EARL WATT
• Leader & Times
GREAT BEND — Like every other opponent, Liberal had no answer for Great Bend’s Ian Premer Friday night in a 55-6 loss, Liberal’s first of the season.
The Panthers scored early and often, and while Premer had his way on offense, he also intercepted to Redskin passes and returned one of those for a touchdown.
After trailing 7-0, the Redskins put together a 10-play drive but it stalled at the Panther 33 yard line.
Two plays later Panther quarterback Daxton Minton broke free for a 64-yard touchdown and a 14-0 lead.
Liberal followed with a nine-play, 70-yard drive that ended with a Xavier Tafoya five-yard touchdown run that drove the Panther defensive front into the end zone, and Liberal trailed 14-6.
The Panthers scored on their next two drives to take a 28-6 lead before Premer intercepted his first pass of the night for a 40-yard pick six and a 35-6 lead.
Liberal drove to the Panther 30 yard line, and quarterback Tevin Cotter sent a deep pass to the end zone, but it was intercepted by Premer who returned it to the Liberal 21 yard line with 22 seconds to play in the first half.
That was enough time for Greta Bend to throw a screen pass to Premer for a 21-yard touchdown run and a 42-6 halftime lead.
The Panthers added tow more second half touchdowns to complete the 55-6 blowout win.
“We want to play good teams,” Liberal coach Trevor Powers said. “Hats off to them and their staff. We put together some good drives and didn’t finish them, and they followed with big plays. They are a snow ball team. Once they get it started it snowballs on you. We will have to play more teams like that down the road to get where we want to get. We are gong to have to go home and get better. I told the kids you can’t get better if you roll over. We have to come out in the second half and get film on the things we need to fix.”
The Redskins fell to 5-1 while Great Bend remained perfect at 6-0.
