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Fort Scott continues its dominance over Busters
Published 9/22/2008 in Sports : GCCC
By SCOTT NUZUM
Special to The Telegram
FORT SCOTT -- Garden City Community College played another of the nation's best teams down to the wire. But, yet again, the 14th-ranked Broncbusters came up just short as they dropped a 31-24 Jayhawk Conference verdict to No. 12 Fort Scott at Frary Field here Saturday afternoon.
This was Fort Scott's fourth straight victory over the Broncbusters, which includes a pair in consecutive weeks last season.
The Broncbusters (2-2 overall, 0-2 Jayhawk) found themselves down 31-17 with 4:49 to go after Fort Scott linebacker Jacquain Williams returned a fumble 96 yards for a touchdown. But Ryan Smith brought the ensuing kickoff back to the Greyhounds' 44-yard line, setting up Eugene Smith's eight-yard TD pass to an open Cameron Horesky in the corner of the end zone with 2:09 remaining.
Garden City chose to kick away instead of going for the onside kick. The move paid off as the Busters defense held and Derek Helton's punt went out of bounds right at midfield with 1:39 to go.
The Busters had to go for it on fourth-and-10 from there and the drive remained alive when Fort Scott cornerback Coryell Judie was flagged for pass interference, giving Garden City a first down at the 35.
Eugene Smith found Cameron Kenney for a first down to the 23 on the next play. But then the Greyhound defense stepped up. First, Judie redeemed himself by batting a pass down. Then, Sean Glades sacked Smith, literally by the wristband, forcing a spike to stop the clock on third down.
On fourth down, defensive ends Jason Pierre-Paul and Isaiah Grace met Smith five yards in the backfield for Fort Scott's ninth sack of the game, finally stopping the Busters.
"When you're down in the game and have a lot of long-yardage plays, that's what happens to you and they can tee off and rush the passer," Garden City head coach Lucas Aslin said. "We didn't protect very well today. We just didn't make very good reads sometimes."
The fact that Garden City has been able to rally twice -- the Busters scored 22 points in the fourth quarter of a 34-29 loss to No. 6 Butler two weeks ago -- doesn't mean much to Aslin since both fell short.
"Zero positive because we've done that twice and still didn't win," Aslin said. "We're close and that's great but you can't get anything done."
Fort Scott (3-0 overall), Butler and -- of all teams -- Independence, are tied atop the conference standings with 2-0 league marks. Butler beat Air Force Prep 30-14 Saturday while Indy had the week off. Meanwhile, the Broncbusters are ahead of only Dodge City (0-4, 0-3) in the standings.
"Looking at it on paper, you have the top two teams in the conference...Fort Scott and Butler," Aslin said. "And you can't beat the top two so you're the third team by a long way and you just hope you can survive and somehow make the playoffs."
Defense has been the key in the turnaround of the Fort Scott program. After the second game of the 2006 season, the Greyhounds were on a 24-game losing streak. Since then, the only Jayhawk Conference team that's been able to beat the Greyhounds is Butler.
"We talked to (the defense) during the week about how the Giants won the Super Bowl this year," Fort Scott head coach Jeff Sims said. "And they beat the Patriots with a great defensive line. And we recruited to try and get some great defensive linemen. And they play hard. They didn't get tired. They refused to get tired. And they kept coming. And I don't know if Garden City's seen that kind of pressure before."
Fort Scott quarterback Zac Dickey put his team on the scoreboard first as the Greyhounds converted one of Garden City's seven fumbles -- three lost -- with a one-yard sneak less than three minutes into the contest. The Busters drove to Fort Scott's 14 on the ensuing possession before losing another fumble.
J.J. Williams' interception set up Garden City's first score, a 21-yard pass from Smith to Jared Sperber with 5:35 left in the first. Judie gave Fort Scott a 14-7 lead with a 41-yard punt return midway through the second after the Busters had to kick from their own four-yard line.
Chase Beiberle took a lateral from Smith and scampered 36 yards to tie it with 2:53 left in the half. But Fort Scott recovered another fumble on a sack and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty put the Greyhounds on Garden's 22. On the next play, Brandon Kinnie leaped over a defender in the back of the end zone to haul in the go-ahead score with 36 seconds remaining.
"He jumped over our corner and made the play," Aslin said of Kinnie, a redshirt freshman who played basketball at FSCC last season. "You have to tip your hat to him. He's 6-3 or 6-4, 230 pounds and he's a really good player."
Kenney's 40-yard field goal with six seconds left in the half brought Garden City within 21-17. Lucas Halsey hit a 26-yarder for Fort Scott with 3:34 to go in the third to get the lead back to a touchdown.
Garden City found bad luck on consecutive trips into Fort Scott territory. After Halsey's kick, the Busters got to the 35 only to have LaVonte David pick Smith off. Their next possession ended when Kenney's 50-yard field goal attempt hit the left upright early in the fourth.
"We turned the ball over way too much," Aslin said. "We gave away penalties that were costly. They returned a punt for a touchdown and then grabbed one on the inch-line and returned it all the way. That's 14 points right there and we lost by seven. So it was very disheartening the way it turned out. We gave a good effort and that's all fine and dandy but it didn't give us a win."
The Broncbusters had more total yards than the Greyhounds, 338-294. Ryan Smith rushed for 120 yards on 16 carries and Beiberle gained 111 on just seven totes.
Eugene Smith competed 18 of 31 passes for 157 yards. Kenney caught eight of them for 82 yards.
The Broncbusters travel to Independence Saturday for a 1 p.m. game that will have a major impact on the chase for a post-season berth.
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Garden City 7 10 0 7 -- 24
Fort Scott 7 14 3 7 -- 31
Scoring Summary
First quarter
FS -- Dickey 1 run (Halsey kick), 12:15
GC -- Sperber 21 pass from E.Smith (Kenney kick), 5:35
Second quarter
FS -- Judie 41 punt return (Halsey kick), 6:24
GC -- Beiberle 36 run (Kenney kick), 2:53
FS -- Kinnie 22 pass from Dickey (Halsey kick), :36
GC -- FG Kenney 40, :06
Third quarter
FS -- FG Halsey 26, 3:34
Fourth quarter
FS -- Williams 96 fumble return (Halsey kick), 4:49
GC -- Horesky 8 pass from E.Smith (Kenney kick), 2:09
Game Statistics
GC FS
First downs 19 18
Rushes-yards 47-181 56-186
Passing yards 157 108
Total offense 338 294
Passes 18-31-1 8-23-2
Punts-avg. 4-39.5 5-21.0
Fumbles-lost 7-3 0-0
Penalties-yards 10-84 9-95
Individual statistics
RUSHING: Garden City -- R. Smith 16-120, Beiberle 7-111, Kenney 2-6, Carter 0-1, Jones 1-minus 5, E.Smith 21-(-52). Fort Scott -- Hopkins 42-150, Dickey 9-35, Terron 3-12, team 1-(-1), Stewart 1-(-10).
PASSING: Garden City -- E. Smith 18-31-1-157. Fort Scott -- Dickey 8-23-2-108.
RECEIVING: Garden City -- Kenney 8-82, Horesky 4-32, R. Smith 3-16, Beiberle 2-6, Sperber 1-21. Fort Scott -- Kinnie 6-88, Fondren 1-15, Sexton 1-5.
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