Photo Credit: Roman Puno/PrepsKC 
Gardner-Edgerton senior Dylan Butash rushed for four touchdowns in the Trailblazers’ 28-6 win over Blue Valley Northwest Friday in the Class 6A quarterfinals. The Gardner-Edgerton fullback tallied 24 carries for 124 yards and the four scores, but he was quick to acknowledge that he had plenty of help in powering the Trailblazers (10-1) back to the state semifinals.
“I love my big guys,” said Butash of the Gardner-Edgerton offensive line. “They do everything for us. They’re the reason that we’re here.
The offensive line paved the way for Butash to score on runs of 2, 4, and 11 yards in the first half. The big guys up front got stronger as the game went on as well. Butash’s name was called often during the third quarter as the Trailblazers dominated time of possession. He got the ball on the final six plays on the third quarter before scoring on a 4-yard run to open the fourth quarter.
“(Butash) ran hard and he’d be the first guy to thank his teammates for going hard as well and blocking for him,” Gardner-Edgerton coach Jesse Owen said. “It was a total team effort tonight.”
The Huskies (6-5) broke up the shutout with a Nate Livingston 8-yard touchdown run with 5:11 to go, but the BVNW offense didn’t have much else to show for the rest of the night. BVNW amassed -9 yards on its first possession before punting it away to Gardner-Edgerton senior Randy Singleton. He returned it 41 yards to the BVNW 5-yard line, and Butash scored two plays later.
“That was big,” Owen said. “It was important to come out and play well early. The guys were ready.”
The Trailblazers had short fields on all three of their first-half scoring drives. A Mark Debiak tackle-for-loss and Daryus Williams quarterback pressure on back-to-back plays led to the Huskies turning it over on downs at their own 49-yard line late in the first quarter. Gardner-Edgerton put together a 12-play drive after the stop, which was capped by a Butash 4-yard touchdown run.
The pressure that the Gardner-Edgerton front seven was getting made life much easier for Chase Bojanski and the rest of the Gardner-Edgerton secondary. Bojanski picked off Livingston later in the second quarter and returned it 20 yards to the BVNW 42-yard line. Butash found pay dirt five plays later on an 11-yard run.
“We were working all of practice on those slants that they run. It’s all timing,” Bojanski said. “They ran it again and I almost picked it off again. It was just running to the ball and making a play.”
In order to make it back to Emporia for the 6A state title game for the second straight season, the top-seeded Trailblazers will need to get past Blue Valley team that upended Olathe North, 42-21. The Tigers will come in with a record of 7-4. In the other 6A semifinal, Washburn Rural (11-0) will take on Derby (10-1).
