As a freshman, Zach Roth was able to experience the joys of being 6-1 and ranked in the country, just like his team is this year.

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Garden City Community College's Jarrett Hernandez, right, gets a hand up to deflect a punt by Highland's Bryan Schmutz during a game earlier this season at Memorial Stadium.

Unfortunately, last year, that joy quickly turned into a month of misery for the Garden City Community College football team.

In 2006, the Broncbusters took a No. 8 ranking into a late season matchup with Coffeyville, tonight's opponent, and lost a 24-20 heartbreaker, the first of three straight losses that ended with a 42-7 shellacking at the hands of Butler Community College in the Region VI playoffs.

"As sophomores, we don't want to have a repeat of last year," said Roth, a 6-foot-6, 290-pound offensive lineman. "I think the problem last season was that we weren't as focused as we needed to be and we couldn't pull it off. I don't think that's been a problem this year, we've had a great week of practice and we're ready to play."

Coffeyville (4-3 overall, 3-2 league) has had a turbulent year, starting off the season picked No. 8 in the NJCAA preseason poll but coming out of the gate with a blowout loss to defending national champion Blinn (Texas) Junior College and a 10-3 loss to Fort Scott.

"Coffeyville has a ton of talent, but I think having a new offensive line hurt them early," said Garden City coach Lucas Aslin. "They made a quarterback change a couple of weeks ago, and that's made a huge difference."

The Red Ravens did make a change at quarterback, going from Dustin Moomau to Nick Hardesty, but the focus of the offense remains the same: tailback Nate Guillory.

Guillory is the leading rusher in the Jayhawk Conference with 863 yards on 147 carries and nine touchdowns, and was a first-team All-Jayhawk Conference pick as a freshman.

And, make no mistake, the 5-10, 180-pound dynamo out of Houston is going to be the focus of the Garden City defense tonight.

"We're going to load the box with as many as we can get in there," Aslin said. "If they put one wide receiver out, it'll be 10 guys. If it's two wideouts, we'll have nine in there. If Guillory can't have a good day we'll have a good chance to win."

The Broncbusters are preparing for Guillory in earnest, but reverence for Coffeyville's best player is hard to find.

"(Guillory) is good, but he's not unstoppable or anything," said Garden City linebacker Aaron Anderson. "We just need to fill our holes and make sure we run to the ball every play. There's definitely a little more pressure at this point in the season, but I also feel like our play is stepping up."

On the other side of the ball for the Broncbusters, Roth and his fellow offensive linemen will have to find a way to deal with Coffeyville defensive lineman Troy Epps, who leads the Red Ravens with 15.5 tackles for loss and six sacks.

Garden City running back Maurice Greer is fourth in the Jayhawk Conference in rushing and first in scoring with 10 touchdowns.

"It would really make our day to get Mo a big game," Roth said. "But, besides that, Butler and Coffeyville are our two biggest rivals. This is one of those games you wait all year for."

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. in Coffeyville.