'Hounds control Ravens, to play for title Sunday

COFFEYVILLE -- For the first time in school history, 16th-ranked Fort Scott Community College will play in the AT&T Region VI Champion-ship Game as a result of their 21-6 defeat of No. 7 Coffey-ville in the semifinals at Veterans' Memorial Stadium here Sunday.

The Grey-hounds will face regular-season champion and No. 4-ranked Butler this coming Sunday in the finals at Wichita State University's Cessna Stadium. This is the first time the regional championship will be held at a neutral site. Butler routed No. 15 Garden City, 42-7, in the other semifinal at El Dorado.

A lot of people in Coffeyville won't necessarily feel disconnected when the final is held this weekend. Many people here still respect first-year FSCC head coach Rion Rhoades, who was an assistant here for two seasons under Jeff Leiker.

"I tried to talk Rion into not going (to Fort Scott)," Coffeyville Community College president Don Woodburn said as he introduced himself just after the contest ended. After the game, it was not easy to find Rhoades as there almost at many people from Coffeyville (or at least the college) congratulating him as there were from Fort Scott.

"There's no question that it's a neat win, maybe not for as much as where it's at but just that we're going to be playing for the Region VI championship," Rhoades said. "We've got a great bunch of kids and they played extremely hard today. What makes it special is the quality of the opponent we beat. We beat a good football team today and that makes it as special as anything, not necessarily that it was Coffeyville and I used to be there.

"In some ways, I hate it for my boss. I think a lot of coach Leiker. I recruited and coached a lot of those kids, too. It's bittersweet on some of that stuff. But you can't think about any of that when you're preparing (for) or playing the ball game. I'm just proud of our kids, happy for them. We have a great bunch of players, coaches."

The loss avenged a 24-6 loss to the Red Ravens at Fort Scott in the second week of the season. It was the first win over Coffeyville for FSCC since the 2000 playoffs and the first in Coffeyville since 1994, when the Greyhounds won 26-21.

This was a battle of the Jayhawk Conference's top two defenses with Fort Scott coming in at the top of the list followed by Coffeyville. That part of the bargain held up as the offenses held to a combined total of 277 yards.

These were also two of the conference's top rushing offenses. But neither team was able to reach its per-game average. Coffeyville (No. 1 at 207 yards per game) didn't come close as Fort Scott, 7-3, allowed only 56 yards on 35 carries. The Greyhounds (No. 3, 172 yards per game) also struggled on the ground, mustering 106 yards on 36 carries. But the conference's leading rusher, Jovani Franklin, managed only 37 yards on 19 rushes.

"I think every defense is trying to take away our running game," Rhoades said. "Then they think they can cover the pass better. I'm pretty sure that's what they were trying to do; key in on the run."

Coffeyville's Nate Guillory, the conference's No. 3 rusher, averaging 103 yards per game, finished with only 58 yards on 15 carries. Tyrone Wilson, who was averaging about 75 yards per outing, was held to five yards on eight carries.

And for good measure, Fort Scott's defense held Coffeyville's Bryan Savage, who was only a 49-percent passer anyway, to nine of 27 for 61 yards and picked him off twice. They also sacked him five times.

"We knew we had to stop the run but we also knew that they have some good weapons in the passing game," Rhoades said. "You can't totally commit to the run because they have a quarterback and some wideouts that are dangerous. You can draw up a lot of different fronts and hope you can stop them, but it comes down to the kids making plays."

Fort Scott linebacker Matt Glades made the first big defensive play, intercepting Savage on a third-and-12 pass from his own 27 to end the first possession of the game. The Greyhounds took over at the 30 and Greg Cross was hit late on the first play, the subsequent penalty moving the ball down to the 15.

Cross hit Anthony Riley for 12 yards on third-and-12 to keep the drive going and move the ball to the five. Franklin got four yards on the next play and Cross followed his fullbacks through the line for the first score of the game with 9:39 left in the first quarter. Jared Oshel hit the extra point.

Cross finished as Fort Scott's leading rusher with 80 yards on 13 carries. He completed only six of 16 passes for 14 yards and was intercepted three times, but was five of nine in the first half. Though the offense had trouble in the second half, Cross made enough good decisions on the option to keep drives going and work the clock.

"Greg did a good job again today," Rhoades noted. "The thing about our offense today was that we played against a good defense. Coffeyville is really aggressive at linebacker and safety, so they did a good job of containing us a little bit offensively. But we took advantage of the short field. Did a good job a couple of times of just getting a couple of first downs so we could change the field position by punting. All three phases have to do a good enough job to win and I think we got that from all three today."

The Greyhounds took advantage of good field position late in the second quarter, taking over at Coffeyville's 45 after a punt. Cross kept on an option for 12 on the second play to get to the 26. On third-and-seven from the 23, Cross found Riley in the right flat for 14 yards to the nine. On the next play, Franklin went right and used Darrell Kimzey's block on Troy Epps to score. Oshel's PAT made it 14-0 with 1:04 left in the half.

Coffeyville, 7-3, got to the Fort Scott 46 with under 25 seconds left and tried to go deep. But Lucien Antoine batted a pass away from Donte Rogers in the end zone and a desperation pass into the end zone was knocked down on the final play of the half.

Earlier in the half, Scooter Rogers, the conference's leader in passes defended, batted another long pass away from Rogers in the end zone. That was part of an effort that held the Red Ravens to 81 total yards at the half. Savage was five of 15 for 51 yards and none of the running backs had more than 15 yards.

Coffeyville's defense increased its effort but Fort Scott more than matched that when Patrick Roberts picked Savage off at the Fort Scott 38 and weaved his way through the would-be tacklers to take it 62 yards for a touchdown with 7:44 left in the third quarter. Oshel's kick made it a 21-0 lead.

"We came up with some good turnovers," Rhoades said. "We got the second-half touchdown, which was also big. I felt like that kind of busted the game open a little bit, took the wind out of their sails.

"You know, these kids are playing really good. I think they said Coffeyville had 120 yards of total offense (actually 117). Any time you can hold a team like Coffeyville to that, it's a pretty good feat."

The Ravens got to Fort Scott's 30 on the next drive but stalled once they got a first down at the 32. On third down at the 30, Tony Charles and Reece Nelson stopped Savage for no gain on a scramble. On fourth down, Glades tripped Savage up after he got only five yards.

Coffeyville's only score came when Gary Chandler blocked a punt and Larry Asante picked it up at the Fort Scott 25 and ran it in with 6:19 to go. The conversion kick failed.

The Ravens tried the onside kick but Avery Kelly fell on it at the 46. The Greyhounds got to the Coffeyville 22 before the drive stalled with an unsuccessful fourth-down conversion attempt.

The Ravens, however, were able to reach their own 36 when Guillory got 14 yards on a draw. But Roberts deflected a pass on first down and Kwame Jordan sacked Savage on consecutive plays, pushing the Ravens back to the 24. A fourth-down pass with 1:43 to go gained only six yards when Coffeyville needed to gain 22

"Some good pressure from the D-line," Rhoades said of the defensive effort. "They did a good job getting pressure and forcing some bad throws. We had pretty good coverage all day."

With college football's new speed-up-the-game timing rules, it took only two kneel downs to end the game.

This weekend's championship game will be a rematch of the October 14 game that was won by then No. 1 Butler, 26-20, in overtime at Frary Field. The Grizzlies fell from the top spot in the next poll but went back to the top the following week when Snow, Utah, was upset by Eastern Arizona.

Two weeks after the Fort Scott game, Butler lost at seventh-place Highland, 43-29. It was just the Grizzlies' third regular-season loss in the past 10 years.

"The thing about when we play Butler is that we'll be anxious to try to avenge our loss but at the same time, they'll want to do something better than barely beat us," Rhoades says. "They'll want to come out and play well against us because of how the first game went. I think they feel they have something to prove there. We'll put together a good plan and our kids, I'm sure, will come out and play hard again."

NOTES -- Kickoff at Wichita Sunday will be at 1:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students and children….

The playoffs were created in 1981. At first, the regular-season champion was considered KJCCC champion while the runner-up was the KJCCC playoff champion.

Then, in 1989, it was decided that the playoff champion would be the official KJCCC champ. In 2004, the titles were changed again: Now the regular-season champion is the Jayhawk Conference champion and the playoff winner is the Region VI champion.

This bit of semantics means that Fort Scott will not be playing for its first Jayhawk Conference championship since 1974. The KJCCC crown belongs to Butler for the sixth consecutive season (2000-03 under the "Playoff champion is conference champion format," the last three under the "Regular-season champion is the conference champion format.")….

Coffeyville was the defending Region VI champion. The Red Ravens won it last year by beating Dodge City, 33-12, in the finals. The Conquistadors upset Butler in the semifinals….