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100 percent, every play
Fort Scott Community College's special teams broke through Navarro's line, allowing sophomore defensive lineman Mack Cole to block a 25-yard field-goal attempt with no time remaining, preserving the Greyhounds' 18-17 win over the No. 17-ranked Bulldogs in both team's season opener at Frary Field Saturday afternoon.
"I asked them (who blocked the kick) and the players said it didn't matter," Fort Scott head coach Jeff Sims said. "But it was Mack Cole. I asked them who blocked it. (They said) 'Don't matter coach.'"
Navarro got itself into position by converting a fourth-and-17 play from Fort Scott's 40 when Jeremy Sanders connected with Lucious Henderson on a pass over the middle with 50 seconds remaining.
"If we could have knocked that ball down, there's no dramatics at the end of the game," Sims said. "But our defense played outstanding today. Our defensive coaching staff did an outstanding job. I think our kids played exactly the way we asked them to: They gave everything they had to the last play."
The Bulldogs threw a risky third-down pass into the end zone with about 20 seconds to go, looking to perhaps take the lead and then kick the extra point, which would have put them ahead 25-17. But the pass was incomplete and dangerously close to being intercepted.
With fourth down coming up, Navarro called time out with five seconds left to give its kicker time to get ready. Fort Scott then burned both of its remaining time outs.
On the snap, Fort Scott's line got a big surge up the middle and Chad McIntosh's kick was low. Cole got his hand on it and pandemonium ensued.
"Coach Sims was asking us , 'Who's going to make a play?'," a beaming Cole said after the game. "And I figured it might as well be me. And then we got a good push from the D-line; we put four guys in two gaps."
Cole is a 6' 5", 240-pound end from Topeka. If his momma only knew how hard coach Sims has been on him this season.
"Mack Cole is a young man I've been on," Sims said. "If his mom knew how hard I've been on him, she'd probably make him transfer. But he made some plays today and I'm very proud of him."
The first quarter was scoreless as both teams struggled on offense. Fort Scott has only 49 yards total offense in the period. Navarro had only one first down, zero yards rushing and 38 yards passing from it's spread offense.
But then 16 points went on the board in a span of just 35 seconds in the second quarter. The spree began when the snap sailed over McIntosh's head in punt formation and he decided to kick it out of the back of his own end zone. That gave Fort Scott a safety and a 2-0 lead with 11:53 on the clock.
The Greyhounds were penalized for an illegal block on the return of the subsequent free kick. But sophomore quarterback Greg Cross found a wide-open Chad Peake down the right sideline for a 92-yard scoring play with 11:31 to go. Jared Oshel's extra point made it 9-0.
Peake was penalized for unsportsman-like conduct when he dove into the end zone on his touchdown. Since the NCAA and NJCAA have both moved kickoffs back to the 30-yard line this season, that meant Fort Scott had to kick off from its own 15.
The kickoff was short and bounced into the hands of Octavious Logan at his own 30. He found some space along the left side and scored with 11:18 remaining. McIntosh's extra point capped the scoring spree, bringing the 'Dawgs within 9-7.
That was the halftime score as the defenses continued to assert themselves. Navarro had just two first downs and 31 total yards at the half. Remove the botched punt snap -- which counted as a 41-yard team rushing loss -- and the Bulldogs still had only seven yards rushing on 12 carries at the break and 72 total yards. Fort Scott had 199 total yards.
Cross completed eight of 12 passes in the half for 139 yards. But the Greyhound rushing game had 60 yards on 24 carries, which is about 2 1/2 yards per rush.
It didn't take the Greyhounds long to score in the third quarter. Cross connected with Peake on a slip screen on third-and-eight at the Navarro 49 and the Spartanburg, S.C. sophomore didn't stop until he reached the end zone with 12:32 to go. Oshel's PAT made it a 16-7 game.
McIntosh kicked a 38-yard field goal with 9:32 to go on Navarro's subsequent drive. On that drive, the Bulldogs matched their total number of first downs that they had in the entire first half.
If there was one play Sims could have taken back, it was when he had the Greyhounds go for it on fourth-and-one at the Navarro 44 with under 3 1/2 minutes left in the third. A Rodney Lovett run was held to no gain and the Bulldogs would go on to score their only offensive touchdown after they took over.
On the second play of the fourth quarter at Fort Scott's three, Sanders rolled left and found Henderson, who ran a short curl into the end zone, for the score. With McIntosh's kick, Navarro took the lead for the first time, 17-16, with 14:16 left in the game.
"I'll tell you this: If we'd lost today, it probably would have been my fault," Sims said. "I made us go for it on fourth-and-one and put our defense in a tough situation. That's the only touchdown the defense gave up all day was after that fourth-and-one. I could have punted it and pinned them back. But you'll see I learned quick and we punted and kept pinning them back."
In the box score, you'll see that freshman punter Derek Helton had an average of just 29.4 yards on nine punts. In the second half, he punted five times for just a 23.6-yard average.
But Helton was punting from inside Navarro's 40 on the last four punts. One of them was a beauty of a coffin-corner job that pinned the Bulldogs back at their own four. On the first play after that, Sanders had to deal with a high snap while taking it in his own end zone and in the time it took him to get control of the ball, freshman linebacker Jaquain Williams was able to track him down and sack him for Fort Scott's second safety of the day, which gave the Greyhounds the lead once again with 9:21 remaining.
"Derek Helton, our punter, outstanding job today," Sims said. "Great young man. When I recruited him, he was in a group of six kids and he was obnoxious and I didn't want him. But he has been awesome and Derek is an awesome young man."
Navarro tried going for it on fourth-and-two from their own 48 with about five minutes to go. But Benny Jones dropped Sanders' pass down the right sideline as freshman Darius Packer was there for the 'Hounds.
Fort Scott finished the day with 320 total yards to Navarro's 248. Cross completed 12 of 22 passes for 199 yards with one interception even though he suffered through a one-for-seven slump -- although the completion resulted in Peake's second TD -- after starting out eight for 11.
Peake finished with 164 yards on five receptions. Nick Adams had four catches for 23 yards.
Fort Scott's running game finished with 121 yards on 47 carries. Lovett finished with 80 yards on 32 rushes. However, in the second half, the time those plays consumed was more important than the yards they gained.
Navarro would have had just 28 yards on 27 carries even if the bad punt snap wasn't counted. The Bulldogs' leading rusher was Justin Sturns, who played some tailback even though he was listed in the program as the backup quarterback, with just 17 yards on five carries.
Sanders completed 22 of 41 passes for 261 yards. Henderson caught five for 96 yards.
Williams ended up with three sacks for the Greyhounds for a total of 15 yards in losses. Horace Hubbard had one sack for seven yards.
The Greyhounds travel to Independence next Saturday for a 7 p.m. Jayhawk Conference game. What this win means going into next week depends on who you ask.
"It means nothing," Sims says. "Our job as coaches now is to get these young men focused on Independence. Because if we go to Independence and lose, what will this game matter? We'll be 0-1 in the conference and that's not what we need. We need to go down to Independence and beat them on their field. You win championships by winning games on the road. We have to beat them and then we'll move on to the next game."
"It sets the tone for the rest of the season," Cole said. "Coach was talking about how this was probably going to be the hardest game we play and from here on out, it's on us."
NOTES -- One of the places Sims was interviewed before he came to Fort Scott was Navarro. They didn't hire him. Neither did Hutchinson. Their losses are a Greyhound fan's gain.
"Get this: Navarro was 6-5 last year," Sims noted. "(Fort Scott) went to the Region VI Championship. The only changes are the coaches. Same kids, coaches changed. (Navarro's) ranked and we're not.
"Navarro didn't pick me. Hutchinson didn't pick me. Fort Scott did and I'm really appreciative because they probably had the best stable of players already. So I am very blessed to have the opportunity to coach these young men. And I want this to be clear: Coach Sims didn't do anything. These kids played their butts off and they won last year and they're going to win this year."...
This was Fort Scott's first win against Navarro in three meetings. The Greyhounds are now 3-4 all-time against Texas schools....
The Kansas-Texas challenge resulted in a 4-3 win for the Southwest Junior College Football Conference teams this season. The Jayhawk Conference's other winners were No. 4 Butler over Kilgore, 29-28 at home, and No. 21 Garden City over Trinity Valley, 28-19, on the road.
Texas' wins were posted by No. 25 Tyler over Hutchinson, 27-6, No. 3 Blinn over No. 8 Coffeyville, 35-14 , and No. 12 Cisco, 10-0, over Independence. The Texas team was the home team in all those instances. Northeastern Oklahoma A & M was also a home winner with a 48-15 rout of Dodge City....
No. 5 Georgia Military replaced Ranger as Highland's opponent this week after Ranger decided to drop football. The Scotties came out of it with just an 18-6 loss on their home field, suggesting that Highland is not going to be a pushover this season....
'HOUND BOX
Saturday's Game
NAVARRO.......... 0 7 3 7 -- 17
FORT SCOTT....... 0 9 7 2 -- 18
| Team Stats | Navarro | Fort Scott |
| First downs | 11 | 14 |
| Rushes-yards | 28-minus 13 | 47-121 |
| Passing yards | 261 | 199 |
| Total offense | 248 | 320 |
| Passing (c-a-i) | 22-41-0 | 12-22-1 |
| Sacked-yards lost | 4-22 | 1-6 |
| Punt returns-yards | 2-10 | 1-4 |
| Kickoff returns-yards | 3-87 | 4-105 |
| Interception rets.-yds. | 1-0 | 0-0 |
| Punts-avg. | 7-31.8 | 9-29.4 |
| Fumbles-lost | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Penalties-yards | 11-73 | 8-73 |
Scoring
Second quarter
FS -- Safety, McIntosh kicked ball through his own end zone, 11:53
FS -- Peake 92 pass from Cross (Oshel kick), 11:31 [1 play, 92 yards, :15 time of possession)
N -- Logan 70 kickoff return (McIntosh kick), 11:18
Third quarter
FS -- Peake 49 pass from Cross (Oshel kick), 13:26 [6, 61, 1:29]
N -- FG McIntosh 38, 9:32 [9, 40, 3:48]
Fourth quarter
N -- Banks 3 pass from Sanders (McIntosh kick), 14:16 [10, 56, 3:47]
FS -- Safety, Williams tackled Sanders in end zone, 9:21
Individual statistics
RUSHING: Navarro -- Justin Sturns 5-17, Tyrone Ross 10-14, Sanders 12-minus 3, team 1-minus 41. Fort Scott -- Rodney Lovett 32-80, Cross 11-29, Jon Dikes 4-12.
PASSING: Navarro -- Sanders 22-41-0-261. Fort Scott -- Cross 12-22-1-199.
RECEIVING: Navarro -- Lucious Henderson 5-96, Jason Madkins 4-57, Banks 4-29, Ross 2-38, Benny Jones 2-11, Kevin Diles 2-11, Rodney Bradley 1-21, Mervin Dudley 1-4, Sanders 1-minus 6 (see note below). Fort Scott -- Peake 5-164, Nick Adams 4-23, Lovett 1-6, Aaron Sexton 1-5, Anthony Riley 1-1.
MISSED FIELD GOALS: Navarro: McIntosh 25 (Blocked).
NOTE: Sanders caught his own deflected pass.