Picture courtesy of Diane Dowell
Ell-Saline traveled all the way west to Leoti on Friday night for its regional playoff game against the Wichita County Indians. The Cardinals started strong before some judgment calls went the way of the Indians as they were able to pull out a 46-24 victory.
Wichita County received the opening kickoff and went three-and-out to start the game. Ell-Saline then marched down the field and senior fullback Branton Gosvener was able to punch it in from two yards out on fourth-and-goal to give the Cardinals an 8-0 lead.
After a couple punts back and forth, Ell=Saline’s punter JT Moye was able to pin the Indians inside their own 5-yard line with a beautiful angle kick that went out of bounds at the 2-yard line. On the next play Indian’s quarter Beau Porter fumbled the football and Kolter Christy was able to recover the ball to set the Cardinals up at the Indians 1-yard line. Ell-Saline senior quarterback Julian Roche was able to take a sneak up the middle to put the Cardinals up 16-0 with 3:12 left in the first quarter.
Beau Porter and the Wichita County Indians offense came to life after being down 16-0. With the help of some fumbles by the Cardinals and an interception thrown by Julian Roche, the Indians scored the next 46 points in the contest to take a 46-14 lead. Beau Porter of Wichita County was responsible for all the scores for the Indians as he finished with three rushing touchdown and four passing touchdowns in the game.
Ell-Saline was able to get in the endzone one more time on the night as Branton Gosvener scored his second rushing touchdown of the game as time expired in the game but it was too late as the Indians won the regional matchup 46-24.
With the loss, the Ell-Saline Cardinals wrapped up a 5-5 season after facing one of the toughest schedules in all of 8M-I. With the win, the Wichita County Indians stay unbeaten at 10-0 and will be back in Leoti next Friday to take on returning 8M-I state champions in the South Central Timberwolves.
City Plumbing, Heating and HVAC Player of the Game: Julian Roche
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