Tigers head to De Soto for Sectional round

Fort Scott High and De Soto will face off on the football field for the first time ever when the teams face each other in the Sectional round of the Class 4A-Division I playoffs Friday night at De Soto.

Fort Scott (8-2) won its Regional game versus Southeast Kansas League rival Chanute, 50-14, at Frary Field Friday night in the first-ever post-season meeting between the schools. Zarek Fewell rushed for 293 yards and 5 touchdowns in that game and finished the season with 594 of his 1,880 yards this season against the Blue Comets alone.

De Soto (9-1) went on the road and defeated previously undefeated Tonganoxie, 42-7. Bruce Mohl threw three touchdown passes for the Wildcats. Trevor Watts caught two of those scoring passes while also getting into the end zone on a 53-yard run. Mohl has thrown for 1,043 yards and 16 touchdowns this season.

While the Tigers and Wildcats have never faced each other, they do have common opponents this season as De Soto is the champion of the Frontier League, which includes Fort Scott’s District opponents: Ottawa, Louisburg and Paola.

Fort Scott defeated all three in district play, beating Louisburg 42-20 on Sept. 13, Paola 27-26 on Sept. 20, and Ottawa 71-34 on Sept. 27. De Soto beat Ottawa 30-8 in its season opener, Louisburg 41-0 on Sept. 15 and Paola 40-14 the following week.

The Tigers will be looking to get past the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2005. That year, Fort Scott defeated Louisburg at Frary Field, 24-14. In the next round, the Tigers lost at Topeka Hayden in what turned out to be the final game of Bob Campbell’s first tenure as Fort Scott’s head coach. He returned to the position in 2010.

The winner of this game faces the winner of the Labette County-at-Bishop Miege game in Sub-State.

Sports Editor’s Note: Due to the Veteran’s Day holiday and the fact that the Post Office will not deliver mail that day, the Saturday edition of the Tribune will be printed Thursday night and sent to readers’ homes Friday morning. For this reason, coverage of this game will only appear online Saturday morning and will not appear in the print edition until next Wednesday.