FOOTBALL FRIDAY: Not much to know about Pirates

Fort Scott Community College will play its first road game of the young season Saturday night when the Greyhounds travel to Independence for a 7 p.m. Jayhawk Conference game at Sulthis Stadium.

Fort Scott (1-0 Jayhawk, 1-0 overall) played its season opener last week, giving No. 5 Butler all it could handle before falling 35-41 at Frary Field. The Greyhounds led 21-7 after one quarter.

Independence played Southern Illinois-Edwardsville's club team in what was to have been the Pirates' season opener. Instead, the Jayhawk Conference ruled that this game would be a scrimmage and not count on Indy's record. Due to that ruling, official statistics were not kept. This means that there's nothing to tell about the Pirates yet. In fact, because Independence has yet to play a game, it doesn't have to submit its final roster until Thursday night.

This is going to be a short preview.

Going into the game, Fort Scott will have the conference's leading passer, Nathan Rourke, who threw for 240 yards officially last week against Butler, completing 21 of 41 passes, two for touchdowns. Chris Claybrooks cauhgt 7 of those passes for 89 yards, the most receptions (tied) and second-most yards of any Jayhawk Conference player last week. Claybrooks also returned 5 kickoffs for 124 yards, averaging nearly 25 yards a return.

Rourke was given one of the 'Hound of the Week awards by the Fort Scott coaching staff for that perfomance last week. The staff will pick an offensive, defensive and special teams 'Hound all season.

Fort Scott's 35 points last week were the most a Greyhound team scored against Butler since a 39-21 win in 1978.

Brody Southwell, 2016 Fort Scott High School graduate, was the special teams player of the week, making all 5 of his extra point tries and kicking a couple of balls through the end zone on kickoffs. Reggie Howard, a defensive end from Cincinnati, was the defensive player of the week after making 4 tackles, including one for a loss, against Butler. Logan Edwards was the Greyhounds' leading tackler with 11 total, 8 solos.

The Greyhounds will need to shore up their defense, however. Fort Scott allowed Butler to gain 560 yards in total offense last week. The next-worst defense was Coffeyville's, which allowed 149 fewer yards in a loss to Hutchinson.