By Travis Mounts
The Garden Plain Owls football team moved on in the Class 2A football playoffs with a 21-7 home win
over the Halstead Dragons last Friday.
The Owls did not play a perfect game, but they did more than enough to vanquish a team that has faced
some of the state's top small schools. The Dragons have faced three undefeated teams in Cheney,
Southeast of Saline and Hoisington, and one-loss Ellsworth. That Ellsworth team is who the Owls will
face this Friday.
“Halstead played a tough schedule. We knew they saw some good teams,” said Garden Plain head
coach Todd Rice.
Garden Plain leaned on its rushing attack and an opportunistic defense that recovered three Halstead
fumbles and forced an interception.
The Owls' running back Gage Lee has been on a tear since fully returning to the lineup back in Week 3.
He ran for 173 yards on 22 carries and scored the Owls' first two touchdowns on runs of 3 and 14
yards. That put the Owls ahead 14-0 in the second quarter. All of the game's scoring happened in that
quarter.
Halstead cut the lead in half with a 66-yard pass play.
The Owls answered before halftime with their third scoring drive of the quarter, as quarterback Brady
Brack scored on a 1-yard run.
Garden Plain ended the game with 254 total yards of offense, including 236 rushing yards. Halstead
was more balanced, passing for 157 yards and running for 117 more, for a total of 274 yards. The Owls
were 2-for-5 passing for 18 yards.
“We competed really hard. We moved the ball well, especially in the first half,” Rice said.
There is plenty to work on, Rice added. The second half was a slog for both teams, and the Owls and
Dragons combined for 18 penalties.
With the 8-1 Ellsworth Bearcats coming to town, the Owls will need their best game of the season.
Ellsworth's lone loss was just a couple of weeks ago to undefeated Southeast of Saline.
“Our execution has to be better. Defensively, we talked about third and fourth down and getting teams
off the field. The turnover battle is big,” Rice said.
The Bearcats are loaded, he said. They beat Garden Plain 21-7 in last year's playoffs, and have 10
starters back on each side of the ball.