Golden Plains Extend Winning Streak

The Golden Plains High School football team extended their winning streak with a 60-13 win over Northern Valley in Almena on October 9. The Bulldogs are 5-1 on the season having won the last four games.

“Not everyone expected us to have a 5-1 record this season,” said Junior Kelby Buehler. “We are playing together as a team—no one is a superstar. This requires our opponents to focus on every player.”

“Although we played good, we got off to a rough start,” said Senior Conner Kier. “We came back and executed our fundamentals to get the win.”

The Bulldogs got off to a rocky start against the Huskies. Northern Valley won the toss but deferred to Golden Plains. With a short kick, the Huskies recovered to take possession. They had their pass attempt intercepted by the Bulldogs sophomore Parker Vahling who returned it to mid field. The Bulldogs then fumbled allowing the Huskies to recover and finish the drive with their first touchdown and PAT for a 7-0 lead.

The Huskies recovered another short kick to the Bulldogs but turned it over to the Bulldogs on downs. Another Bulldogs fumble gave it back to the Huskies. The Bulldogs strong defense forced the Huskies to turn the ball back to the Bulldogs. The Bulldogs took over and scored with a pass from Ruxin Arnberger to Vahling. The PAT kick from Jose Rios was blocked and the Huskies held on to their lead 7-6.

The Bulldogs connected on another pass from Arnberger to Conner Kier who ran in a second Bulldog touchdown. This time the PAT kick cleared the uprights to give the Bulldogs a 14-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.

The Huskies could not seem to get their offense going in the second quarter as they repeatedly had incomplete passes and turned the ball over on downs. The Bulldogs took advantage and added two more scores with a pass from Arnberger to Vahling and a late quarter run by Kier and PAT kick by Rios to extend the Bulldogs’ lead 28-7 at the half.

Back on the field for the second half, the Bulldogs scored in the third on another pass from Arnberger to Kelby Buehler and a PAT pass from Arnberger to Rios. The Bulldogs’ defense tackled the Huskies for a loss before they made a couple of short runs. Following a turnover on downs, the Bulldogs kept the ball in the air and connected once again from Arnberger to Rios. A PAT run put the Bulldogs up 42-7 at the end of the quarter.

The Huskies added a second score with a full field run to increase their total to 13 points early in the fourth. The Bulldogs took control and added 3 touchdown runs by Adam Ritter to finish the game with a 60-13 Bulldog win with just under 3 minutes remaining in the game.

Ruxin Arnberger passed for 234 yards against the Huskies with 5 TD’s. Adam Ritter rushed for 172 yards along with 102 by Kier. Additional yards were gained by Parker Vahling 27, Arnberger 12, and Koen Schaben 3. Receiving yards included Kier 70, Vahling 65, Kelby Buehler 38, Cristian Garcia 25, Ritter 23, Jose Rios 15, and Tannor Todd 5.

Tackles were made by Ritter 14, Vahling 10, Rios 9, Kelby Buehler 8, Garcia 7, Arnberger 6, Kier 3, Kasch Buehler 3, Nash Ziegelmeier 3, and Todd 2.

“It took us a second to focus,” added Buehler. “Once we got focused, we did really well. “We need to bring that focus to the Weskan game this week.” The Bulldogs will host Weskan in Rexford on October 16. “Our goal with Weskan is to play hard, play like we did with Northern Valley except we need to start off strong and be more physical,” added Kier.