Garden Plain threw the football much more than it has in the past during Friday night’s season opener against Bluestem. Yet it was the Owls’ old, reliant running game that paved the way to a 62-0 victory at home.
Joey Capul had a good portion of Garden Plain’s rushing yards and the junior converted them into five touchdowns. Capul scored four times in the first half, including a 5-yard run that gave the Owls a 38-point lead just before halftime.
Capul said he couldn’t have imagined scoring five touchdowns to start the year, and he credited the Owls’ offensive line.
“All my credit goes to the linemen,” Capul said. “They just did all the work and I couldn’t do anything without them.”
Kendrae Arnold put Garden Plain on the board less than three minutes into the game with a 9-yard touchdown. Capul then accounted for the Owls’ next three scores before Arnold caught a long touchdown pass from Aaron Tomlinson with 4:30 left in the second quarter.
Capul and Arnold each added scores early in the second half as Garden Plain’s advantage continued to grow. Capul had his longest touchdown run of the game (57 yards) and Arnold returned a punt 58 yards to the end zone.
The Owls’ defense put on a good showing as well. It forced Bluestem into six punts, two interceptions and a fumbled snap on a punt in the first half alone. Garden Plain picked off three passes total from Bluestem quarterback Cade Minnick.
The Lions’ best chance of scoring came in the opening quarter after their defense held the Owls on fourth down. On the first play from Garden Plain’s 25, Minnick was intercepted by Lucas Jennings.
The Owls’ win gave coach Todd Puetz his 98th at Garden Plain.
Capul said that there hasn’t been much talk about Puetz’s possible milestone of reaching 100 wins. The Owls have been focusing on practice and Bluestem.
“We’re just getting one game at a time, working hard at practice and trying to improve each week,” Capul said.
Capul did feel that Puetz chasing his 100th win will give the team extra incentive to prevail.
“It gets us a little motivated to get that win,” he said.
Garden Plain travels to Cheney this Friday.
As for Bluestem, it has another tough test next week against Wichita Trinity. The Knights beat Douglass 58-15 on Thursday.
Correction: After originally stating Garden Plain head coach Todd Puetz would be chasing his 100th win this Friday, we have learned through Puetz that he currently has 98 career wins at the school. The correction has been made in the story.
