By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
After winning a gritty, defensive duel with Andover to advance to the round of 16, Salina Central’s offense was back on full display this week, as the Mustangs delivered the knockout blow to Great Bend in a 40-35 shootout victory.
Throughout the season, Central has chipped away at one goal after the next, defeating their cross-town rivals from South, winning the AVCTL-II, claiming a postseason victory, and now, winning in November.
“Winning in November is always a big goal for our program because we see that as reachable and that’s the standard for us,” Mustang head coach Mark Sandbo said. “When you think of Kansas high school football Salina Central is in that mix with the top programs and there’s a lot of tradition there.”
To reach that standard, the Mustangs had to overcome a very good Panther program in front of the Salina faithful on Friday and did just that, racking up big yardage, around 400 of which came on the ground.
“Our consistent run game was the best thing I saw from the guys in this matchup,” Sandbo said. “We probably weren’t as clean as we have been and need to be but we had over 550 yards of offense and what Gunnar and Kenyon did was a big part of it.”
That dynamic duo of Gunnar Gross and Kenyon McMillan in the backfield was electric on Friday night, with a healthy McMillan reinvigorating the Central offense.
“Kenyon is an X-Factor and he just plays at a different speed,” he said. “Every team we’ve faced since he entered our program he’s been able to put on skates and people take notice. A lot of what we do goes through him.”
The Mustang feature back carried the ball 22 times for 291 yards and four touchdowns, paving the way for Gross, a deadly dual-threat quarterback, to collect 200 rushing yards and a pair of scores for himself.
While Central’s defense allowed a four-week-high 35 on the scoreboard, the Mustangs didn’t concede points on a pair of big drives, punctuated by an Avery Richardson pick in the end zone to keep the score level at the intermission.
“Defensively we were bend but don’t break again and we put them in some bad positions with our special teams,” Sandbo said. “That defense created some turnovers and those are big momentum plays.”
With just eight teams remaining in Class 5A, Salina Central is gaining even more confidence from within, proving time and time again that they’re capable of lining up against some of the best talent in the state.
“We always felt like we belonged here and I think we’re good enough to go compete against anybody,” Sandbo said. “That’s not just the belief in our staff, that’s also the belief in our kids and belief is a powerful tool. At times we do some things like a championship-caliber team but we need to do those things more consistently and we’re going to have to be playing our best football moving forward.”
The Mustangs will meet a 9-1 Hays Indians team in the quarterfinals whose only loss came at the hands of arguably the best team in the whole state in undefeated #1 Manhattan from Class 6A.
For continuing coverage of the Mustangs playoff run stay tuned to the Salina Post.