By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural's defense set the tone for the night when it scored the game's first touchdown on a JC Heim recovey in the end zone with five minutes left in the opening quarter and the Junior Blues never looked back on the way to a 34-7 road win over Garden City Friday night in a second-round Class 6A playoff game.
Washburn Rural junior JC Heim (25) scored the game's first touchdown on a defensive TD as the Junior Blues rolled to a 34-7 Class 6A playoff win at Garden City. [File photo/TSN]
Washburn Rural junior quarterback Branton DeWeese (left) and senior Ma'kenttis Adams had big games in Friday's 34-7 Class 6A playoff win at Garden City. [File photo/TSN]
In fact, it there was anything disappointing about Friday's romp to the 6A state quarterfinals it was that the Rural 'D' didn't quite get the shutout it so richly deserved.
"I get all kinds of dirtly looks from them when we have the young guys in on that one,'' Rural coach Steve Buhler joked in a phone interview. "(Garden City) had 137 yards rushing in the game and they got 67 of it on that last touchdown play that they had, so the kids are playing outstanding. They're just playing really well right now and the nice thing about it is they're playing with a lot of discipline.''
After 8-2 Washburn Rural opened up a 34-0 lead on an 8-yard touchdown pass from Branton DeWeese to Ty Weber with 8:06 remaining, Garden City (7-3) finally got on the scoreboard inside the final two minutes on a long TD run against Junior Blue reserves, but it didn't matter as the game had long been decided.
Rural threatened early in the game before fumbling the ball way at the 11-yard-line, but the Junior Blues came up with huge back-to-back defensive plays, with the second resulting in Heim's TD in the end zone.
The Junior Blues went in front 14-0 with just over three minutes left in the first half after DeWeese connected with junior Titan Osburn to the Buffs' 4-yard-line before senior Ma'kenttis Adams scored from there and DeWeese added the 2-point conversion.
DeWeese hit Dayten Smoot with a 34-yard TD strike to put Rural in front 21-0 with 7:40 left in the third quarter and Adams scored his second touchdown at the 1:25 mark of the third from 6 yards out after another DeWeese to Osburn pass play.
Adams later used a long run to set up Rural's final score of the night, the pass from DeWeese to Weber, the Junior Blues' star linebacker who was filling in on offense for the injured Lukas Hanks.
The Buffs started the game concentrating on stopping the Rural passing attack but once the Blues got their run game going it opened up the playbook.
"They were going to make us be patient and when we switched over to the run game we got some things ironed out in the run game and got it going and it opened up things for Branton again,'' Buhler said. "We just had to learn to be patient with it and kind of take what they were giving us.''
Rural finished with 41 carries for 192 rushing yards while DeWeese was 14 of 21 passing for 157 yards.
"Not a bad night once we got going,'' Buhler said.
With Friday's win, which avenged a 2017 playoff loss to Garden City, Washburn Rural earned a spot in next Friday's quarterfinal game at perennial state power Derby, which advanced with a 76-29 romp past Lawrence.
"When you get this deep you're one of eight teams left to play and all eight of them are going to be really good,'' Buhler said. "Derby's got that tradition and you get to go play them and put yourself up against a great team with a great tradition and have a chance to see just really how good you are.
"We'll enjoy this one on the way home and I think our kids are excited to play. They're having fun playing right now and that's the most important thing. They want to be successful and they'll work hard this week getting ready for Derby.''
