Pawnee Heights defeated Chase 76-48 Thursday night at Chase in an emotional high school football game following the passing of 16-year-old teammate Rylan Reece.
Reece died on Aug. 18 after collapsing during the first day of football practice at Pawnee Heights High School in Rozel, a small community of a few more than 100 people in Edwards County.
The Pawnee Heights Tigers, which forfeited their first game of the season to Ashland because of Ree scored three touchdowns in the final three minutes of the first half. Cooper Josefiak and Kale Amspacker combined for 10 touchdowns and Kaden Jones added a touchdown.
Chase junior running back Malik Carson (5-foot-9, 170 pounds) rushed 13 times for an 325 yards and five touchdowns — an average of 25 yards per carry.
Carson scored on runs of 32, 44, 48, 75 and 55 yards. He also made an impact defensively with four tackles, a tackle for loss, a sack, three pass breakups and a forced fumble.
Carson won the 2026 Kansas Class 1A state long jump championship with a mark of 22-1.5 and brings 10.8 100-meter and 22.3 200-meter speed from the track to the football field.
Pawnee Heights (1-1) plays a road game at Satanta (0-2) next Friday. Santana lost at Weskan 84-36 in Week 1 and Ashland 67-48 at home in Week 2.
The Chase Kats (0-2), which lost to Bucklin 69-12 in Week 1, play a road game against the Palco Roosters next Friday.
Palco (0-2) lost to Golden Plains 42-6 in Week 1 and Otis-Bison 53-13 in Week 2.
