GIBSON CITY – After enjoying some home cooking in the first round of the IHSA Class 1A playoffs, the Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley varsity football team will travel over 200 miles to face Lena-Winslow in the second round at 2 p.m. Saturday.
“It is what it is. That’s just part of playoff football,” GCMS head coach Chad Augspurger said. “You know you’re going to be traveling quite a bit.”
The Falcons’ biggest challenge may not be the trip to Ric Arand Field at Community Bank Stadium in Lena, but the Arand-led Panthers themselves. Lena-Winslow played in the 1A state championship game in each of the past five fall seasons, including wins in 2019, 2021 and 2022.
“We know it’s going to be a huge challenge for us,” Augspurger said. “That’s part of the deal when you make it to the playoffs and advance in the playoffs. We’re getting all the logistics of it figured out and game plans figured out. Now it’s just time for practice and implementing the things we want to do and getting ready for a tough opponent. We’re excited and ready to roll.”
Under Arand, the Panthers are 269-69 since he took over as head coach. He has led Lena-Winslow to six state championship victories since 2010, including four since 2017.
“They just have a complete total buy-in into what they’re trying to do over there,” Augspurger said. “The kids are all committed. They understand what it means to be a part of that. Success breeds that type of commitment, so once they’ve got it established, they’re able to get buy-ins. They’re obviously doing some things right up there. I have a lot of respect for their coaching staff and what they’ve able to accomplish. It’s a nice, big, tall task in front of us, but I think our kids are up to the challenge.”
En route to Lena-Winslow’s state runner-up finish last year, the Panthers defeated GCMS 40-7 in the quarterfinals.
“We’re going to have to make some adjustments,” Augspurger said. “We did some things defensively that we’ll probably have to adjust a little bit. We’re going to have to show them some different things offensively so they can’t lock in on what they’ve seen of us on film. We’ll try to give them some different wrinkles here and there, but we have to stay true to who we are, too, and what has brought us the success to get us where we are. We know we’re probably not going to see anything too differently from them. That’s not the kind of program they are. We’ll have to be as prepared as we possibly can.”
One thing that the Falcons will need to be prepared for is a running game that helped the Panthers score 40.9 points per game through this season so far. The ground game is led by 6-foot-3 senior Aiden Wild and 5-foot-9, 150-pound fellow senior Alec Schlichting, who were the featured runners last year as well.
“They’re both extremely good running backs and are really the focus of their offense,” Augspurger said. “We’ll have to find a way to slow those guys down a little bit.”
The Falcons are going into Lena on a three-game winning streak, including a 28-6 victory in the first round of the 1A playoffs over Ottawa Marquette in which they held a Crusaders team that scored more than 40 points per game in the regular season scoreless through the first three quarters.
On offense, Tucker Mueller threw for three touchdowns as Graydon Leonard caught five passes for 100 yards and a touchdown and Jacob Chase ran for 101 yards on 23 carries.
“That was fun,” Augspurger said. “That was an exciting win. We feel like we’re peaking at the right time right now.”