KILGORE, Texas -- Brandon Kinnie was a pretty good basketball player last year at Fort Scott Community College.

His college football debut topped anything he did on the court last season as the 6' 5" sophomore -- a redshirt freshman in terms of football eligibility -- caught four touchdown passes as the 18th-ranked Greyhounds defeated No. 14 Kilgore by a 40-20 score in the season opener for both teams.

Kinnie redshirted on the football team last season, then got permission to play basketball. His presence turned out to be a blessing for the 'Hound hoop squad as they began the season short-handed. But on just the sixth play of his collegiate gridiron career, Kinnie hauled in a 27-yard pass from Pittsburg Colgan graduate Zac Dickey for his first college football score.

Dickey, who transferred in from Oklahoma State, completed 12 of 24 passes for 201 yards in his college debut after redshirting last season. He threw three touchdown passes and ran for two more.

The Greyhounds gained a total of 439 yards as new tailback Jasmin Hammond and the offensive line wore down Kilgore's defense over the course of the game. Hammond rushed for 195 yards on 44 carries.

Fort Scott's defense allowed just 276 total yards, only 113 on the ground. Although Ranger tailback LaRon Elmer gained about 85 yards and ran for a score, Kilgore's offense had trouble finding a rhythm most of the night against the Greyhound defense. Using three quarterbacks probably didn't help their cause.

Elmer tied the score shortly after Kinnie's first touchdown on a 21-yard run. Kinnie hauled in his second TD pass with 46 seconds left in the first quarter to put the 'Hounds up 14-7.

A Kilgore drive early in the second quarter was thwarted by a Greyhound interception by Justin Jenkins. It was only a bit later, with 8:41 to go in the half, that Kinnie scored his third TD on a 36-yard reception.

Kilgore came out of the locker room for the third quarter determined to make a game of it and it did so quickly when Cortez Smith hauled down a 42-yard scoring pass from Lane Johnson -- quarterback No. 3 for the Rangers -- just a minute and seven seconds into the half.

Kilgore was in position to tie the game moments later after Victor Carmichael returned a Dickey pass 16 yards the wrong way to bring the Rangers within 21-20 with just four minutes into the half. Kilgore was called for two celebration penalties after the score but the officials mistakenly walked off just one before Rico Casas converted a 35-yard extra point.

The officials realized their error, walked off the second penalty and Casas missed the second attempt at the conversion from 50 yards. That miss seemed to take all the air out of Kilgore's sails and Fort Scott dominated from that point on.

Dickey scored the first of his rushing touchdowns from one yard out with 1:52 left in the third to make it 28-20. He scored again on another one-yard run with 13:11 to go in the fourth, but the extra point was no good.

Kinnie's final TD catch came on a fake field-goal attempt as he hauled in a pass from holder Aaron Sexton with 6:34 left in the game. This PAT also missed.

Fort Scott won a game in Texas for the first time in school history and is now 2-1 in the three-year history of the annual challenge between Jayhawk Conference and Southwest Junior College Football Conference schools. The 'Hounds evened their record to 4-4 against Texas teams and 1-1 versus Kilgore. The Rangers defeated Fort Scott, 19-7, in the 2006 Heart of Texas Bowl. Kilgore is 0-3 in the Kansas-Texas series.

Fort Scott has a bye next week before hosting No. 23 Coffeyville Sept. 13 at 1 p.m. at Frary Field.

NOTES -- For those of you who listened to the Kilgore broadcast on the Internet and were confused by the announcers, it turned out they had the wrong version of the FSCC roster for the first quarter and a half. Also, they kept saying Fort Scott lost its last three games last season, which was not correct, either. FSCC did lose its last two games but beat Garden City in consecutive weeks prior to that…..

Cornerback Coryell Judie, the only Texan on the Fort Scott roster, got a chance to play in his home state for the first time as a collegian. Last year's game against Navarro, Texas, was in Fort Scott….

David Garrett had an interception for the 'Hounds and also led the defense with eight tackles….

Fort Scott's defense, which had 76 sacks last season -- including 14 in one game -- didn't have any in this contest. It did have four tackles for losses totaling 16 yards….

The four Kansas teams that were ranked in the NJCAA/jcfootball.com pre-season poll just happened to play the four Texas teams that were ranked. In each of the four games, the road team won -- No. 2 Blinn against No. 1 Butler (23-20; though played in Wichita, it was a Butler home game), No. 9 Garden City at No. 24 Cisco (27-14), No. 6 Navarro at No. 23 Coffeyville (19-10) and, of course, No. 18 Fort Scott at No. 14 Kilgore….

Highland fell in a close contest against SWJCFC newcomer Arkansas Baptist. ABC held the Scotties on a fourth-and-four play from the Indians' seven-yard line with 1:20 to go in the contest to hold on for a 21-17 win….

(The boxscore from this game can be seen here. You will need to scroll down a bit)