The Abilene Cowboy football season came to an end Friday night in a 52-12 loss at Buhler. The Crusaders got a dominant first half performance from Senior Running Back, Sam Elliott and raced out to a 49-0 halftime lead. Buhler Head Coach, Steve Warner continued his mastery of Abilene. He is 10-0 against the Cowboys in his 16 years at Buhler, with 7 of those victories coming in the postseason.
Elliott entered the night with 1,529 yards and 17 touchdowns on the season and 4,409 in his career with 59 touchdowns. Friday night in the first two quarters he amassed 254 yards on 20 carries and scored 5 touchdowns, on runs of 28, 7, 7, 1 and 19 yards. Buhler also got a 7 yard touchdown run from Cameron Campbell and a 15 yard touchdown pass play from Quarterback, Bradley Neill to Bo Van Bruggen all in the first half. The Crusaders had 296 yards in the first half and finished the game with 352. Abilene had -3 yards in the first half but recoverd to finish with 83 for the game.
Time went by quickly in the second half with a running clock. Buhler opened with the football in the 3rd quarter and scored and got a 43 yard field goal from Jeffrey Neill, for their final points of the game.
Abilene scored on their final two series of the game. Aaron Hartman connected with Kaleb Becker on a 5 yard touchdown pass play with 2:52 to play in the game to make the score 52-6. Buhler turned over the football on the ensuing possession and the Cowboys scored on the final play of the game on a Hartman to Cooper Wildey 10 yard pass play.
The Cowboys finished the season 0-9 and have lost 25 straight games but there is hope with many young talented players returning next season. Buhler improved to 8-1 and will play Winfield. They defeated Independence 21-7 to advance to the second round. Buhler won at Winfield 18-7 on September 17th.
