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Pittsburg deals Tigers first loss of season
Fort Scott High scored first, held a lead for most of the first half and played fairly evenly with visiting Pittsburg Friday night at Frary Field. But the advantage provided by Pittsburg’s passing game proved to be the difference as the Purple Dragons defeated the Tigers for the fifth consecutive time, this by a score of 45-19.
“Our kids didn’t quit,” Fort Scott head coach Bob Campbell said. “They played hard the whole game. To be honest, it was a lot closer game than the score indicated. It was one that we, offensively, didn’t do enough. In the second half, we did not do enough of maintaining ball control. We were backed up in our own end. We had some costly penalties, so we were on our own 5- and 8-yard line. And when that happens, you’ve got to be able to drive the ball out because you’ll be giving up too good of field position.”
Fort Scott (3-1), led by Zarek Fewell’s 162 yards on 23 carries, had the better rushing game, out-gaining Pittsburg (3-1) 294 yards to 252. But the Purple Dragons had exactly 300 yards passing to the Tigers’ 35 and quarterback Chase Curtis was responsible for five of Pittsburg’s six touchdowns.
Fort Scott scored first, going 69 yards in 10 plays on the game’s opening drive. Fewell gained 46 of those yards, including a 33-yard sprint through a big hole on the right side of the line on the first play of the drive that put the ball at the Pittsburg 36-yard line. Quarterback Jesse Jones capped the drive by sneaking over the goal line on fourth down from the one with 6:41 on the clock.
Pittsburg needed just four plays to answer with Brandis Evans going 33 yards up the middle to score with 5:24 to go in the opening stanza. But the Dragons missed the extra point, and so trailed 7-6.
Then the game turned physical. — the teams combined for 28 penalties on the night but Pittsburg was called for the majority and a lot of those were 15-yarders. But the next three drives resulted in a Pittsburg stop, a Pittsburg fumble recovered by the Tigers and a Pittsburg interception.
The Purple Dragons were penalized for a personal foul after that interception by Jerek Butcher and had to start at their own 15. But five plays later, Curtis found Dylan White down the right sideline despite very good coverage with a 65-yard touchdown play the result with 8:45 to go in the half. The 2-point conversion was unsuccessful but Pittsburg led 12-7.
The Tigers didn’t need long to regain the lead. A Pittsburg personal foul on the first play of the ensuing drive put the ball at the Fort Scott 34. On the next play, Gunnar Brown took a reverse to the right side, then cut back left fighting off tacklers until he reached the end zone with 8:15 to go to put the Tigers back ahead, 13-12.
Curtis found White again just before the half, a 4-yard slant in the end zone putting the Dragons up 19-13 following Nathan Neef’s extra point with 34 seconds to go.
Pittsburg extended its lead on the first possession of the second half, Curtis finding Zachary Sutton over the middle for a 54-yard scoring play with 8:47 on the clock. Neef’s kick made it 26-13.
Curtis scored on the run with 1:17 to go in the third, running around the right side from 53 yards out on the first play of a drive. The extra point failed but it was 32-13.
The Tigers scored on a 12-play 80-yard drive that went into the fourth quarter with Fewell taking it in from 11 yards out with 8;27 to go. But Curtis capped an 11-play, 90-yard drive by scoring on a 12-yard keeper over the left side with 1:57 remaining to make it 38-13.
Chris Wood capped the scoring for Pittsburg by returning an interception 57 yards with 1:32 remaining.
The Tigers finished with 329 yards in total offense as Jessie Lawrence added 48 yards rushing on 10 carries. Pittsburg gained 552 total yards as Curtis completed 13 of 18 passes for 281 yards. Evans gained 103 yards on 12 carries. White caught 4 passes for 136 yards.
The Tigers travel to Altamont Friday night to take on Labette County (3-1), whose only loss this season is to Andale, in a battle for the lead in the Southeast Kansas League. The Grizzlies (3-1) routed Parsons in their first SEK game of the season, 71-0, which tied for the third-highest score posted by an SEK team since the beginning of the 1962 season.
PITTSBURG.......................... 6 13 13 13 — 45
FORT SCOTT...................... 7 6 0 6 — 19
| Team stats | Pittsburg | Fort Scott |
| First downs | 19 | 16 |
| Rushes-yards | 35-252 | 42-294 |
| Passing yards | 300 | 35 |
| Total offense | 552 | 329 |
| Passing (c-a-i) | 14-19-0 | 5-15-2 |
| Sacked-yards lost | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Punt returns | 1-12 | 0-0 |
| Kickoff returns | 3-34 | 7-110 |
| Interception returns | 2-62 | 0-0 |
| Punts-avg. | 1-33.0 | 4-33.8 |
| Fumbles-lost | 4-2 | 1-0 |
| Penalties-yards | 16-180 | 12-94 |
Scoring plays
First quarter
FS — Jones 1 run (Colvin kick), 6:41 [10. 69, 5:15]
P — Evans 33 run (kick failed), 5:34 [4, 65, 1:17]
Second quarter
P _ White 65 pass from Curtis (run failed), 8:45 [5, 85, 2:11]
FS — Brown 66 run (kick blocked), 8:15 [2, 82, :25]
P — White 4 pass from Curtis (Neef kick), :34 [7, 65, 1:11]
Third quarter
P — Sutton 54 pass from Curtis (Neef kick), 8:47 [6, 83, 3:01]
P — Curtis 53 run (kick failed), 1:17 [1, 53, :10]
Fourth quarter
FS — Fewell 11 run (pass failed), 8:27 [12, 80, 4:50]
P — Curtis 12 run (kick failed), 1:57 [11, 90, 6:30]
P — Wood 57 interception return (Neef kick), 1:32
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Pittsburg — Evans 12-103, Curtis 10-92, Jefferson 8-47, Jordan 2-11, Long 3-minus 1. Fort Scott — Fewell 23-162, Brown 1-66, J.Lawrence 10-48, Michaud 2-10, Jones 5-6, Bollinger 1-2.
PASSING: Pittsburg — Roark 1-1-0-190, Curtis 13-18-0-281. Fort Scott — Jones 5-14-2-35, Fewell 0-1-0-0.
RECEIVING: Pittsburg — White 4-136, Sutton 3-74, Cicero 3-56, Conrad 2-20, Long 1-19, Evans 1-minus 5. Fort Scott — Brown 2-20, Shoemaker 2-6, Campbell 1-9.
MISSED FIELD GOALS: None.