Garden City up to No. 8 in the polls
By Mike Pilosof
Photo by Adam Shrimplin
Garden City, KS-Let the stretch run officially commence.
Following their bye week, Garden City moved up two spots to No. 8 in the latest polls released by the NJCAA on Monday.
"Our goal from here on out is to go 4-0," Head Coach Tom Minnick said on Monday. "Let's try and do that, and then we will see what happens."
The Broncbusters have now been in 24 straight polls and 39 out of the last 43. They have climbed 10 spots in the last month after slipping to 18th following a three-point loss to Independence on Sept. 14.
"This league is more smashed mouth compared to the WSFL," Minnick added. "It's a challenge every week."
And the remaining schedule for Garden City is brutal. They travel to No. 12 Highland on Saturday; then after a home date with Coffeyville, they entertain fourth-ranked Hutchinson before traveling to No. 7 Butler to close the regular season.
"We can only worry about what we can take care of," Minnick said. "If we take care of our part, the rest will fall into place."
The Broncbusters boast a pretty impressive resume with wins at Iowa Western and Iowa Central, two teams that have been ranked in the top 10. In fact, the Reivers were the preseason No. 2 behind East Mississippi. They also routed Fort Scott, who's now No. 15 in the polls. Their losses are to No. 9 Snow and Independence (receiving votes) by a combined six points.
The top five stayed the same this week, with Mississippi Gulf Coast garnering 15 out of the possible 16 first-place votes. Northwest Mississippi is second followed by Lackawanna, Hutchinson and Kilgore. The Broncbusters are the second-highest ranked two-loss team in the country behind Butler.