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Busters open with 27-14 win at Cisco
Published 9/2/2008 in Sports : GCCC
By MIKE KESSINGER
mkessinger@gctelegram.com
CISCO, Texas — At the top of the home side bleachers, Garden City Community College football coach Lucas Aslin sat facing the field.
It was nearing 11 p.m. Saturday and Aslin had just completed his post game radio interviews. The Broncbusters second-year head coach gazed out onto the field where Garden City had completed a 27-14 season opening win. A slight smile appeared on Aslin’s face.
“Scared to death,” Aslin said reliving the first quarter when the No. 24-ranked Wranglers jumped out to a 14-point lead on their first two possessions of the game. “I was thinking ‘Oh my God, we’re getting a fair fixing to get blown out of this game.’”
Garden City (1-0) entered the game ranked No. 9 and appeared early to be nervous or just over-matched. Cisco made it look easy early, starting its first two drives at their own 35 and 47-yard lines. The Wranglers used nine plays on their opening drive, then just two on the second possession. Sandwiched between the touchdowns was Garden City’s first possession that ended quickly with a three-and-out.
“I knew we were going to get hit in the mouth early,” Aslin said. “We haven’t played anybody but ourselves.”
The Busters first time out this season proved to be a team just trying to get its feet wet. On Cisco’s first possession, the Wranglers weren’t afraid to go right after a defense with just three returning starters. On the third play from scrimmage, quarterback Cameron Wynn connected with wide receiver V’Keon Lacey for a 29-yard gain on Busters’ freshman cornerback Octavious McCoy. McCoy had stayed with Lacey step-for-step until the ball started to descend and McCoy backed off Lacey just enough for the receiver to make the catch. The tackle was made at the Busters’ 36. Six plays later, Cisco (0-1) was celebrating its first touchdown of the season on a two-yard pass from Wynn to Landon Quigley.
“We came out — first game, a little nervous,” GCCC defensive lineman Brett Spresser said. “We haven’t really gone up against that kind of (offense) so we needed to see what they do. We made adjustments and in the second half we were able to do our thing.”
The Busters ‘thing,’ as Spresser put it, started well before the second half. After giving up 123 yard on the first two possessions, the second ending on Cisco running back Dayrl Richardson’s 48-yard run down the sideline, Garden City allowed just 150 more yards.
Offensively, the Busters hit their stride when quarterback Eugene Smith and receiver Cameron Kenney started to click on their second possession. It was a connection that by the end of the game, resulted in 134 yards on seven receptions by Kenney.
“It makes it that much easier because I know I can just turn around and throw it right to him and he’ll take care of the rest,” Smith said of having Kenney as a target.
The two hooked up twice on the second possession. The first was a 32-yard gain, then the second was the Busters first touchdown, an 18-yard yard bullet Smith threw straight down the middle of the field on a slant pattern by Kenney.
At the end of the play, one constant problem Garden City had throughout the game resulted — a yellow flag. The Busters were called for 10 penalties for 98 yards. Half the Busters penalties were for either unsportsmanlike conduct or personal foul calls. Kenney was flagged for an unsportsmanlike taunting penalty when he pointed to the defensive backs closing in as he ran into the end zone.
With the Busters home opener against defending national champion Butler, who entered the season No. 1 before falling Thursday at Cessna Stadium in Wichita to No. 2 Blinn, Aslin hopes the penalty trouble costing his team 15 yards each call is cleaned up.
“We have to remedy,” Aslin said. “Guys just have to be smart. We’re a young staff, so we probably ... the kids understand things a little bit differently with us than they would with an older coach, coaching staff, because they probably feel like we’re going to do the same thing a little bit too. We get pretty excited as coaches, too, but you have to understand when it’s smart.”
Penalties aside, the Busters were able to click when they needed to. On the Cisco possession following the Busters first touchdown, Garden City safety Hiram Atwater picked off a Wynn pass. It took the Busters six plays to knot the score at 14. Helped by a roughing the passer call that set the Busters up at the 12, freshman running back Chase Beiberle darted through the line and into the end zone. Beiberle, who split time with starter Ryan Smith, finished with a team-high 52 yards on 11 carries. Ryan Smith joined Beiberle with a touchdown in the third quarter on a 3-yard run, putting Garden City up 24-14. The Busters had taken the lead on a Kenney 29-yard field goal in the second quarter. Kenney put the final touches to the score with a 42-yard kick in the third quarter. Field goals and receiving weren’t all Kenney did as he also punted seven times with a 40.7 yard average.
Aslin sat at the top of the stands Saturday after his team racked up 306 yards of total offense, satisfied with the win, but cautious of work needed to be done.
“It was a good effort on both sides of the football,” Aslin said. “I don’t think it was our best effort at all, but I thought we played hard and we’ve got a lot to work on for next week.”
With a 17-of-33 passing performance for 183 yards and zero yards rushing on seven carries, Eugene Smith was just glad with the first win.
“It was good,” he said. “We still have a couple of things to work on, a couple of things to tighten up, but for the most part I thought we did pretty good. We’re hungry this year.”
Garden City’s kickoff against Butler is set for 7 p.m. on Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
——————
Garden City 27, Cisco 14
GCCC (1-0) 14 3 10 0 — 27
Cisco (0-1) 14 0 0 0 — 14
Scoring
First quarter
CJC — Quigle 2 pass from Wynn (Rebold kick), 9:34
CJC — Richardson 48 run (Rebold kick), 7:28
GCCC — Kenney 18 pass from E. Smith (Kenney kick), 5:52
GCCC — Beiberle 13 run (Kenney kick), 1;41
Second quarter
GCCC — Kenney 29 field goal, 12:35
Third quarter
GCCC — R. Smith 3 run (Kenney kick), 11:56
GCCC — Kenney 42 field goal, 8:07.
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