BUHLER, Kan. – The McPherson High School Football team wrapped up their regular season against rival Buhler Friday, Oct. 25 on the road, falling 28-21 despite a come-from-behind effort.
Buhler had one of the best starts they could have asked for, intercepting Carter Allen’s first throw with an impressive one-handed grab by Mitchel McDaniel. He would also score their first touchdown on a 1-yard run. McPherson bounced back immediately with Catch Delaney scoring on a 18-yard run, tying the game a 7 apiece.
The second quarter saw more offense with Buhler and McPherson trading touchdowns. Buhler took the lead early in the quarter, but McPherson tied it again with a passing TD from Allen to Bishop Brown, his first of two on the game. The Crusaders would take the lead with around a minute left in the half, going into halftime up 21-14.
Buhler took their biggest lead of the night with a 45-yard pass to Jacob Miller to make it 28-14 in the 3rd quarter. McPherson clawed back with a 23-yard touchdown to Brown late in the 4th. They got the ball back on their own 14-yard line with around one minute left, but fumbled on the third play of the drive, which iced the game giving Buhler the 28-21 victory.
Despite the loss, head coach Jace Pavlovich was proud of his team. “The effort and relentlessness we had all game is what it’s all about,” Pavlovich said. “We had a stretch of about four or five minutes defensively that we had a hard time getting off of the field and they were leaning on us pretty heavy. Overall, that was a hell of a performance and I’m very proud of our guys.”
The Bullpups finish the regular season 4-4 and finish in 3rd place in AVCTL Div. 3 play. They ended up as the No. 8 seed in the 4A West Region and will host the first round of the playoffs Friday, Nov. 1 against No. 9 Abilene. Kickoff is at 7:00 p.m.
FINAL STATS
TEAM STATS:
- Total Yards: 229
- Passing: 181
- Rushing: 48
- First Downs: 8
- 3rd Down Eff.: 2-7 (29%)
- 4th Down Eff.: 0-2 (0%)
- Turnovers: 3
- Fumbles: 1
- Interceptions: 2
- Penalties: 3 – 25 yds.
INDIVIDUAL STATS:
- Passing:
- C. Allen – 11/20, 181 yds., 2 TD, 2 INT
- Rushing:
- C. Delaney – 5 att., 35 yds., 1 TD
- D. Becker – 4 att., 12 yds.
- B. Richardson: 4 att., 1 yd.
- Receiving:
- A. Malm – 5 rec., 110 yds.
- B. Brown – 5 rec., 57 yds., 2 TD
- C. Delaney – 1 rec., 14 yds.
- Defensive Leaders:
- C. Koehn – 10 tkls., 3 TFL, 1 Sack
- M. Burger – 9 tkls.
- B. Seidl – 9 tkls., 1 TFL
- A. Harms – 7 tkls., 2 TFL
- B. Brown – 1 TFL
