible catch by the Lions RB who would finish the night with 3 touchdowns. The Cougars would run a few plays in the final 30 seconds but come up short on their hail mary attempt as the Goddard Lions would go on to defeat the Cougars 34-27.
Goddard improved to 4-2 on the season with their 2nd straight win and Salina South fell to 0-6 on the year, and their 4th loss of the season by 10 points or less. The Cougars will be back in action next Friday (10/17) to take on Haysville-Campus at Salina Stadium.
