The high school football team took a 1-0 record into last Friday night’s game against Valley Heights in the team’s first league contest of the season. The Mustangs, meanwhile, were coming off a loss to Centralia and were looking to bounce back on Onaga’s home field.
The game started with the Buffaloes taking the opening kickoff and coming out in a little bit different look offensively than they showed against McLouth in week one. Quarterback Zac Fisher was in the shotgun instead of under center, fullback Hunter Lamond was lined up beside him, slotback Landon Koelling was in more of a running back position to his other side, while Josh Daniels was in the slot and Jackson Kolterman was split out wide. The different look worked too, as the Buffaloes moved the ball well. Unfortunately, the drive would stall after seven plays and a couple of first downs before Kolterman punted the ball to the Mustangs.
Valley Heights went straight to the ground game with sophomore running back Jayden DeWalt and junior fullback Kaison Bigham getting the first two carries. Then, an uncalled block in the back on Fisher helped DeWalt go 66 yards on the third play of the drive for the first score of the game. DeWalt then ran in the PAT to give Valley Heights an 8-0 lead just over six minutes into the game.
The Buffaloes came right back though, as on the first play of their next possession the senior Fisher hit the freshman Daniels on a 48 yard pass. Then, after short runs by Fisher and Koelling, the quarterback hit the sophomore receiver Kolterman for a 20 yard pass that gave Onaga first-and-goal at the two yard line. Fisher would punch it into the endzone on the next play and would then kick the extra point to make it 8-7 with 2:47 to go in the first quarter.
The Buffalo defense got back to the dominant display it showed in week one on its next possession, forcing the Mustangs into a three-and-out after accumulating negative yardage on three plays. On their punt, though, disaster struck. Fisher had an excellent return, going 22 yards and nearly clearing the final tackler and heading for paydirt and the lead. But he was taken down right by the Buffalo sideline and immediately there was obviously a problem. The senior, do-it-all athlete was not getting up. After some time on the sideline with the onsite paramedics, he was able to sit up, but he was unable to put weight on his leg. He left the facility with the paramedics and was not able to return.
Kolterman took over at quarterback for the Buffaloes and on his first play completed an eight-yard pass to senior Donovan Mason. After a run play that was stuffed at the line, the quarter ended with Onaga trailing 8-7.
Fisher was a huge part of the Buffalo football team. In his first game of 11-man football against McLouth, he set the school’s record for rushing yards in a game by a quarterback with 238. It also placed him in the top five in the state of Kansas in 8-man through 6A in overall rushing according to MaxPreps. He also was the unquestioned leader of the team, and his departure, for good reason, left the team somewhat deflated.
The second quarter fell apart quickly for Onaga after and interception and the two teams exchanged punts. Valley Heights would score on their final three possessions of the second quarter, first on a 59-yard run by DeWalt, then on a 69-yard run by the sophomore, then on a 1-yard plunge by Bigham. That made it 28-7 at halftime.
Although the Buffaloes settled in a bit to their new look after halftime, they still were unable to get things rolling on offense and were susceptible to big plays without Fisher cleaning things up on the back end of the defense. The Mustangs would score two more times in the third quarter and a final time in the fourth, before the game ended with a 46-7 final score.
The game itself was not a reflection of the quality of this Buffaloes football team. Obviously, the unexpected departure of Fisher, who is one of the best players in the state in 1A football, made a huge impact. It appeared as though Onaga had started to gain control of the game when he departed and many who were there believed it was heading towards a Buffalo victory.
Expect the changes that have already been made and the ones that will be this week to produce a much better Fisher-less Onaga squad. It will look different, but the offensive line is still big, experienced, and one of the better ones Buffalo fans have seen in recent memory. But also, the front eight of the Onaga defense is still going to be a major problem for teams that want to run the football. It absolutely dominated McLouth, allowing the 16th fewest rushing yards in a game and the 4th fewest rushing yards in a game since 1978 when those stats began being kept (the original ranks of those stats were misprinted in last week’s article). It was dominant again on Friday against Valley Heights before Fisher’s departure, and still showed flashes after it, despite missing Tatum Lara due to illness. The junior defensive tackle tied for the team lead in week one with 8 tackles, half of which were in the opposing backfield, and will be back this week.
For Fisher, unfortunately, his football career is over at Onaga. The senior quarterback has started every game under center since week one of his freshman season. He will remain the school’s 8-man career leader in rushing yards, rushing touchdowns, passing yards, passing touchdowns, total yards, all-purpose yards, and points. While his senior year ended too early, there’s no doubt that he should be considered when talking about the best signal callers in school history.
On the bright side, he also has started every basketball game since the beginning of his freshman season and every baseball game since his sophomore season thanks to Covid canceling his first year of the sport. And early indications are that he may be able to return for some of basketball and all of baseball. His injury left the school and community with heavy hearts, speaking not only to his abilities on the field and court, but also to the extremely high character of the young man. He is as good as it gets when it comes to being a hardworking, amazing athlete, but even more importantly, as a young man. Here’s to a speedy recovery Zac.
The team moves on to their third game of the season this Friday night and their second league contest as it heads to Centralia. The Panthers are off to a hot start after beating Valley Heights in week one 34-14, then blanking Christ Prep Academy last week 40-0. The two old foes will kick off at 7:00pm at Riggins Family Field.