Longhorns fall to Garden County 36-30 in 8-man opener

Kimball opened uop the football season with a heart breaking, over-time loss on the road to Garden County Friday evening. After years of playing 11 man football, the Horns were beginning a new era of competing in the 8-man game, and they gave it a good effort as they won the game in almost all categories other than on the score board where the Eagles of Garden County won out 36 - 30.

Kimball scored first and in quick fashion as Izaac Reuter connected with Zane Anthony on a 27th yard touchdown pass with 8:43 left in the opening quarter to go up 8-0 after Reuter ran in the 2 point conversion. The hosting Garden County club would come back however with 2 touchdowns of their own in the first quarter to take a 16 - 8 lead at the lend of the first period.

Zane Anthony got the 2nd quarter going with 4 yard touchdown carry but Reuter’s 2 point conversion carry failed and the Horns trailed 16 - 14. Garden County ran the tally to 24 - 14 in the 2nd quarter, but Anthony closed the gap one more time with a 2 yard carry for a score and left them trailing 24 - 22. he winners would strike one more time in the first half but missed on the 2 point conversion try to leave them leading 30 - 22 at half time. After a scoreless 3rd quarter, Kimball scored with :39 seconds left in the ball game with Anthony going in from 2 yards out and then tied the game at 30 - 30 on a conversion pass from Reuter to Anthony. Garden County got the win on a 10 yard touchdown run by Conner McCord in overtime.

The final stats were vary comparable with Kimball on top in almost all of the categories. Kimball piled up 344 yards of total offense compared to 284 for the winners. The Horns ran 61 plays to the Eagles 58. Kimball led in passing yards 122 to 101 hitting on 6 of 12 attempts to 4 of 10 for Garden County. Both teams had 1 touchdown through the air and both teams threw 1 interception. Kimball had 222 yards rushing and Garden County 183 with Kimball rushing 49 times and Garden County 48 times. The Horns had 5 penalties for 40 yards anat the Eagles 4 for 20. Both Teams had just 1 turnover. Kimball had the lead in time of possession with 26.5 minutes and Garden County had the ball for 21 minutes and 10 seconds. Both clubs had 17 first downs.

Senior quarterback Izaac Reuther did all the passing and was 6 of 12 for 122 yards and 1 touchdown and 1 interception Beau Hanks had a couple of big receptions for 83 yards and a 41.5 yard average. Anthony had 2 catches for 24 yards and 1 touchdown, and Jacob Withrow had 2 catches for 15 yards. Reuter was Kimball’s top rusher with 102 yards on 17 carries. Anthony had 56 yards on 15 carries and scored 3 rushing touchdowns as he acounted for all of Kimball’s touchdowns on the night plus 2 conversions.

On defense Brayden Tyan led the tackle charts with 5 solo stops and 8 assists/ Reuter had 5 solos and 6 assists and was charted with 1.5 tackles for loss. Anthony had 5 solo stops and 5 assists. Corey Travis had some big hits and ended with 3 solo tackles and 9 assists and had 1.5 tackles for loss. Ethan Greenwood had 8 assists, Christian Allen-Van Pelt was 3 and 2 and Ethan Ratzlaff 1 and 5. Austin Lulf had Kimball’s lone interception.

Kimball punted twice with Allen-Van Pelt averaging 23 yards per punt. Tyan handled the kickoff chores and Lulf had 1 kick return for 19 yards and Anthony 1 for 13 yards.

Kimball is idle this week with a bye and will return to action on September 7 hosting Southwest with a 6p.m. kickoff time.

Kimball 8 14 0 8 0---30

Garden County 16 14 0 0 6---36