DRAGONS TO BATTLE DEFENDING CHAMPS SATURDAY IN GARDEN CITY

HutchCC Sports Information

The Hutchinson Community College football team has an opportunity on Saturday to put itself back on the national scene as the Blue Dragons head to Garden City to take on the defending national champion and No. 10-ranked Broncbusters.

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. on Saturday at Broncbuster Stadium in Garden City.

The game will be broadcast live on Blue Dragon flagship station KHUT-FM (102.9) and sister stations KWBW-AM/FM (1450/98.5). The veteran broadcast staff of Rusty Hilst (play-by-play), Daren Dunn (analysis) and Glen Grunwald (sidelines) will call the action. The broadcast begins at 6:30 p.m. with Countdown to Kickoff.

The game will also be videostreamed on the Blue Dragon Sports Network (www.bluedragonsports.com).

The Blue Dragons are 2-1 overall going into Saturday's second Jayhawk Conference game of the season after last week's 91-0 non-conference victory over Rezolution Prep at Gowans Stadium. The 91 points scored were an NJCAA single-game national scoring record.

Quarterback Eric Forrest threw for four touchdowns and 13 different Blue Dragons scored touchdowns last week. Hutchinson's defense had 21 plays that went for loss of yardage and forced six takeaways. Five of those were a school-record-tying interceptions. Three of those interceptions were returned for a touchdown, another school record.

The Broncbusters saw their 14-game winning streak come to an end last Saturday in a 27-23 loss to Independence at Independence.

Garden City received a steady dose of Independence running back Jamal Scott, who rushed for 180 yards on 21 carries and two touchdowns. Indy receiver Calvin Jackson had 4 catches for 99 yards and two touchdowns.

One year ago, Garden City's 16-14 victory over Hutchinson at Gowans Stadium was one of the key wins on the way to the Broncbusters winning not only the 2016 Jayhawk Conference championship, but the NJCAA national championship.

Hutch led 14-13 at halftime. Garden City took the second-half kickoff and drove to the Blue Dragon 8, settling for a 25-yard Luke Herring field goal with 7:19 to play in the third quarter. The Blue Dragons committed two key second-half turnovers to thwart potential scoring drives. The Busters went on to run the table in the league and defeated Arizona Western in the El Toro Bowl to win the 2016 national title.

The Blue Dragons still aren't receiving votes in the NJCAA rankings despite its only loss coming at No. 4 Iowa Western in which the Dragons a touchdown-called-back away from a victory.