The Otis High School football team will be heading south Saturday for a 6-man quarterfinal playoff game.
The fifth-seed Bulldogs will be traveling to fourth-seed Cheyenne Wells for a 1 p.m. kickoff. Otis, 8-2, advanced with a 55-13 romp over 12th-seed Sierra Grande, last Saturday afternoon in Otis. The Tigers, 7-3, rolled 13th-seed Cotopaxi, 70-25 last weekend. The winner will advance to next week semifinals, where they will play either top-seed Stratton or ninth-seed Eads.
Otis had little trouble in claiming its playoff opener last Saturday afternoon against the Sierra Grande Panthers.
Neither team scored in the first quarter, but then the Bulldogs exploded for 31 points in the second quarter, and tacked on 24 more in the third before the Panthers finally scored in the fourth quarter.
Otis had 332 yards on offense. Tayte Smith ran for 162 yards and three touchdowns, Erick Thorn 132 yards and two touchdowns, Peyton Wells 10 yards, and Mitchell Stivers six. Austin Hornung completed three of four passes for 30 yards and two touchdowns, both to Sawyer Packer. Taylor Ringlein had one catch for 11 yards. Charlie Kendrick made all six of his 2-point conversion kicks.
The defense came up with interceptions by Stivers and Kendrick, and Bohden Klinzmann recovered a fumble. Kendrick was in on eight tackles, Wells four, Smith three, Stivers two, Ringlein two and Blake Stivers one.
In other playoff games last weekend, Stratton beat Prairie 46-14, and Eads beat North Park 75-28. On the other side of the bracket, second-seed Fleming won 58-6 over Hanover, third-seed Granada beat Briggsdale 89-32, sixth-seed Arickaree held off Branson/Kim 26-22, and seventh-seed Genoa-Hugo won 31-8 over Cheraw. Arickaree plays at Granada on Saturday, and Fleming hosts Genoa-Hugo on Friday afternoon.
