Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Christian Allen-Van Pelt was a bright spot for Kimball, running for 133 yards.
The 2019 football season for the Kimball Longhorns came to an end Friday night with the Horns losing to Bayard 61-24 at Keith Staehr Field. With the loss, Kimball ended up with a record of 1 win and 7 losses, in a season that will be remembered in large part for all the injuries that took a toll, and Friday night brought more of the same.
The Horns got off to a good start scoring the opening touchdown with less than 2 minutes gone off the clock. After receiving the opening kickoff, Kimball marched down field quickly and scored on a 29 yard TD pass from Brendan Walker to Austin Lulf with the clock showing 10:04 left in the 1st quarter.
The Horns missed on the conversion try, and failed to convert on a conversion all night. Bayard came right back to score on a 25 yard run by quarterback Jack Kildow to knot the score at 6-6. The Tigers then took a 12-6 lead on a 27 yard TD pass from Kildow to Christian Leonard, but rendan Walker tied the game again on a 1 yard quarterback carry and the 1st quarter ended with the score tied at 12-12.
The visiting Tigers would score the next 3 touchdowns with two of them coming in the second period to take a 26-12 lead to the halftime locker room with both coming from hard runs by Brandon Neiger.
Third quarter play began with the Tigers scoring on a Kildow pass to Kolton Kriha to make it a 33-12 margin, but Walker connected with his favorite target, Austin Lulf, for an 8 yard touchdown to close to 33-18, but Kildow fired 2 more TD passes in the 3rd quarter to go up to 46-18, before Walker and Lulf did their thing again on an 18 yard completion for their final 6 points as time ran out in the 3rd period. The Tigers would score twice more in the final quarter for the final tally of 61-24.
Bayard accounted for 500 yards offense on their 57 plays from scrimmage while Kimball ran the same amount of plays and ended with 336 yards. Bayard had 382 yards rushing and Kimball 196, but both teams did most of their scoring through the air with Bayard hitting on 7 of 16 passes for 4 touchdowns with no interceptions.
Kimball was 9 of 19 with 3 touchdowns but also had 3 interceptions and had 140 yards through the air while Bayard had 118 yards. While Bayard had no turnovers, the Horns were hurt with 4. Both teams had 7 penalties for 50 yards. Bayard punted twice and Kimball 3 times.
Brandon Neiger, 200 pound senior running back for Bayard, had a big night with 225 yards rushing on 18 carries and had 3 touchdowns. Kildow, a junior, had 72 yards rushing on 11 carries to go along with his passing stats.
Kimball's Christian Allen-VanPelt also had a big night running with the football amassing 133 yards on 14 carries but suffered a leg injury in the 3rd quarter that sidelined him for the balance of the contest. Jacob Withrow had some good carries early ending with 25 yards on 5 carries but also left the game early with a re-injured leg problem.
Walker had 29 yards on 3 carries and limped throughout the contest with his own leg injury. In the passing game, Walker was 7 of 16 for 87 yards with 3 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. Austin Lulf was 2 for 2 passing for 53 yards, and Justin Klosterman 0 for 1 with 1 interception.
Lulf had all 3 touchdown receptions and had 6 catches for the game and 84 yards. Jacob Withrow had 1 catch for 31 yards and Beau Hanks 2 for 25 yards.
Arthur Laveran, foreign exchange student from France, has really taken to the game of football and plays with a lot of gusto. In his final game, at least for Kimball High, he led the tackle charts for loss yardage!
Big Beau Hanks closed out his season in grand style as well with 12 tackles and 3 assisits with 1 tackle for loss. Austin Lulf always gets his share of stops and had 5 tackles and 4 assists. Brendan Walker managed to make 4 tackles and 1 assist on his bum leg. Jacob Withrow had 2 tackles, Stephen Bateman, James McGinnis, and Ethan Evans were all in on 2 stops, and Jared Barnes and Allen-VanPelt were both charted with 1 tackle each.
With only 20 players listed on the program, and with only 13 in full suit on the sideline the second half, and with 10 seniors leaving the program by graduation, the future of Kimball High football is at risk to say the least. Returning from this year's roster are 5 juniors, 1 sophomore, and 4 freshman.
Bayard 12 14 20 15 – 61
Kimball 12 0 12 0 – 24
