Salina Central bounced back from its loss to Goddard last week with a resounding win over Arkansas City on Friday night. The Mustangs put up nearly 750 yards of total offense in a 70-27 victory, securing a 6-2 record and a home game in the 5A Playoffs next week.
Central jumped out to a quick 14-0 lead on two long scores, but Arkansas City would battle back, tying the game at 14. But Central would take a 21-20 lead by the end of the first period, and that’s when the Mustangs would take control.
Jack Gordon lead the Mustang offense yet again, as he totaled 365 yards passing and 5 scores on the night. This brings him to over 2000 passing yards on the season. Elijah Wilson would once again do more than his share as well, carrying the ball just 15 times, but amassing 218 yards and 3 more scores.
Hunter Mowery would catch just four passes on the night, but found pay dirt on three of them, totaling 176 receiving yards on scores of 36, 56, and 73 yards, plus an 11 yard catch on top of those.
The Mustangs scored 70 points, the most by a Central team since at least October 31, 2008, when they scored 65 in a playoff win over Topeka West.
With the victory, Salina Central is 6-2 and will be the 8 seed in the 5A Playoffs, hosting Great Bend next week. Arkansas City will fall to 1-7 and will travel to Abilene in the 4A playoffs.
The Nex-Tech Wireless Player of the Game was Elijah Wilson.
The H&R Block of the Game went to Gage Gibson.
STAT BREAKDOWN
| TEAM | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | F | |||
| (1-7) | ARKANSAS CITY | 20 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 27 | ||
| (6-2) | SALINA CENTRAL | 21 | 21 | 14 | 14 | 70 | ||
| SALINA CENTRAL STATS | ||||||||
| PASSING | COM | ATT | YDS | TDS | INT | |||
| 2 | J. GORDON | 13 | 20 | 365 | 5 | 0 | ||
| 14 | A. OWINGS | 4 | 5 | 32 | 0 | 0 | ||
| TEAM TOTAL | 17 | 25 | 397 | 5 | 0 | |||
| RUSHING | ATT | YDS | TDS | FUM | ||||
| 6 | E. WILSON | 15 | 218 | 3 | 0 | |||
| 22 | K. SMITH | 8 | 62 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 14 | A. OWINGS | 5 | 54 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 2 | J. GORDON | 4 | 18 | 0 | 0 | |||
| TEAM TOTAL | 32 | 352 | 4 | 1 | ||||
| RECEIVING | REC | YDS | TDS | |||||
| 27 | H. MOWERY | 4 | 176 | 3 | ||||
| 1 | R. GROSSNER | 3 | 82 | 1 | ||||
| 13 | S. PAYNE | 3 | 52 | 1 | ||||
| 22 | K. SMITH | 2 | 22 | 0 | ||||
| 6 | E. WILSON | 1 | 20 | 0 | ||||
| 81 | T. GARY | 1 | 18 | 0 | ||||
| 12 | B. RODRIGUEZ | 1 | 13 | 0 | ||||
| 25 | G. COLE | 1 | 11 | 0 | ||||
| 82 | D. SCHNEWEIS | 1 | 3 | 0 | ||||
| TEAM TOTAL | 17 | 397 | 5 | |||||
| KICKING | PAT | ATT | ||||||
| 29 | E. DUXLER | 10 | 10 | |||||
| ARKANSAS CITY STATS | ||||||||
| PASSING | COM | ATT | YDS | TDS | INT | |||
| 6 | J. PIERCE | 27 | 48 | 309 | 4 | 2 | ||
| TEAM TOTAL | 27 | 48 | 309 | 4 | 2 | |||
| RUSHING | ATT | YDS | TDS | FUM | ||||
| 25 | I. COLEMAN | 19 | 30 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 6 | J. PIERCE | 5 | 16 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 10 | W. DICKEY | 4 | 11 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 1 | J. ABRAMS | 1 | 9 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 34 | D. SWISHER | 1 | -3 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 11 | X. LAWLER | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | |||
| TEAM TOTAL | 31 | 67 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| RECEIVING | REC | YDS | TDS | |||||
| 5 | B. BUCHER | 8 | 123 | 2 | ||||
| 7 | B. WILSON | 7 | 64 | 2 | ||||
| 24 | T. RIDER | 4 | 20 | 0 | ||||
| 4 | H. LUCAS | 3 | 65 | 0 | ||||
| 25 | I. COLEMAN | 3 | 24 | 0 | ||||
| 1 | J. ABRAMS | 1 | 13 | 0 | ||||
| TEAM TOTAL | 26 | 309 | 4 | |||||
| TEAM STATS | ||||||||
| STATS | SC | AC | ||||||
| TOTAL YARDS | 749 | 376 | ||||||
| RUSHING YARDS | 352 | 309 | ||||||
| PASSING YARDS | 397 | 67 | ||||||
| 1ST DOWNS | 21 | 17 | ||||||
| 3RD DOWNS C-ATT | 3-7 | 8-21 | ||||||
| 4TH DOWNS C-ATT | 1-2 | 2-3 | ||||||
| PENALTIES-YARDS | 3-20 | 3-10 | ||||||
| TURNOVERS | 1 | 2 | ||||||
