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Broncbuster football clinches close opener against Cisco, 19-7

Published 8/31/2009 in Sports : GCCC

By MIKE KESSINGER

mkessinger@gctelegram.com

Aaron Racette leaped to his feet and threw his arms up in celebration as his teammates swarmed around him.

Still on the ground while the Garden City Community Community defense mobbed Racette, Cisco quarterback Alijawon White sat up shaking his head for a few seconds after being sacked for a nine-yard loss. The sack pushed the Wranglers beyond the 15 yard line putting them in the precarious situation of facing a fourth-and-18. Three plays before, the Wranglers had been in a prime spot to take their first lead of the game with under two minutes left in the third quarter, but like they had done much of the game, the Broncbuster defense clamped down.

An interception by Corey Johnson at the one-yard line on the ensuing play nixed the Wranglers best chance to take the lead, but that was hardly the play that did in the visitors from Texas. With 9:21 to go in the game GCCC sophomore quarterback Ryan Howard hit a diving Avonte Jones in the corner of the end zone for a 13-yard score, driving the nail in the coffin for the Wranglers at Memorial Stadium. Jones' first touchdown of the season put the icing on the Busters' 19-7 win.

"Ah man, I was pumped tonight," GCCC defensive lineman Terry Vaughan said. "We've been going through a long camp and I was the most ecstatic guy here. My teammates and I were all pumped up. You're never satisfied with yourself and there's still stuff you got to work on."

What the Busters could be happy with was how well they commanded the game clock. In the first half, GCCC ran 55 plays to 25 for Cisco. On the flip side, though, all the No. 22 ranked Busters had to show for it was a 9-7 lead. All the Busters' first half points came on their first two possessions of the game.

"We knew we had a lot of long fields where we were pinned back all the time. We didn't have a short course the whole time," GCCC coach Lucas Aslin said. "Defensively, we need to do a better job of pinning them back. We need to do a little better job on special teams making sure we get shorter fields on offense because it's hard. The percentages aren't good driving 80, 90 yards and scoring."

The Busters never started on the Cisco side of the 50, but through the first two possessions of the game whereever GCCC had the ball it didn't seem to be a problem. On their first possession, the Busters started at their own eight and methodically drove the length of the field in 13 plays, most of them going to running back Chase Bieberle. The sophomore carried the ball nine times on the opening possession and caught one pass for 18 yards. He finished the drive by pushing his way into the end zone from a yard out. Bieberle, who had 66 rushing yards on the first possession, finished the game with 118.

Cisco almost allowed another long Buster drive to end in a touchdown on the second possession when GCCC started at its own 17. The Wranglers halted GCCC at the 5-yard line, though, and Butler transfer Derek Jonas, who missed his first extra point attempt, booted a 22-yard field goal to make it 9-0.

"It was frustrating, we were driving the ball up and down the field and we just didn't punch it in," said Howard, who started his first game at GCCC. "We'd get down to the 30, 20, 10 -- we got it down to the 1 at one point and couldn't punch it in. We're just going to keep working and next time we'll improve on that."

While the offense proved to be able to move the ball, the defense gave Cisco fits. The Wranglers used a two-man attack in the first 30 minutes, going to 6-foot, 230 pound running back Ketauras Stanton 14 times on the ground. The only other person to produce any offense for Cisco in the first half was quarterback White, who ran two times for 19 yards and completed two passes, both to Stanton. The Wranglers went to their powerful back for the team's lone score as Stanton broke loose for a 34-yard touchdown run with 13:14 to go before halftime.

"It's a different type of offense than we've played against," Aslin said. "It's a lot of downhill power and isos (isolations) and zone. That guy is a 230-pound back which is something we haven't been used to seeing. I think it just took us a little bit to get used to it."

Stanton continued to gain ground in the second half, finishing with a game-high 136 yards, but couldn't help the Wrangles put any more points on the scoreboard.

On Cisco's first possession in the second half that went to the 8-yard line before the Buster defense stopped them, Stanton started the drive with a 23-yard run from the Wranglers' 40. White did most of the work from there. He had runs of 8 and 7 yards, then completed a 9-yard pass to Landon Quigley that gave Cisco a first down at the 8. The Busters forced Cisco into an incomplete pass, and a 1-yard gain before Racette sacked White at the 18.

"It was like my heart jumped out of my chest," Vaughan said of the excitement following Racette's sack. "It was unbelievable. We love making plays, making things happen. When I see one of my teammates do something good I'm just happy for them. It's just like if I make a tackle."

GCCC will have a short preparation time for its next opponent. The Busters will be on the road Friday at Air Force Prep in Colorado Springs, Colo. The game will kickoff at 3 p.m., Central time.

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GCCC 19, Cisco 7

Cisco (0-1)	0	7	0	0	— 7
GCCC (1-0)	9	0	3	7	— 19

First Quarter

GCCC -- Bieberle 1 run (Missed PAT), 9:42

GCCC -- Jonas 22 field goal, :26.4

Second Quarter

Cisco -- Stanton 34 run (Shae kick), 13:14

Third Quarter

GCCC -- Jonas 40 field goal, 6:11

Fourth Quarter

GCCC -- Av. Jones 13 pass from Howard (Jonas kick), 9:21

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	Cisco	GCCC
First Downs	12	24
Rushing	35-198	45-265
Passing	9-30-3	16-34-1
Passing yards	120	194
Total offense	318	459
Punts	4-36.0	3-36-7
Fumbles (total/lost)	1-1	3-2

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Individual Statistics

Rushing

Cisco -- Stanton 28-136, White 7-62; GCCC -- Bieberle 21-118, Davis 17-94, Howard 5-35, Sperber 1-5, Av. Jones 1-13.

Passing

Cisco -- White 9-30-3-120; GCCC -- Howard 16-34-1-194.

Receiving

Cisco -- Stanton 4-28, Shae 2-36, Quigley 2-20, Scott 1-36; GCCC -- Bieberle 5-85, Av. Jones 5-63, Sperber 2-10, Horesky 1-20, Frasier 1-11, Balman 1-3, Davis 1-2.

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On the Web:

Listen to a podcast with Telegram sports writer Mike Kessinger about the Busters' fall season at GCTelegram.com/podcasts.

Want to get the inside scoop on the Busters? Chat live online with Coach Lucas Aslin at 7 p.m. Sept. 8 at SWKTalk.com/livechat.

What did you think of the game? Talk about it at SWKTalk.com.

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