David vs Goliath in season opener

By Rod Haxton, editor

Rarely has the Scott Community High School football team found itself an underdog. Friday night will be one of those rare instances when the Class 3A Beavers travel to Class 6A Garden City.
Kickoff for the non-league game is 7:00 p.m.
It’s not just the school’s size that presents a challenge for Scott City, but the lack of information. The Buffaloes have a new head coach in Brian Hill who has spent the past three seasons as offensive coordinator at Garden City Community College.
Based on Hill’s history at GCCC, the Beavers are expecting to see a wide open attack with a spread offense.
“One of our big challenges will be how we match up with their receivers and whether we can get by with single coverage,” says SCHS head coach Glenn O’Neil.
But there are so many options with the spread offense. The Buffaloes can feature triple receivers, wide twins and will also move around their halfback who sometimes will lineup beside or behind the quarterback.
“Half the battle is lining up correctly. Garden City will give us a lot of problems with how we match up with them and getting in the right formations,” says O’Neil.
Senior quarterback Cody Bernbeck showed his versatility last season with 1,063 passing yards in addition to leading the team with 343 yards on the ground. The Buffaloes were limited to just 832 yards rushing as a team - averaging only 166 yards per game.
Top receivers returning from last season are senior Raul Silva (6-0, 190) who had 282 yards (18.8 yards per catch) and senior Angel Flores (5-6, 150) who averaged 21.6 yards per catch. Flores will also be in the backfield where he averaged 4.2 yards per carry last year.
Still, O’Neil anticipates the Buffaloes will want to establish their running game.
“They have two pistol backs who have a lot of speed,” he notes.
The Buffaloes’ strength may be in their defense which has nine returning starters from a unit that gave up more than 20 points on just three occasions in 2009.
Of course, this is one of those instances where size does matter.
Garden City returns 58 lettermen, which matches the number of players on the SCHS roster.
That means a huge advantage in depth when comparing the two rosters. The Buffaloes will have the luxury of platooning players, particularly on the offensive and defensive lines, which could become a factor as the game wears on.
“We’ll have to do what we can to keep boys fresh. That’s going to be important late in the game,” adds O’Neil. “When you’re tired that also increases the risk of injury which we certainly want to avoid.”
“When you can choose from over 100 boys and put 11 of them on the field, it’s an advantage. You know those 11 are going to be pretty good,” admits senior quarterback Ron Baker. “At the same time, we’re going to have 11 guys on the field we think are pretty good, too.”
O’Neil acknowledges this will be a tough game to open the season, especially with so many inexperienced players on the varsity roster. Even though the two teams haven’t competed against each other at the varsity level since 1965, the Beavers have a history of success against the Buffaloes at the junior varsity and freshmen levels.
“The boys are confident we can compete with them. We just can’t give up a couple of freebies (touchdowns) early in the game and spend the rest of the night digging out of a hole,” O’Neil says.