BY JIM MISUNAS
After three football games, Great Bend featured the top three receivers in the Western Athletic Conference.
Game 4 showcased the emergence of receiver Hayden Kelly against Wichita North. Kelly caught a 36-yard touchdown pass from Daxton Minton and a 39-yard scoring pass from Cooper Ohnmacht in a 61-7 victory.
Kelly joined teammates Ian Premer, Cooper Ohnmacht and Jacob Hall as a legitimate pass-catching threat with his reception from Minton.
“It’s a lot of fun and exciting making my first varsity touchdown,” Kelly said. “The guys hyped me up for my first varsity touchdown.”
Kelly’s second score showed the genius of Great Bend coach Erin Beck, who had Minton bounce a lateral off the artificial turf to Ohnmacht, hoping the defense would relax.
Sure enough, Ohnmacht connected with Kelly for a 39-yard score.
“It’s a neat play that we’d practiced all week,” Kelly said. “We got a lucky bounce. It worked when we tried it in practice. Cooper’s long throws are really accurate.”
The son of Justin and Courtney Kelly owns perfect genetics for football. Courtney’s father and Hayden’s grandfather Jason Duvall was an All-Southwest Conference offensive lineman for Texas Tech from 1989-1991.
The 5-8, 140-pound Kelly has blossomed into a 5-10, 170-pounder with superior speed and strength from 2023.
“My physical improvement has been significant. My strength and speed has gone up,” he said. “I’ve trained hard every day for this opportunity.”
Kelly lines up as an outside receiver, which limits his route options.
“Being an outside receiver, you’re not going to see the football as much,” he said. “I run routes off our inside guys. They’ve got more passing options. But we don’t care as long as we’re scoring touchdowns. You‘ve got to run a hard route every time.”
Kelly actually prefers playing cornerback, lining up on the strong side.
“I read pass first, then run,” Kelly said. “My job is contain and not let anyone outside of me. Defense is more active, so I like that more than offense.”
The Panthers (4-0) face an explosive offense at Dodge City (3-1, 1-0 WAC) Friday. Dodge City (30 ppg) is averaging 219 yards rushing and 188 yards passing. The Panthers (39 ppg) are averaging 174 yards passing, 148 yards rushing.
“Dodge City has been playing good football,” he said. We have a good chance. It was fun seeing all our guys out there under the Friday Night Lights. We like how we’re playing football and we plan on making a good playoff run.”
