and TONY ADAME

sports@gctelegram.com

If there was an ounce of relief that came with last Saturday's 28-19 win over Trinity Valley (Texas) Community College, Garden City Community College head coach Lucas Aslin had little to no time to enjoy it.

The reason? Butler's coming to town.

"We practiced three days, gave them a couple of days off and we're coming back to practice on Sunday," Aslin said. "Butler is a very good team, and when they get here they'll be hitting on all cylinders."

The No. 4-ranked Grizzlies do play again this weekend, however, in the first of back-to-back games in Western Kansas, traveling to Dodge City Community College.

The Busters had several questions answered against Trinity Valley, with the main one being whether or not quarterback Eugene Smith would perform well in the spotlight.

The freshman transfer and former baseball player at Pensacola (Fla.) Community College had a shaky first quarter, but got it together and threw for 202 yards on 5-of-12 passing, including three touchdown passes.

Even better was the fact that Smith threw no interceptions against the Cardinals, although he did turn the ball over once on a fumble deep in Trinity Valley territory.

"We kept harping that to him, that if he uses his legs and athleticism it will get him out of trouble," Aslin said. "He had a couple of chances where he could have made a few more plays. I thought he did great for his first time out."

Smith was highly critical of himself following the game, but after watching the film a few times, changed his tone.

"I didn't do as bad as I thought I did," Smith said. "There's still a lot of room for improvement."

Aslin wasn't the only coach around the lead who had some questioned answered after the opening weekend of play.

At Fort Scott, first-year coach Jeff Sims saw his team pull out a win in the final seconds against Navarro, Texas, 18-17. Said Sims of his team's win last Saturday: "I don't know Rion Rhoades. I am not Rion Rhoades. But I do know these kids really want to believe in what we are doing and it was good to see it pay off."

Sims was referring to Fort Scott's coach of last season, who took his act to Hutchinson after posting a 7-5 record at a program that had not had a winning record since 2001 and had back-to-back 0-9 records the last two seasons.

Fort Scott opened some eyes on defense, where the secondary of Lucien Antoine (free safety), Todd Adkins (strong safety), Coryell Judie (cornerback) and Darius Packer (cornerback) played big. They helped hold Navarro to -13 yards on 28 rushes. And while it's early, that foursome, all sophomores except Packer, could be the best not only in Kansas but in the National JC Athletic Association ranks, too. On offense, the duo of quarterback Greg Cross (14-of-24 passes for 213 yards) and wide receiver Chad Peake (5 catches for 166 yards and two touchdowns) were at mid-season form.

------------

For awhile you had to wonder if you were in the right stadium on the right night when Butler and Kilgore, Texas squared off in El Dorado.

Butler seemed to sleep walk through the first half and a good part of the third quarter before finally coming to life and defeating Kilgore, 29-28. That after trailing 28-12 late in the third quarter.

Said Butler Coach Troy Morrell: "We are very young and it showed, especially on special teams. This win is huge in that we were so far behind and had to find a way to win."

Notable performances were turned in by quarterback Press Taylor and the Grizzlies' defensive unit. Taylor, who took his share of lumps in the game, guided his team to a pair of fourth quarter touchdown drives, the latter a six-play, 63-yard drive that took all of 90 seconds and came with only 1:18 left in the game.

"He could have easily folded out there, but he came back," said Morrell.

Taylor finished with 23-of-43 pass completions for 252 yards.

The defense was just as impressive, coming up with two big fourth quarter stands against Kilgore -- the first on a fourth-and-one with about six minutes left and the other when they forced a punt with about three minutes remaining.

"The offense put the defense on the field way too many times," said Morrell. "It was hot and steamy out there and not much of a breeze and the defense was tired, but they hung in there and shut them (Kilgore) down when they needed to."

------------

The fact Coffeyville and Hutchinson lost on the road to Texas teams wasn't all that surprising, but the point spreads (Coffeyville lost 35-14 at Blinn and Hutchinson lost 27-6 at Tyler) raised some eyebrows.

Coffeyville got only 120 total yards against Blinn, with pre-season National JC Athletic Association All-American running back Nate Guillory managing only 47 yards on 14 carries. "We seemed to be a step behind the whole game," said Coffeyville Coach Jeff Leiker. "We just never got untracked."

Leiker knows the peaks and valleys teams can go through in the first game of the season and so he wisely told his team before the game "win or lose, one game does not make a season."

------------

First-year Coach Michael Beagle has to be preaching that same number to his Scotties after they fell to No. 5 nationally-ranked Georgia Military, 18-6. Given Highland has long been the doormat of the conference, 3-6 last season and picked to finish eighth in the coaches' pre-season poll in 2007, Beagle was getting some pats on the back for keeping the score respectable. "We were too inconsistent on offense," said Beagle. "Most of the guys played their butts off."

------------

Another message every coach has to have delivered to his team if they didn't win last weekend had to have been similar to what Rhoades told his players. "Each guy has to look at himself and ask if he did all he could do," said Rhoades. "There can be no finger pointing."

Hutchinson quarterback Chris Todd, a highly-touted transfer from Texas Tech on playing in the Jayhawk Conference: "I'm getting another year of experience in a good conference. I had heard a lot about it. They do have some good athletes here."

Rhoades scored a coup of sorts by getting Todd out of Texas and away from Blinn, last year's No. 1 team in the NJCAA ranks, and Snow, Utah and some other schools in Arizona and California, who all made a pitch for him.

While the six games between the Kansas and Texas schools were split last weekend -- Texas teams won by an average 17.3 points, Kansas teams by an average 3.7 points -- the Jayhawk Conference was 3-5 in eight non-conference games.

------------

SATURDAY'S GAMES

Butler (1-0) at Dodge City (0-1) 7 p.m....Good composure and communication got the Grizzlies a slim win last weekend, and now they are in western Kansas for back-to-back weekends (at Garden City Sept. 8).

Fort Scott (1-0) at Independence (0-1) 7 p.m...This might be the best game of the week. In a battle of southeastern Kansas schools, Fort Scott's soaring and Independence wants to show it's better than last weekend in a loss to Cisco, Texas.

Coffeyville (0-1) at Highland (0-1), 1 p.m...Are the days of Coffeyville scoring big wins over Highland history? Don't be surprised if these two teams finish within seven points or less apart when the final buzzer goes off.

Hutchinson (0-1) at Air Force Prep, 3 p.m. MT...The Blue Dragons got back early last Sunday morning from Tyler, Texas and then hit the road Thursday morning for Colorado Springs, their second game in six days.

Garden City (1-0) bye