Hutchinson rolls by Greyhounds, 61-21

HUTCHINSON — Fort Scott Community College entered Saturday’s game versus Hutchinson here with one of the best passing games in junior-college football but also one of the worst defenses at this level.

The No. 12 Blue Dragons exploited the Greyhound defense and held the passing game in check in a 61-21 victory that drops the Greyhounds to 0-3 in Jayhawk Conference play and overall.

Quarterback Gunnar See was one of only three quarterbacks in NJCAA football averaging 300 yards per game coming into the contest, leading the Jayhawk Conference in passing by an average of 92 yards per game. But in a little more than a half of play, Hutch held him to 160 yards on 14-of-18 and that was after he started the game with five straight incompletions.

Meanwhile the defense was ranked 64th out of the 65 NJCAA football teams, allowing an average of 492 yards per game with only Phoenix being worse at 513 yards per game. Hutchinson (2-0, 3-1) finished with 577 yards of total offense, gaining 313 of those on the ground. The Blue Dragons came into the game ranked 30th in total offense.

Quarterback Mason Schucker, who had thrown 3 touchdown passes in Hutch’s first three games, found the end zone four times in this one before he was pulled midway through the third quarter. At one point early, he had completed only 5 of 14 passes but three of them were for scores.

Hutch led 14-0 after one as Schucker hit Jaylen Erwin from 4 yards out with 9:11 on the clock and Cephus Smith from 48 away with exactly seven minutes to go.

Fort Scott had 200 yards of offense at the half but 95 of those came on its one scoring drive. On a second-and-2 from his own 28, See found a wide open Jesse Thomas for a touchdown that brought the Greyhounds within 7 with 13:24 on the clock in the second quarter.

Hutchinson went on to score 24 unanswered points to end the half. Schucker connected with Khalil McClain from 73 yards out just nine seconds later and found Erwin again from 11 yards with 10:16 to go. Sebastian Garcia made a 33-yard field goal with 5:39 remaining. And Dezmon Jackson had the first of two long touchdown runs, this from 53 yards, with 3:12 to go that provided the halftime margin of 38-7.

The Dragons continued the onslaught early in the third. Jackson scored from 57 yards out less than four minutes in as he went untouched on a run that looked almost exactly the same as he first score. Garcia tied a school record with a 48-yard field goal that made it 48-7 with 2:31 to go.

Cornerback Charles Peeler intercepted backup quarterback Nolan Arrington and took it 25 yards for a score that broke Hutch’s scoring run on the last play of the third quarter. Fort Scott backup quarterback Justin Agner found Braxton Curry on a 43-yard scoring play with 13:17 left to cut the deficit to 48-21.

Arrington scored on a 2-yard keeper for Hutch with 7:54 left, making it 55-21. Drake Bolus capped the scoring on a 2-yard run with 2:37 to go.

Schucker finished the game 11 of 22 for 245 yards. Jackson rushed for 133 yards on 7 carries while Jonathan White added 78 yards on 18 carries.

Thomas caught 5 passes for 106 yards for Fort Scott.

Fort Scott travels to face No. 13 Independence in conference play Saturday night before returning home to Frary Field for an 11 a.m. kickoff Sept. 29 against No 7 Garden City.

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FORT SCOTT...................... 0 7 7 7 — 21

HUTCHINSON................... 14 21 10 13 — 61

Scoring plays

First quarter

H — Erwin 4 pass from Schucker (Garcia kick), 9:11 [4 ,45, 1:13]

H — Smith 48 pass from Schucker (Garcia kick), 7:00 [2, 53, :42]

Second quarter

FS — Thomas 18 pass from See (Rieser kick), 13:24 [8, 95, 1:44]

H — McCain 73 pass from Schucker (Garcia kick), 13:09 [1, 73, :08]

H — Erwin 11 pass from Schucker (Garcia kick), 10:16 [5, 43, 2:03]

H — FG Garcia 33, 5:39 [7, 19, 2:59]

H — Jackson 53 run (Garcia kick), 3:12 [3, 61, :42]

Third quarter

H — Jackson 57 run (Garcia kick), 12:19 [3, 74, :59]

H — FG Garcia 48, 2:31 [4, minus-1, 1:23]

FS — Peeler 62 interception return (Rieser kick), :00

Fourth quarter

FS — Curry 43 pass from Agner (Rieser kick), 13:17 [3, 56, :34]

H — Arrington 2 run (Walker kick), 7:54 [10, 68, 5:25]

H — Bolus 2 run (kick failed), 2:37 [3, 10, 1:27]

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: Fort Scott — Walker 10-38, Bonds 4-3, Fils-Aime 5-2, Agner 3-minus 15, See 5-minus 20. Hutchinson — Jackson 7-133, White 18-78, Bolus 8-53, Erwin 2-33, Whitmire 1-6, Arrington 5-4, Schucker 4-4, Donaldson 2-2, Dee 1-2, team 1-minus 2.

PASSING: Fort Scott — See 14-18-2-160, Agner 4-11-1-66, Walker 0-1-0-0, Bonds 0-1-0-0. Hutchinson — Schucker 11-22-0-245, Arrington 2-7-1-19.

RECEIVING: Fort Scott — Thomas 5-106, Mitchell 4-26, Jenkins 3-11, Jiles 2-17, Smothers 2-12, Curry 1-43, Easley 1-11. Hutchinson — Erwin 3-23, Smith 2-61, Donaldson 2-17, Jaggwe 2-15, McClain 1-73, Watson 1-40, White 1-25, Shelton 1-10.

MISSED FIELD GOALS: None