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Frustrated Busters drop home finale to Hutch
Published 11/3/2008 in None : GCCC
By MIKE KESSINGER
The frustration showed.
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Brad Nading/Telegram — Garden City Community College's Chase Beiberle, right, moves past Hutchinson's Adam Specht on a run as Specht goes for the ball Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
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Brad Nading/Telegram — Garden City Community College's J.J. Williams, right, shoots into the Hutchinson backfield to drop Blue Dragons fullback Adam Specht for a loss Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
No matter what the Garden City Community College football team did Saturday, frustration ran supreme among a group that lost its grip and fell 17-0 to Hutchinson at Memorial Stadium.
It was a situation Broncbusters' head coach Lucas Aslin could just describe as not playing well.
"We did not play well offensively," Aslin said. "Did not move the ball. I thought we played pretty well defensively, gave up two big plays, gave up a blocked punt -- just didn't play good all the way around. "
And Hutchinson (6-3, 4-3) made the Busters pay for it -- in more ways than on the scoreboard. By losing, Garden City (6-3, 4-3) dropped into a tie with Hutchinson for third place in the Jayhawk Conference standings, and also relented the No. 3 spot in the conference playoffs. The Busters are the No. 4 seed and will be at top-seeded Butler on Sunday. With the win against Garden City, the Blue Dragons head to Fort Scott for a No. 2--No. 3 battle. The win was also Hutchinson coach Rion Rhoades' first victory against a ranked team in his two years at the program's helm.
"It goes back to our kids really played hard," Rhoades said. "We were able to make big plays. Garden City is a really great team. They've got really great players, they've got so many weapons on offense. Our guys should feel great to shut them out."
If there was anything to be said for Garden City, the Busters showed several reasons to be concerned heading into the playoffs. More than any was on the offensive side where Hutchinson exposed the Busters' weaknesses in all possible ways.
A usually explosive attack, Garden City had little on Saturday. Quarterback Eugene Smith was sacked six times, three on the Busters final possession of the game. By the end, Smith had 15 carries for minus 47 yards. Garden City finished with minus 27 yards on the ground.
"We weren't willing to get hit in the face more than once," Aslin said. "We panicked, we didn't play very well. We didn't let the ball come to us, we just didn't play our game. We really got out of what we wanted to do, and it's very frustrating when that happens."
Even when Garden City had an opportunity to make something positive happen, the chance backfired. Late in the third quarter, Busters' wide receiver Cameron Kenney caught a wide open pass from Smith at midfield. As he headed straight down the Hutchinson sideline for an apparent touchdown, Kenney looked over his shoulder and started to slant toward the middle of the field, slowing down as Hutchinson defensive back Jasper Simmons approached. When Simmons caught up to Kenney the receiver stiff armed Simmons and grabbed his facemask as they fell to the ground.
Kenney was given a 10-yard penalty, and to make matters worse, offensive lineman Ray Carter was flagged for a personal foul. What could have been an 80-yard touchdown or at least a 60-yard gain, ended up with 33 yards taken off of Kenney's gain.
"That was really weird, I've never seen anything like that," Hutchinson quarterback Bryant Johnson said of watching the sequence with Kenney and Simmons unfold. "It seemed like he would have scored or maybe Jasper would have ran him down at the five or something. He purposefully went over to Jasper and tried to stiff-arm him. That was uncalled for, I don't know what that was about."
In between all the Busters' self-implosions, the Blue Dragons scored all their points at opportunistic times. For the most part, Garden City's defense clamped down on the Dragons' run-oriented attack. It was when Hutchinson had a chance to make something big happen, they did. In the second quarter the Dragons blocked a Daniel Balman punt and returned it to the five-yard line. The Busters kept Hutchinson out of the end zone as the Blue Dragons settled on a Kelly Roberts 26-yard field goal. Two possessions later, Johnson connected with Jonathan Wright for a 49-yard touchdown pass with 1:01 left before halftime to give Hutchinson a 10-0 lead.
"There were times in the game when we could have come back," Aslin said. "We didn't do it -- didn't get close to doing it."
The Dragons put the final touch to its scoring in their first possession of the second half. Chris Clay scored from nine yards out. The play was set up by a La'Darrian Page 45-yard run.
Page led the Dragons with 136 yards on 31 carries. Smith finished with 193 yards through the air for Garden City as Kenney caught four passes for 80 yards.
Game time for the Busters first round playoff game at No. 1 Butler in El Dorado has not been announced.
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Hutch 0 10 7 0 -- 17
GCCC 0 0 0 0 -- 0
Second quarter
Hutch -- Roberts 16 field goal, 9:10.
Hutch -- Wright 49 pass from Johnson (Roberts kick), 1:01
Third quarter
Hutch -- Clay 9 run (Roberts kick), 11:03.
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Individual statistics
Rushing -- Hutchinson: Page 31-136, Clay 9-15, Specht 1-0, McKinnis 2-12, Jerrick 1-2, Cooprider 1-(-1). GCCC: R. Smith 6-16, Beiberle 3-12, Kenney 1-2, Jones 1-(-9), E. Smith 15-(-47).
Passing --Hutchinson: Johnson 6-14-0-100. GCCC: E Smith 15-32-0-193.
Receiving -- Hutchinson: Wright 4-64, Goffigan 1-25, McKinnis 1-11. GCCC: Kenney 4-80, R. Smith 4-11, Sperber 3-41, Jones 2-33, Horesky 2-21, Beiberle 1-11.
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