Panthers, Falcons to meet again in 3A regional

RILEY — Less than three weeks ago the Concordia Panthers and the Riley County Falcons were each 6-0 heading into a Class 3A District 5 showdown.
Limiting a Concordia team averaging 48 points a game to just one touchdown, and getting big offensive games by quarterback Trey Harmison and runningback Blake Brokenicky, the Falcons rolled to a 48-7 victory.
Concordia (7-2) will have an opportunity to avenge that loss with the two teams meeting again at 7:00 Friday night in a Class 3A regional matchup.
“I think the kids are excited,” Concordia coach Jordan Echer said of getting another shot at Riley County, which is now 9-0.
The Panthers advanced to the regional round, knocking off Colby 52-20 in a road game last Friday night.
Concordia was the only road team to get a win in the first round of the 3A playoffs.
Riley County, playing without Harmison, needed a fourth-quarter touchdown to get past Russell, 18-15, in its first-round game.
Harmison, who rushed for 221 yards on 16 carries and scored three touchdowns in the first game against Concordia, is out with a foot injury.
“Defensively for us it will be big,” Echer said of Harmison being out for the game. “We will still need to tackle and be in the right spot.”
Echer said that Harmison, who played safety on defense, did not play a significant role in the Falcons limiting the Panthers to just seven points.
With a backup quarterback in, the Falcons relied heavily on Brokenicky in the win over Russell.
Brokenicky, a 5-11, 180-pound senior, rushed for 195 yards and three touchdowns in the game.
“I would imagine they are going to try to run the ball and I would imagine 45 (Brokenicky) is going to touch more than he did when we played them last time,” Echer said.
Brokenicky had 15 carries for 141 yards and four touchdowns in the first meeting.
Concordia was held to 223 yards of total offense last time around, but Echer believes a lot of that had to do with the Panthers’ hurting themselves.
“I feel like it was our mistakes. We put the ball on the ground like six times that game and I think we turned it over four times,” Echer said. “If you go back and watch the film, we did move the ball. We just continued to shoot ourselves in the foot.”
Concordia got back on track offensively in the win over a Colby team that Echer said plays a similar defense to that played by Riley County.
The Panthers finished with 490 yards of offense against the Eagles, including 358 rushing.
“I think playing Colby helped us get ready. They did a lot of things defensively that Riley County does. So was good for us to get to game plan and practice against that look,” Echer said.
Concordia goes into the game averaging 406 yards per contest, 301 passing and 105 rushing.
Senior back Keyan Miller has carried the ball 161 times for 1,492 yards with 22 touchdowns. He has also caught 10 passes for 222 yards and three scores.
Cav Carlgren, a senior quarterback, has completed 48 of 81 passes for 911 yards with eight touchdowns and three interceptions. He has also rushed for 377 yards on 72 carries with six touchdowns.
Senior Aidan Poore and junior Stryker Hake have four rushing touchdowns each.
Sophomore Joey Henderson leads the Panthers in receptions with 16 for 279 yards and two scores.
The winner of the rematch between the Panthers and the Falcons will advance to the sectional round and play the winner of the game between Andale (9-0) and Holcomb (7-2).