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Tigers roll on Homecoming night, 42-8
Fort Scott High School's football team rolled on Homecoming night at Frary Field Friday night, beating a Pioneer League team for the 10th consecutive time as they downed Prairie View, 42-8.
This was the first time in this series that both teams entered a meeting with winning records. But while Prairie View suffered its first loss last week, playing Ottawa tough at home, the Tigers had to rally from 10 points down to beat Coffeyville at home.
This week, Fort Scott showed it had no interest in letting Prairie View hang around for very long. The varsity offense scored on every one of its six possessions and while the defense had some trouble with the Buffalos' (sic) passing game, four interceptions kept the visitors at bay.
"I'm very proud of the kids," Fort Scott head coach Bob Campbell said. "We challenged them all week to come out with a high intensity level and that's what they did. I thought we executed very well on offense and defensively, we did well."
The Tigers (4-1) receoved the opening kickoff and scored in eight plays. Isaac Thurston took a pitch to the right, cut back inside and scored on a 10-yard run with 8:11 on the clock. Brody Southwell kicked the extra point.
Prairie View (3-2) held the ball for a while but the drive stalled as the Buffs tried, but failed, to establish a running game. Then they shanked the punt for 9 yards, giving the Tigers the ball at their own 37.
Fort Scott converted two fourth downs on the ensuing 14-play drive, which was capped when quarterback Mason Knopp hit receiver Alex Fink in stride on a corner pattern in the end zone with 10:48 on the clock in the second quarter. Southwell's kick made it 14-0.
Fort Scott's special teams broke through Prairie View's line to block a punt, which the Tigers recovered at the Buffs' 15-yard line. Six plays later, Chase Brown went through the right side of the line to make it 21-0 with 7:45 left in the half.
After forcing another punt, the Tigers took over at their own 34 with just over five minutes to go. After an illegal block penalty a couple of plays into the drive set them back to their own 35 for a 1st-and-21, Knopp went found Marcus Settps down the left sideline for a 33-yard gain to the Prairie View 24.
Four plays after that, Knopp found Alex Fink on a fade pattern in the right side of the end zone with 1:08 to go to make it 28-0.
Prairie View, getting nowhere with its running game, went to the pass on the ensuing possession and went from its own 21 to the Fort Scott is five plays. But Shaun Ackerson's pass into the end zone on a play from the Tiger 15 was intercepted by Knopp with two seconds remaining in the half.
After receiving the second-half kickoff, the Buffalos continued to pass and went from their own 20 the the Fort Scott 37. But Fink picked off Ackerson and returned the ball 62 yards to the Prairie View 15. Two plays later, Thurston scored his second touchdown of the night on a 13-yard run around the right side. The PAT made it 35-0 with 9:44 on the clock.
"To Prairie View's credit, they came out and played no-huddle, completed some passes," Campbell said. "Alex made the nice play down there and returned the ball 60-some yards to turn the momentum back to us."
Chase Brown intercepted Ackerson on the next drive, which the Tigers turned into an 8-play, 76-yard scoring drive capped by Brendyn Quiney's 1-yard dive with 5:07 on the clock.
Although that was the final drive for the first-team offense, the No. 1 defense stayed in as Prairie View continiued to try to pass its way back into the game. The Tigers forced a punt after Wyatt Tourtillott sacked Ackerman on a third-down play for a 9-yard loss. The Buffs' had the ball for just one play on its next possession as Fink intercepted Ackersom in the end zone and brought the ball out 30 yards.
The Buffs got on the board with 8:45 on the clock on a 15-yard pass from Ackerson to Trent Phelps with 8:45 left. Those two also connected on the 2-point conversion.
Fort Scott finished with 340 yards in total offense, rushing 51 times for 271 of those yards. Thirteen backs had at least one carry led by Brown with 50 yards on 12 rushes. Thurston had 46 yards on 6 carries.
The Tigers were missing a few of their top backs. Vince Tome suffered a thigh bruse and Adam Deloney suffered a possible cracked wrist. Joe Doherty wasn't able to play due to an injury suffered last week. At the end, Fort Scott went deeper on the chart and Wyatt Tourtillott, Taylor Engstrom, Padraig Holland, Chris Stell and Morgan Sroughton got varsity carries.
Knopp completed 5 of 7 passes for 69 yards, all in the first half. Fink caught 3 for 33 yards and Stepps had 2 catches for 36 yards.
Ackerson completed 15 of 26 passes for 248 yards, 7 of those going to Phelps for 111 yards. Ackerman had the first 200-yard passing game against the Tiger defense since Coffeyville's Cory Turner passed for 212 in a loss to Fort Scott during the 2010 season. The 248 yards were the most since Columbus' Damion Tinnin threw for 272 during the 2009 season -- the yards a backup threw that night, the Titans passed for a total of 335 yards that night.
However, this was also the first time the Tigers intercepted 4 passes in a game since a 43-22 win over Columbus on Sept. 9, 2011. That night Straton Hunziker picked off 2 passes, making him the last Fort Scott player with more than one in a game until Fink's Friday performance.
The Tigers go back to Southeast Kansas League play next Friday when they travel to Independence to play at Emmott Field for the first time since FieldTurf was installed there during the summer. Indy (2-2 SEK, 3-2 overall) lost to Chanute, 50-26, Friday night.
NOTES -- In that 2010 Coffeyville game, the Tigers won, 28-27, when they stopped a Golden Tornado 2-point conversion after they had scored a touchdown with no time remaining on the clock....
Neither Fort Scott nor its opponents have returned a punt this season. This means that every single punt by either team has:
a) been fair caught,
b) been allowed to roll dead,
c) gone out of bounds,
d) gone into the end zone for a touchback....
Pittsburg (5-0, 5-0) clinched its 32nd SEK title with a 56-0 dominaton of Parsons Friday night. The game was called with over 5:57 remaining in the second quarter after the Vikings (0-5, 0-5), already playing short-handed due to injuries and suspensions, suffered two more injuries which caused them to become too thin at some positions to be able to continue....
PRAIRIE VIEW..... 0 0 0 8 -- 8
FORT SCOTT.......... 7 21 14 0 -- 42
| Team stats | Prairie View | Fort Scott |
| First downs | 12 | 15 |
| Rushes-yards | 19-30 | 51-271 |
| Passing yards | 248 | 69 |
| Total offense | 278 | 340 |
| Passing | 15-26-4 | 5-7-0 |
| Sacked-yds. lost | 3-16 | 0-0 |
| Punt returns-yds. | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| KO rets.-yds. | 7-138 | 2-43 |
| Int. rets. | 0-0 | 4-92 |
| Punts-avg. | 4-13.8 | 2-27.5 |
| Fumbles-lost | 1-1 | 2-1 |
| Penalties-yards | 4-31 | 4-50 |
Scoring plays
First quarter
FS -- Thurston 10 run (Southwell kick), 8:11 [8, 60, 3:41]
Second quarter
FS -- Fink 13 pass from Knopp (Southwell kick), 10:48 [14, 63, 5:39]
FS -- Brown 2 run (Southwell kick), 7:45 [6, 15, 2:44]
FS -- Stepps 3 pass from Knopp (Southwell kick), 1:08 [9, 66, 3:58]
Third quarter
FS -- Thurston 13 run (Southwell kick), 9:44 [9, 66, 3:58]
FS -- Quinney 1 run (Southwell kick), 5:07 [8, 76, 3:40]
Fourth quarter
PV -- Phelps 15 pass from Ackerson (Phelps pass from Ackerson), 8:45 [8, 47, 3:46]
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Prairie View -- Isenhower 5-18, Holland 3-5, Ackerson 6-5, Phelps 2-1, Barnes 4-1. Fort Scott -- Brown 12-50, Thurston 6-46, Armstrong 3-44, Quinney 3-48, Young 8-37, Knopp 6-23, W.Tourtillott 3-18, Engstrom 4-13, Holland 1-4, Deloney 1-2, Stell 1-2, DeLaTorre 1-minus 2, Stoughton 1-minus 4.
PASSING: Prairie View -- Ackerson 15-26-4-248. Fort Scott -- Knopp 5-7-0-69.
RECEIVING: Prairie View -- Phelps 7-111, Gulotta 3-65, Barnes 2-30, Isenhower 2-23, Dominguez 1-19. Fort Scott -- Fink 3-33, Stepps 2-36.
MISSED FIELD GOALS: None.