Photo Credit: Nick Smith/PrepsKC 
The season opener between Basehor-Linwood and Tonganoxie certainly didn’t lack a flare for the dramatic on Friday night. The wild United Kansas Conference Showdown was a high-scoring affair with plenty of big plays, and ended with the Bobcats edging the Chieftains, 47-42.
“As they say in coaching, learn your lessons in a win. We were pretty lucky to sneak that one out,” Basehor-Linwood coach Rod Stallbaumer said. “We had a lot of guys step up and make some big plays to make that happen. We’ll take it and we’ll get a lot better before next week.”
The Bobcats nearly led wire to wire, but the Chieftains refused to back down all night long. While it was an offensive shootout, one of the biggest defensive plays of the game positioned the Bobcats to break the scoreless tie less than three minutes in. Mason Morgan jumped a route and nearly had a pick six for the Bobcats, but they still capitalized when Brady VanDonge connected with Mile Hinkle on a 3-yard touchdown pass three plays later to give the Bobcats an early lead.
With the Chieftains facing some early adversity following the interception on their first drive, first-year coach Preston Troyer was curious to see how his young team would respond. The Chieftains quickly shook off their first drive and tied it back up with a Tyler Pankey 4-yard touchdown run. It would be the first of three touchdown runs for Pankey, who rushed for 66 yards on 11 carries.
“I’m proud of them. We had to overcome a lot of adversity,” Troyer said. “We had some injuries early on that we weren’t expecting, and kids stepped up. We had to play some players out of position, and they did a great job until the very end.”
Pankey scored again on another short run after Jekai Harris had given the lead back to the Bobcats on his first touchdown run, but the PAT for the Chieftains was no good. With the Bobcats clinging to the 14-13 lead with less than a minute left in the half, senior Brant Wilson showed off his speed to give his squad more of a cushion going into the break. Wilson hauled in a 64-yard touchdown pass from VanDonge to put the Bobcats up 21-13. The Bobcat wideout hauled in six receptions for 95 yards.
“Brant is special,” Stallbaumer said. “We’ve seen that for a long time.”
Halftime was about all that could slow down Wilson, though. Wilson took the opening kickoff of the second half back 95 yards to the house to swing momentum in the Bobcats’ direction even more.
“All game they had been kicking it deep, but on the one before that, they didn’t kick it as deep,” Wilson said. “So, I thought that if I get the chance to return it, I’m going to go.”
However, the Chieftains again had a quick answer. Colton Brusven did much of the heavy lifting for the Chieftains on the ground in the second half. His 68-yard run quickly started to turn the tide back to Tongie. Pankey scored a couple of plays later on a 5-yard run and converted the 2-point conversion to make it a one-score game again.
Brusven was just getting started, too. The Tongie running back found pay dirt again on the Chieftains’ next possession to tie it all up at 28-28. Brusven finished the night with 256 yards on 36 totes.
The 28-all tie was short-lived, though. After a drive with mostly Harris runs, VanDonge finished it off with a 16-yard quarterback keeper to put the Bobcats back up, 34-28.
The Bobcats had an opportunity to distance themselves from the Chieftains after forcing a turnover on downs early in the fourth quarter, but the fourth was Isaiah Holthaus’s time to shine. The Tongie junior suddenly gave the Chieftains their first lead with a pick six after picking off VanDonge around midfield.
“The lineman just had a look in his eye and then the ball just popped out (of the quarterback’s hand),” Holthaus said. “I saw the ball and was like, ‘I’m scoring this.’”
Holthaus had to co-star in the fourth, though, as Harris made his biggest runs when the lights were the brightest. Harris’s longest run of the night was a 46-yard touchdown on the ensuing drive to give the Bobcats a 40-35 edge.
“I just saw green (grass in front of me),” Harris said. “It was there, so I saw the hole and took it.”
Stallbaumer enjoyed seeing his tailback get stronger as the game went on and wanted to instantly see more bruising runs. So, Stallbaumer decided to go with an onside kick, which the Bobcats recovered.
“We switched kickers. Gage (Greer) can kick everything deep, but we also have Mile and noticed they were backing up,” Stallbaumer said. “We were just trying to break momentum because weren’t doing a great job stopping them. We stole a possession and had a chance to tack another one on.”
A couple of Harris runs gave the Bobcats the ball just shy of the Tongie 30-yard line, but Basehor-Linwood was in a tough spot, as they had a 4th and long with VanDonge having just been knocked out of the game. Enter Brock Jones. The backup quarterback came up in a big spot with a 32-yard pass to Isaac Neil. Harris did the rest with a 1-yard touchdown run to push the Bobcats’ lead to 47-35 with 3:15 to play. The Basehor-Linwood running back tallied 192 yards and three scores on 28 carries.
“Anytime your backup quarterback can come into that situation and complete a pass and Isaac Neil going after the ball tracking it done was huge,” Stallbaumer said. “That led to what ended up being the deciding score.”
Yet again, though, the Chieftains didn’t give in. Noah Carlton led the Chieftains down the field in just one minute and 15 seconds. Carlton connected with Holthaus on a 33-yard strike to pull the Chieftains within five.
“I’m proud of the way my quarterback stepped up and threw the ball,” Holthaus said. “I just made the play afterward.”
It was too little, too late, though for Tongie, as Basehor-Linwood was able to run out the clock in the final two minutes. Stallbaumer was pleased that his team did enough to win, but also had to tip his cap to Troyer and the Tongie team.
“I’m proud of our kids and their resiliency,” Stallbaumer said. “You’ve got to hand it to Tonganoxie and their staff. They did a phenomenal job.”
