Having 45’ed Minneola on its field as eight-graders four years ago, Greensburg’s seniors did the same Tuesday night in their school’s first playoff appearance in 15 years, ending the ‘Cats’ season 74-28 with eight minutes left in the fourth. As a result Greensburg advances to the Regional round Saturday, hosting a 9-1 Clifton-Clyde team in a late Saturday afternoon game—the first time the Rangers have hosted a playoff game since 1987.
Saying Tuesday morning a good start was critical for his team’s chances at Minneola, Coach Clint Young looked on approvingly as the auspicious beginning he was looking for materialized in the form of Andru Twiner blocking a ‘Cat punt early in the first quarter, Billy Stensland picking off the deflected ball in mid-air and returning it to the hosts’ 14. Three plays later Grant Sirois ran it in from a yard and GHS claimed a lead they’d relinquish only twice in the form of two first half ties.
Though Greensburg had trouble corralling Minneola quarterback Jason McLaren in the first half, the Wildcats had no answer for Greensburg’s offensive attack, the Rangers scoring on 10 of their 11 possessions in the game, their only punt coming after failing to gain a second first down on the opening possession of the third quarter.
The Ranger defense, meanwhile, steadily improved as the game wore on, demonstrated by the ‘Cats failing to score after the break when they trailed 36-28.
“Tonight people saw our team, our whole team, healthy and on the field playing like they’re capable,” Young said later. “We knew it was there. I was waiting for this kind of effort to show up.”
Asked if he thought Minneola might have been overconfident heading into the contest, Young was unflinching in saying, “There’s not any doubt about that. They were 9-0 and we were 5-4 and the games they had tapes of were of our games against Spearville, Skyline and Macksville—our three worst games of the year. They thought they could handle us without much trouble and it came back to bite them.”
Having commented earlier in the week he fully remembered his junior high team having been intimidated if not outright threatened by a gathering crowd of locals outside the locker room following his squad’s thrashing of the same Minneola players four years ago, Young was asked if thoughts of what happened there in 2005 crossed his mind.
