'Hounds knock off Ravens for second straight time

COFFEYVILLE -- Which is the real Fort Scott Community College football team? Is it the one that lost to Independence a week ago or is it the one that has beaten two nationally-ranked teams this season after defeating No. 12 Coffeyville 10-3 in Jayhawk Conference play at Veterans Memorial Stadium here Saturday night?

The answer? Both. The Independence loss was a valuable learning experience in which the Greyhounds and their fans learned two important things:

1) No team in this conference is truly awful any more. And for that reason...

2) The Greyhounds can only count on winning when all 55 men play all out on every play of every game.

"Play every play," Fort Scott's first-year head coach Jeff Sims said. "And I swear, we've played three football games and in two of them we have played every play and one of them, we didn't. Hopefully, we learned from that. And the kids need to learn that whatever you do, you need to do it to the best of your ability. That could be going to class or going to practice."

The Greyhounds picked up their second consecutive victory over the Red Ravens, also winning in the first round of the playoffs here last year, 21-6. It's the first time FSCC has beaten Coffeyville in consecutive meetings since winning seven straight times from 1968-1974, according to records provided by Tom "Mike" Goddard.

Between 1975 and last year's playoff game, Coffeyville had won 29 of 37 meetings (There was one tie game).

"There's one reason we've beaten Coffeyville two times in a row," Sims said, "And it ain't coaches; it's players. We have a special group of players who are buying into what we're asking them to do. And now they're learning and we still have to learn. There is a long way to go. Maybe that's where we made a mistake last week, as a whole program. Independence is a good football team; we need to understand that. We beat Coffeyville twice in a row because we have better players. And I don't mean that as a knock on Coffeyville. I mean that as a compliment to our guys."

The only touchdown of the game came shortly after Pittsburg freshman Kris Knaup returned a Coffeyville punt 21 yards to the Red Ravens' 47-yard line. On the first play of the drive, quarterback Greg Cross hit wide-open wideout Anthony Riley on a slant pass to the left side for a gain of 44 yards.

On third-and-goal at the two, Cross his Nick Adams on a quick slant in the end zone for the touchdown with 6:59 on the clock in the first period. Jared Oshel kicked the extra point.

From there, the Greyhound defense took control. Coffeyville got into 'Hound territory twice in the second quarter. But the first such drive was thwarted when Coryell Judie made his third interception of the season. The second came up short when Lucas Ortiz missed a 35-yard field-goal attempt with 2 1/2 minutes remaining in the half.

Fort Scott's defense allowed only 88 first half yards. The Red Ravens had only 51 yards on the ground as tailback Nate Guillory had only 11 yards on nine carries. Quarterback Dustin Moomau was just three of 15 for 37 yards and missed on his last eight pass attempts of the half.

Coffeyville's offense looked as if it had found an answer on its first drive of the second half. After a punt, the Ravens took over at their own 17 but managed to push down field. Twelve plays and 82 1/2 yards later, they were down on Fort Scott's half-yard line.

Moomau tried the quarterback sneak on fourth-and-goal but the Greyhounds got the surge, with one player also reaching over the top of the pile to keep Moomau from stretching his arms over the goal line, and held the Ravens out with 2:43 remaining in the third quarter.

The Greyhounds' defensive line may have been made even better after Sims made a roster move after freshman receiver Chad Peake was injured in last week's game at Independence. The injury ended Peake's season and Sims had a decision to make about which of his other out-of-state players he should fill Peake's position with.

Sims decided to fill the spot with another defensive lineman, Kadre Pinder, a 6' 3", 310-pound freshman out of Miami, Fla.

"As a head coach, I've figured out that in the Jayhawk, if we want to win this year, we're going to win it with defense," Sims said. "So we put another out-of-stater on defense, which was a defensive lineman, Pinder. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise and it worked out this weekend And our kids played hard."

Ortiz kicked a 33-yard field-goal early in the fourth quarter to bring Coffeyville within 7-3. However, Fort Scott was able to counter that with Oshel's 27-yarder with 7:01 to go.

The Greyhound defense held again after another long Coffeyville possession. The Red Ravens started at their own 28 after Oshel's field goal. They looked to be stopped a coupe of times but Greyhound penalties gave the Ravens first downs.

But then on a third-and-11 play from their own 39, Coffeyville decided to try some trickery. They gave the ball to wide receiver Bryant Williams on a reverse and he tried to make a throw downfield. But the play developed very slowly and defensive back Lucien Antoine was able to get back and pick off the pass with 2:21 left in the contest.

Coffeyville used all three of its time outs to force the Greyhounds to punt. But Derek Helton launched a 41-yarder, putting it out of bounds at Coffeyville's 34 with 1:03 to go.

"I asked him to kick it out of bounds and he got it right where we needed it," Sims said. "That was a huge play."

Defensive end Kwame Jordan hit Moomau as he threw on fourth-and-three from the 41 and Coffeyville's night, at least on offense, was over. Cross only needed to kneel down twice to kill the clock.

Fort Scott improved to 1-1 in the Jayhawk Conference and is 2-1 overall. Coffeyville, which lost to defending national champion Blinn (Texas) in their season opener before beating Highland last week, fell to 1-1, 1-2.

Since starting last season 0-2, which extended that infamous losing streak to 24 games, Fort Scott has won nine of its last 13 games.

"I'm proud for them because they've proved last year wasn't a fluke," Sims said of his team. "I'll tell you right now, on this side of the state, Fort Scott's is a good place to go."

Coffeyville finished the game with 188 total yards. Moomau finished the game seven of 26 for 62 yards. Guillory had only 47 yards on his first 18 carries before picking up 34 on his last five to finish the night with 81 yards on 23 rushes.

The Red Ravens became the first team to finish with positive rushing yards against the Greyhounds this season, going for 126 ground yards on 48 carries. However, for the season, 'Hound opponents have rushed for a total of 89 yards on 108 carries.

"Speed," Sims said when he was asked what makes his defense so effective "If you ask (defensive coordinator) Russ Pickett, ask him about his 'speed kills' mantra. From the first day that we got here we said we want to be fast on defense. And speed wins in college football. It's better to be 6' 3", 250 and fast than to be 6' 5", 300."

Cross completed 11 of 20 passes for 115 yards for the 'Hounds. Adams caught four for 23 yards and Riley hauled in three for 60.

The Greyhounds' rushing game still wasn't spectacular, going for 69 yards on 44 carries, about 1.6 yards a play. But there were signs of improvement as Lockett gained 69 yards on 31 carries with fewer of those rushes going for zero and negative yards.

Remember that last season, it took about four games for the Greyhounds rushing game to become really effective.

"Our offensive line had holes tonight when (Coffeyville) knew we were going to run the ball," Sims said. "We've put our offense in tough situations. The other team is putting 11 in the box and we still say we're going to run the ball. But we're trying to work the clock and I'm very proud of the offense."

Fort Scott gets its bye next week before Dodge City comes to town on September 22 for a Jayhawk Conference game. The Conquistadors had this week off and will host Garden City this coming Saturday in what could be a key game. Garden, ranked 15th this week, is coming off a 31-0 home loss to No. 4 Butler in its conference opener. A Dodge win could really shake things up in the conference.

But what will the 'Hounds do with a week off?

"Heal," Sims said. "Jared Koechner's a little banged up. John Darrah's a little banged up. Knock on wood, I don't think anybody really got hurt this week. Rodney Lovett's had a lot of carries in three weeks. He could use a week off. We regroup, refocus and understand that our season is our hands and we took it back tonight.

"I'm going to try to get our kids to study this week. They've been studying but I'm going to try to get them to study more. But you know what's fun about a bye week and I don't know if people realize this? It's a good opportunity for our players to watch college football. We all love it and now they'll have a chance to watch it. And I want to play with my kids -- my own kids."

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NOTES -- Coffeyville's quarterbacks have completed only 21 of 86 passes for 170 yards in their last three games against Fort Scott....

How odd does the top of the Jayhawk Conference standing list look right now? Butler's on top, the only one of the top three which has played two conference games, at 2-0. But tied for second at the moment are Independence and Hutchinson, which broke an 11-game losing streak with a 35-12 home win over Highland Saturday night.

And then, because its only played one conference game, you have Garden City tied for sixth with Dodge City at 0-1...