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Fort Scott waits out storm, creates one of own in rout of Wyandotte
FORT SCOTT, Kan. -- Fort Scott High School had a 21-0 lead on Kansas City-Wyandotte at Frary Field here Friday night and hadn't even run three offensive plays yet.
The Tigers improved to 2-0 on the young season with a 63-8 whitewashing of the Bulldogs after going up handily in the game's first six minutes. Alex Bowman returned the opening kickoff 79 yards for the initial score. Chris Colvin ran 43 yards for a touchdown on the Tigers' first play from scrimmage three minutes later. Alex Barner hauled in a 39-yard TD pass from Matt Wheeler on their second play from scrimmage another two minutes after that.
And the Tigers didn't ever play like it was a blowout; executing blocks downfield, crisp offensive plays in multiple formations and always pursuing to the ball until the last whistle blew.
"I was really happy with the way we came out and played incredibly hard in all aspects: Special teams, offense and defense," Epps said. "We took advantage of the opportunities we had. We wanted to establish the tempo of the game and the line of scrimmage and we did that."
Wyandotte, 1-1, was supposed to be a better team than last year, when they gave Fort Scott a pretty good challenge in a 34-12 loss in Kansas City, Kan. But just 23 players were dressed for this game and the Bulldogs just didn't have any kind of firepower to keep up with the speedy, efficient Tigers.
The kickoff was delayed by a half hour to make sure whatever lightning may have been in the storm that passed through the area was completely gone. However, the Tigers stuck like lightning when Bowman took a short kick at his own 21, followed his blockers, then found room down the right sideline to put Fort Scott on the board 11 seconds into the contest. A two-point conversion pass off what appeared to be a bad snap on the extra point was no good.
"We want to score on special teams," Epps said. "So I'm really happy with the effort there. That's a real game-changer there when we came out in the kickoff. Alex did a great job of getting up field and going down the sideline with that."
Colvin's touchdown came on a simple pitch to the right side out of the wishbone. With some excellent lead blocking and a dodge around a would-be tackler at the 10, Colvin scored easily and a two-point pass from Alex Judy to Grant Hartman after another iffy PAT snap made it 14-0 with 8:36 on the clock.
"We really wanted to run the ball," Epps said. "And we felt like we could get the ball on the edge with the sweep. Chris Colvin had a nice run to the start the game and we had great blocking downfield. The wishbone will be an asset in our offense as the season goes on."
Wheeler's TD pass to Barner also came from the shotgun with Barner using his height to bring the ball down over a couple of Bulldogs. This time the PAT kick was good by Lucas Halsey, making it 21-0 with 6:21 to go in the first.
"(Matt) is a cool operator back there," Epps said. "He puts the ball on the money. I want to put him in good spots to throw the ball and we did and the kids did a great job of catching it."
The first-quarter scoring wasn't over yet. A six-play, 39-yard drive was capped by a run over the left side of the line by Hartman with 2:01 left in the period, making it 28-0.
Wheeler threw a 40-yard touchdown pass to John Leek with 9:08 to go in the second period to make it 35-0. Mitchell Stoughton ran 51 yards for a score on his only carry of the game with 6:02 remaining. Halsey capped the first half with a 26-yard TD run with 3:24 to go.
Fort Scott out gained Wyandotte 255 yards to 32 in the first half. The Tigers ran just 14 plays in the half, all of them on Wyandotte's side of the 50. The Bulldogs had only two first downs, one of which came on a run on a fake punt.
"We expressed that point at halftime: We're Fort Scott and, more than anything else, we're going to play fundamental football," Epps said. "I'm happy at this point of the year, because we're playing very well fundamentally."
The teams agreed to play with a running clock the entire second half and the third period ended without additional scoring. But Blake Cowen scored on a 20-yard run with 10:50 left in the game and Judy ran in a two-point conversion to make it 56-0.
A little over five minutes later, Chris Archie returned an interception 68 yards down the right sideline for the Tigers' final score. Wyandotte's only score came on Lavelle Mattox's 62-yard run with three minutes remaining. Since the clock wasn't stopping, Ricarlo Chapman's two-point conversion came nearly a minute later.
And without really a reason to hurry things up, the teams just allowed the final 2:05 to burn off the scoreboard without even lining up for a kickoff.
Fort Scott finished the game with 340 total yards, 254 coming on the ground on just 24 plays. Wyandotte had 110 of its 113 total yards on the ground but had only 51 yards on 34 plays before Maddox's long score.
Colvin led the Tigers with 52 rushing yards on only four carries. Archie had 44 yards on only three totes and Halsey had 42 yards on three rushes. Seven Tigers gained at least 10 yards but no one had more than four carries. Meanwhile, Wheeler completed three of four passes for 86 yards.
Fort Scott travels to Pittsburg Friday night for the biggest game in the Southeast Kansas League so far in the young season. The Purple Dragons remained undefeated by beating Parsons 35-0 at Parsons' Marvel Park Friday night.
NOTES -- Stoughton has rushed for 180 yards and six touchdowns this season…on just six carries….
Fort Scott had its 21-0 lead even though it had possessed the ball on offense for a grand total of 19 seconds. The Tigers' seven scoring drives took 18 plays -- five of them were two plays or less -- and a total of 4:01 of game time….
Kansas High School Football
at Fort Scott
Frary Field
1 2 3 4 -- F
K.C.-Wyandotte (1-1)..... 0 0 0 8 -- 8
Fort Scott (2-0).............. 28 21 0 14 -- 63
Scoring summary
First quarter
FS -- Bowman 79 kickoff return (pass failed), 11:49
FS -- Colvin 43 run (Hartman pass from Judy), 8:36
FS -- Barner 39 pass from Wheeler (Halsey kick), 6:21
FS -- Hartman 1 run (Halsey kick), 2:01
Second quarter
FS -- Leek 40 pass from Wheeler (Halsey kick), 9:08
FS -- Stoughton 51 run (Halsey kick), 6:02
FS -- Halsey 26 run (Halsey kick), 3:24
Third quarter
No scoring
Fourth quarter
FS -- Cowen 20 run (Judy run), 10:50
FS -- Archie 68 interception return (run failed), 5:30
W -- Maddox 62 run (Chatmon run)
GAME STATISTICS Wyandotte Fort Scott
First downs 3 4
Rushes-yards 35-110 20-254
Passing yards 3 86
Total offense 113 340
Passing (c-a-i) 1-4-2 3-4-0
Punts-avg. 6-25.7 1-28.0
Fumbles-lost 4-1 1-1
Penalties-yards 4-19 3-20
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING -- Wyandotte: Maddox 11-99, Chatmon 10-23, McClatchey 2-11, Logan 9-minus 6, Franz 1-minus 8, Drake 2-minus 9. Fort Scott: Colvin 4-52, Stoughton 1-51, Archie 3-44, Halsey 3-42, Wheeler 3-22, Cowen 1-20, Judy 1-11, Dauben 1-7, Karleskint 1-3, Hartman 2-2.
PASSING -- Wyandotte: Drake 1-3-1-3, Franz 0-1-1-0. Fort Scott: Wheeler 3-4-0-86.
RECEIVING -- Wyandotte: Chatmon 1-3. Fort Scott: Leek 1-40, Barner 1-39, Karleskint 1-7.