Homecoming Magic: Bowman hauls in game winner with no time left

Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Fort Scott running back Chris Colvin breaks through a Labette County tackler during the first half of action at Frary Field in Fort Scott, Kan., Friday night. The Tigers won their Homecoming game, 33-32, on a 32-yard touchdown pass from Matt Wheeler to Alex Bowman on the last play of the game. (Kenny Felt/Captured Images)

FORT SCOTT, Kan. -- Miracles do happen. And from now on, Alex Bowman will believe in them for he was involved in one Friday night at Frary Field.

Fort Scott High scored two touchdowns in the final 3:46 with Bowman's fourth-and-20, 36-yard reception from quarterback Matt Wheeler in the end zone with no time left giving the Tigers a comeback 33-32 victory over Labette County on Homecoming night.

On that final play, the Tigers' offensive line gave Wheeler all the time he needed to find Bowman, who reached over LC's Jacob Bierbrodt and landed in the land of 6 with :00 showing on the clock.

"I jumped up for the ball and took it from him and came down with it, took it out of his hands," Bowman said. "And I didn't really know what was going on right after I caught it. I didn't know if I was in the end zone. And then everybody jumped on me and I found out that we won the game."

Labette County came into the game with a 1-3 record, 0-2 in the Southeast Kansas League. And some observers may have thought this game wasn't destined to be a close one, particularly after Columbus whitewashed LCHS 35-0 last week.

But Labette County scored first when Clayton Palmer ran into the end zone from eight yards out on its first possession. The Grizzlies missed the extra point.

Hartman gained 34 yards on the fourth play of the drive on an option keeper to the right side. Last week, Coffeyville exploited a weakness there when its quarterback, Danny Gibson, was able to find room on plays to that side. But the Tigers were able to correct that particular problem last week and went on to win easily.

The problem this week was that Hartman and one of his backs were running at Bowman, who had no help. It was his job to take the running back and Hartman was able to make big gains until adjustments were made late in the game.

"On those plays where they took it outside, they just found a weakness," Bowman said. "They were taking it to the weak side every time. We were having trouble getting to the quarterback. We got the pitch man down but we couldn't get the quarterback."

LCHS looked as if it might be on its way to a two-score lead near the end of the period but Palmer fumbled as he was tackled on a big run. The Tigers fell on it in their own end zone for a touchback.

Fort Scott, 3-1 in the league, 4-1 overall, capitalized with running backs Luke Halsey and Chris Colvin alternating big runs until Halsey went over the left side of the line with 10:05 left in the half. Halsey put the Tigers ahead 7-6 by kicking the extra point.

Andre Davis ended LC's next drive with an interception but the Tigers had to punt. After Hartman gained 48 yards on another keeper to get the ball down to the 16, Nathan French plowed into the end zone from two yards out for the first of his three touchdowns on the night to put the Grizzlies back in front, 12-7, with 4:24 to go.

It took just two plays for the Tigers to respond. Halsey took a pitch 42 yards to the LC 26 on the first play. Colvin used Jeff Johnson's block to run to paydirt from 26 yards out with 4:20 to go. Halsey's kick saw Fort Scott ahead 14-12.

French scored his second TD, this from two yards out, with 29 seconds left to put LCHS back up 18-14.

But Wheeler connected with tight end Tony Karleskint for pass plays of 14 and 17 yards to start Fort Scott's next possession, moving the ball to Labette County's 38. Then Wheeler found Bowman in the left flat and Grant Hartman came around and took a lateral from Bowman, finishing off the last 28 yards of a 38-yard hook-and-lateral scoring play with two seconds left. Halsey's kick made it 21-18 at halftime.

Midway through the third, Hartman found 67 yards on a keeper to set up Palmer's seven-yard touchdown run on the next play. French ran in the two-point conversion to give LC a 26-21 lead.

Fort Scott's offense began to bog down. Wheeler found himself in a slump that would see him misfire on nine consecutive passes and the big gains Halsey and Colvin were finding in the first half weren't there anymore.

French scored his third TD on a one-yard run with 8:13 left in the contest and Tiger fans were concerned. Wheeler had a pass picked off by Bierbrodt with just over 7 1/2 minutes remaining and the Grizzlies advanced to Fort Scott's two before committing an illegal procedure penalty on fourth down.

LCHS went for it anway and Blake Nelson batted down Hartman's pass to end the threat with 3:46 left in the game.

The offense began to stir on third down when Andre Davis caught a tight end screen in his own end zone but used his blocking to find 13 yards and get a first down.

That started Wheeler on a blazing hot streak. He found Bowman for five, Alex Barner for 37 and Davis for 14 to get the ball to the LCHS 24.

An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty pushed the ball back to the 39. But Wheeler found Barner for seven, then 28 to get the ball into position for Colvin to score with 1:29 to go in the contest.

The onside kick was recovered by Labette County. But Palmer fumbled on a dive play and Fort Scott recovered at the Grizzlies' 48 with 1:17 remaining.

Wheeler hit Barner for 15 on the first play, which turned out to be his seventh straight completion. Another penalty moved the ball back to the Tigers' 49 but Wheeler connected with Barner for 21 to get the ball to the 26.

There were two illegal procedure calls -- with an incomplete pass in between -- to push the ball back to the 36 with 15 seconds to go.

Wheeler threw incomplete on second down. He was hit on the throw on third down. That brought up the game's fateful final play.

"I've always dreamed of it but never thought I'd be in a moment like that," Bowman said.

Wheeler completed 10 of his final 14 passes to finish 15 of 33 for what could be a school-record total of 275 yards. Barner caught six of those for 126 yards and Bowman had four receptions for 61 yards.

Halsey finished with 110 yards rushing on 12 carries and Colvin gained 95 on 15 totes.

Hartman ran the ball 17 times for 211 yards while Palmer gained 191 yards on 27 carries. Labette County ran the ball 63 times and gained all of its 473 total yards on the ground.

"We can't give up that many yards on the ground," Fort Scott head coach Don Epps said. "Their running game has always given us problems. They executed perfectly. That's something we have to come back and work hard on. It really humbled our defense but we got big stops when we needed to get big stops."

Fort Scott gained just 25 total yards in the third quarter before exploding for 190 in the fourth. The Tigers finished with 207 yards rushing and a total output of 482 yards.

The Tigers travel to Independence Friday for another Southeast Kansas League contest. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.

LABETTE COUNTY... 6 12 8 6 -- 32

FORT SCOTT........ 0 21 0 12 -- 33

Team StatsLCHSF.S.
First downs1818
Rushes-yards63-47335-207
Passing yards0275
Total offense473482
Passing (c-a-i)0-3-115-33-1
Punts-avg.1-28.05-28.6
Fumbles-lost3-32-2
Penalties-yards4-1712-108

Scoring

First quarter

LC -- Palmer 8 run (kick failed), 8:11

Second quarter

FS -- Halsey 1 run (Halsey kick), 10:05

LC -- French 2 run (pass failed), 4:24

FS -- Colvin 26 run (Halsey kick), 4:02

LC -- French 2 run (kick blocked), 0:29

FS -- Hartman 28 lateral from Bowman after 10 pass from Wheeler (Halsey kick), 0:02

Third quarter

LC -- French 7 run (French run), 6:03

Fourth quarter

LC -- French 1 run (pass failed), 8:13

FS -- Colvin 2 run (pass failed), 1:29

FS -- Bowman 36 pass from Wheeler (no conversion attempted), 0:00

Individual statistics

RUSHING: Labette County -- Hartman 17-211, Palmer 27-191, French 19-71. Fort Scott -- Halsey 12-110, Colvin 15-95, Stoughton 2-6, Hartman 2-3, Wheeler 4-minus 7.

PASSING: Labette County -- Hartman 0-3-1-0. Fort Scott -- Wheeler 15-33-1-275.

RECEIVING: Labette County -- none. Fort Scott -- Barner 6-126, Bowman 4-61, T.Karleskint 2-31, Davis 2-27, Nelson 1-2, Hartman 0-28.