The Clay Center Tigers spoiled Abilene’s debut of their stadium renovations Friday night with a 40-12 victory over the Cowboys. Abilene’s Stadium became fully operation after nearly 2 years of construction.
The Tigers used a 28-0 first quarter to propel them in their victory. Abilene opened the game with the football and turned it over when Simon Lee intercepted Stocton Timbrook. Lee would then strike on offense with a 26 yard touchdown reception from Quarterback Mark Hoffman at the 11:19 mark, to make the score 7-0. Hoffman would then score on a 2 yard run on the Tigers next possession to increase the lead to 14-0, with 6:27 to play in the first quarter. Clay Center’s J.W. Jackson then intercepted a pass to set up a Carter Long 3 yard run to push the lead to 20-0 with 2:57 to play in the opening quarter. Long finished with 13 carries for 132 yards and a touchdown. Clay Center’s final score in the first quarter came from Lane Musselman, who scored on a 37 yard run. Brody Hayes added the 2 point conversion to make the score 28-0 with 1:08 to play in the first quarter.
In the second quarter the Cowboy offense got on track. Abilene put together an 8 play 70 yard drive, that was capped by a Stocton Timbrook to Brax Fisher pass play on 4th and goal at the 5 yard line. The touchdown made the score 28-6 with 9:05 to play in the half. Fisher was the Nex-Tech Wireless player of the game. He finished with 7 catches for 101 yards and a touchdown. He set up the next Cowboy score with a spectacular 33 yard reception from Timbrook at the Tiger 22 yard line. Timbrook would then connect with Wildey on a 22 yard score to cut the deficit to 28-12 at halftime.
Clay Center regained the momentum in the second half as they drove the football 85 yards on the opening possession. The Tigers capped the 11 play drive with a Mark Hoffman 1 yard run to increase their lead to 34-12 with 7:01 to play in the 3rd quarter. In the final quarter Brody Hayes tacked on the final score with a 39 yard run with 9:33 to play in the game.
The Tigers finished with unofficially 459 yards of total offense, including 394 on the ground. Abilene totaled 230 yards, with 218 of that coming through the air.
Abilene will travel to Concordia Friday. The Panthers won at Wamego 41-40 in four overtimes Friday nigh
