DRAGONS EDGED BY GARDEN CITY IN FINAL MINUTE
Hutchinson CC Sports Information
Less than 25 seconds away from potentially celebrating a Jayhawk Conference championship on its home field, the Hutchinson Community College football team was stunned by Garden City on Saturday at Gowans Stadium.
Charles West' 6-yard touchdown reception with 18 seconds left helped the No. 2 Broncbusters to a 24-21 victory over No. 4 Hutchinson.
The Blue Dragons have their six-game winning streak snapped and fall to 8-2 and 6-1 in the Jayhawk Conference. No. 2 Garden City clinches a tie for the KJCCC title, improving to 9-0 overall and 6-0 in the league. If Butler were to beat Garden City next Saturday in Garden City, the Blue Dragons would share the conference title.
The Blue Dragons received a huge performance from sophomore running back Dezmon Jackson on Saturday.
Jackson broke the school record for the longest run from scrimmage with a 97-yard touchdown run around the right side, which at the time gave the Dragons a 14-7 lead early in the third quarter. With a career-high 169 yards rushing on 22 carries with two touchdowns, Jackson becomes the first Blue Dragon back to rush for 1,000 yards in a season since Terrell Lane in 2012. Jackson has 1,050 yards for the season.
Jackson now has two runs of better than 90 yards, four runs of better than 80 yards and 11 runs of better than 20 yards this season. The previous longest run was Renard Douglass, 91 yards is against Dodge City in 1998. Jackson now owns 2 of the top 5 longest runs from scrimmage in team history.
There were three lead changes in the final 15 minutes, 55 seconds of the game.
Tied at 14 all, Garden City's Ben Raybon booted a 23-yard field goal with 55 seconds left in the third quarter to give the Busters a 17-14 lead.
The Blue Dragons took a 21-17 lead when Jackson again turned the corner and maneuvered his way for an 18-yard touchdown with 9:39 to play, capping a five-play, 73-yard scoring march.
Hutchinson held Garden City on downs after a Clarence Hicks quarterback sack with 6:24 to play. Hutch went three-and-out however and the Busters had the ball at the Garden 16 with 4:11 to go in the game.
The Busters drove 84 yards in 14 plays, converting two third-down chances and one fourth-down chance to set up West's game-winning score.
The Blue Dragons out-gained Garden City 341-277, but Garden City ran 14 more offensive plays than did the Dragons. Hutch held Garden City's nation-leading rushing offense some 150 yards under its season average with 170 yards on 58 carries.
Mason Schucker completed 12 of 21 passes for 158 yards and a touchdown for Hutchinson. Jaylen Erwin had season highs with four catches and 109 yards. Schucker connected with Erwin on a 52-yard touchdown strike to give the Dragons a 7-0 lead just a bit more than 5 minutes into the game.
Blue Dragon linebacker Monty Montgomery posted the third-most tackles by a Blue Dragon in a single game with 21 tackles. He also had one forced fumble. Jahmard Morgan had 13 tackles and Jamykal Neal had a career-high 10 tckles.
Garden City quarterback David Moore completed 8 of 12 passes for 107 yards and two touchdowns, one to West for the game-winner and one to Dominick Watt of 22 yards that tied the game at 14 with 5:38 to play in the third quarter.
West finished with 116 rushing yards on 27 carried while Detrick Mills had 19 carries for 45 yards for Garden City.
The Blue Dragons close out the 2018 regular season next Saturday against Iowa Central in a noon kickoff at Gowans Stadium.
GAME NOTES – Garden City takes a 39-38 overall series lead over the Blue Dragons, winning the last two games played in the series at Gowans Stadium by a grand total of five points. … Jackson accounted for 184 all-purpose yards and Erwin accounted for 180 against the Busters.