Garden City Gallops Past Liberal

Two years ago when Liberal visited Garden City, the Buffaloes beat the Redskins 38-14. Friday night Garden beat LHS by the same score of 38-14. Liberal committed four turnovers and was barely ever in the game. LHS played without five starters and it showed. Liberal took the ball first and threw an interception in the end zone. Garden City got the ball back and on an 80 yard drive which included a fake punt, Garden would score on a Cody Burnbeck one yard sneak with 5:27 to go in the first quarter. Justin McPhail lined up in the “Wildcat” formation and scored on a four yard run and the game was tied at seven with 7:09 to go in the first half. Tony Rubio’s 21 yard run after several missed tackles made it 14-7 with 4:11 to go before half. Burnbeck found Raul Silva for a 19 yard TD pass with fourteen seconds to go before half so it was 21-7 Garden at halftime. Angel Flores 72 yard run on the Buffs’ first drive of the second half set up a Rubio eight yard run to make it 28-7 with 10:18 to play in the third. A Liberal fumble set up a Rene Hernandez 28 yard field goal to make it 31-7. McPhail scored a three yard touchdown for LHS to make it 31-14 again out of the “Wildcat” formation. A Burnbeck one yard sneak would cap the scoring for the Buffaloes. Garden City put up 465 yards of offense in the win. Liberal allowed 445 the previous week in a 41-20 loss to Dodge City.

Garden City is 2-3 overall and 1-2 in the Western Athletic Conference after winning their third straight over Liberal. The Redskins lose their ninth straight WAC game and fall to 2-3 overall and 0-3 in the WAC. Liberal hosts 1-3 Great Bend for homecoming Friday. The Skins haven’t defeated the Panthers since 2003.