Doggies bagged: ’Hounds sack Scottie quarterbacks 14 times at Homecoming

Monday, October 22, 2007
Fort Scott defensive lineman Mack Cole (90) sacks Highland quarterback Vincent Gay during the first quarter of play at Frary Field Saturday afternoon. The Greyhound defense recorded 14 sacks for 102 yards in losses on the day. Cole had 4 1/2 for 21 yards as the Greyhounds shut out Highland, 50-0, in their Homecoming game. (Fort Scott Community College photo/Matthew Brandt)

Fort Scott Community College’s offense didn’t have one of its best days Saturday. Greyhound head coach Jeff Sims and most of the offensive players will probably admit that.

But great teams are great because they make plays in all aspects of the game when they have to. And Fort Scott’s defense and special teams played key roles as the Greyhounds thumped Highland, 50-0, in Jayhawk Conference play on Homecoming at Frary Field.

Fort Scott remains tied with Garden City for second place in the KJCCC after the Broncbusters beat Coffeyville 19-7. Both the ’Hounds and the Broncbusters -- tied for No. 16 in the national poll -- have identical 5-1 conference and 7-1 overall records with both teams’ losses coming by wide margins to No. 2-ranked Butler.

Special teams kicked things off -- pun intended -- as Coryell Judie took the opening kickoff on the near sideline at his own nine-yard line, cut left behind his blockers and used a Tony Charles block to run down the far sideline for the game’s first score just 15 seconds into the contest.

Then, with a strong wind blasting to the north, Jared Oshel kicked off to the south. The ball got caught by the wind, then pushed back and fell to earth right on the 50-yard line, surrounded by Greyhounds as the Scotties had broken back to block on the return. Lucien Antoine fell on the ball to recover what was probably the hardest-booted onside kick you’ll ever see.

It looked as if the Scotties were able to recover and force a Greyhound punt. Instead, punter Derek Helton threw a pass to Kwame Jordan and the defensive end rambled for a 37-yard gain to the Highland 11.

Two plays later, tailback Rodney Lovett scored on a two-yard run to make it 14-0 less than two minutes into the contest.

There wouldn’t be any more scoring in the half. But the defense put on a show, blasting through to crush the Scotties’ running game and harass their quarterbacks all day long.

At halftime, the ’Hound defense had allowed just 21 total yards and had already recorded six of its school-record 14 sacks. Jordan and Mack Cole had registered two each.

“In the Jayhawk Conference, one thing I’ve found out is that if you want to win, you’d better have good defensive linemen,” Sims says. “You can have all the skill guys and all the linebackers running around you want. But if you don’t have tough, athletic interior defensive linemen, then you’re going to get pushed around in this league and you’re going to lose. We’re fortunate that we had Kadre Pinder come here and Horace Hubbard come here to add to Kwame Jordan and Mack Cole and Paul Kirk.”

Highland gave Fort Scott two points early in the second half when it snapped the ball through the end zone in punt formation. Quarterback Greg Cross added to that on a 29-yard run a few minutes later. The point after failed but it was 22-0 with 11:14 on the clock.

Lovett added another TD on a three-yard run with 8:03 left in the third as the Greyhounds started taking advantage of the field position the defense was giving it.

“As a football team, you want to mature throughout the year,” Sims said. “Earlier in the year, we didn’t feel like we were always finishing all our plays. Today, we came out in the second half and we played hard. We didn’t let Highland dictate what was happening out there. We played to our level, we did what we were supposed to do and that’s our job as a football team. They need to do their job and let the game develop through their efforts.”

A sack by linebacker Jaquain Williams forced a fumble, which the Greyhounds recovered to set up Cross’ 15-yard touchdown pass to Nick Adams with 4:25 to go that made it a 36-0 game.

After three quarters, Highland had minus-14 yards of total offense on 45 plays. Because sacks count as rushing yards in college, the Scotties had minus-52 yards rushing.

Lovett scored his third touchdown 26 seconds into the fourth quarter on a four-yard run to make it 43-0.

On the first play of the ensuing drive, a two-yard loss on a run saw Highland reach its low point at minus-16 total yards. As the Greyhounds began to sub in later, the Scotties began to get some gains but they’d still finish the day with just 65 total yards, which included minus-58 yards rushing.

“Our defensive line was tremendous today,” Sims said. “Fourteen sacks, that’s unbelieveable. We have some really athletic guys on the front four and if they play hard, good things are going to happen. It’s hard to play hard all the time when you have 300-pound men trying to stop you. But we condition our guys well and they played hard today.”

The defense put a cherry on the top of the treat it was giving Greyhound fans when Sean Glades came through the line to sack backup quarterback Sean Connolly to force a fumble. Cole picked up the ball at the 14 and ran it in for the final score of the game.

“I was really proud to see Mack Cole get that touchdown at the end of the game,” Sims said. “It’s Sophomore Day and it was nice to see him do that, get a little something for his effort.”

Jordan recorded 4 1/2 sacks, Jordan 3 1/2, Hubbard and Glades two each and Charles and Williams one each.

If you put the sack yardage back into Highland’s rushing total, the Scotties still had just 44 yards on the ground on 21 rushes. Connolly, who came into the game in the second quarter after starter Vincent Gay was injured, was sacked 10 times himself, which is how he ended up with 11 rushes for minus-73 yards.

Lovett finished with 104 yards rushing on 29 carries. Cross gained 71 on nine rushes and finished nine of 18 passing for 130 yards although he threw two interceptions. He overcame a two-of-10 start to complete five of his last eight for 72 yards.

Nick Adams caught four passes for 71 yards.

Sunday, the Greyhounds travel to Garden City to battle for second place in the conference and home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Since both teams have the exact same tie-breakers going into this game, it’s certain that they will meet again in the first round of the Region VI Playoffs, with Saturday’s winner hosting the rematch.

“We need to win at Garden City because we need to win -- period,” Sims said. “But if we go out there and things don’t go out way, we’re still going to go into the playoffs. We’re not worried about Garden City or Coffeyville. We’re worried about what we do.

“There are no secrets at this time of year. They have eight games tapes of us. We have eight game tapes of them. It’s going to come down to effort. That’s where we’re going to challenge our players. This is going to be our fifth road game this year. And I hope that we have learned from the other ones. We’re going to go out there and smack them in the mouth and see what happens.”

NOTES -- Though the Greyhounds have scored many special-teams touchdowns over the years, there is no record of the last time a kickoff was returned for a touchdown in the Tribune archives, which go back to before the 1996 season.

The last FSCC special-team touchdown was scored by Sheldon Pipken after he returned a blocked punt 30 yards in last year’s Region VI Championship Game against Butler at Wichita...

The only time more points have been scored by a KJCCC team this season was when Coffeyville beat Air Force Prep, 51-27, on Sept. 22....

Last year’s 6-0 win over Highland marked the last time the Greyhounds had posted a shutout....

The last time Fort Scott broke the 50-point barrier was Sept. 20, 2003, when the ’Hounds beat Independence, 54-20, at Frary Field....

Lovett has rushed for 690 yards and seven scores in his last five games. He is just 100 yards away from 1,000 for the season....

HIGHLAND........ 0 0 0 0 -- 0

FORT SCOTT.....14 0 22 14 -- 50

Team statsHighlandFort Scott
First downs1015
Rushes-yards41-minus 5848-159
Passing yards123167
Total offense65326
Passing (c-a-i)10-26-010-19-2
Sacked-yards lost14-1023-20
Punt returns-yds.0-01-10
Kickoff returns-yds.7-753-107
Interception rets.-yds.2-60-0
Punts-avg.8-39.44.38.0
Fumbles-lost5-22-1
Penalties-yards13-9510-80

Scoring

First quarter

FS -- Judie 91 kickoff return (Oshel kick), 14:45

FS -- Lovett 2 run (Oshel kick), 13:08 [7, 50, 1:34]

Third quarter

FS -- Safety, snap in punt formation went out of back of end zone, 14:36

FS -- Cross 29 run (run failed), 11:14 [3, 37, 1:16]

FS -- Lovett 3 run (Oshel kick), 8:03 [5, 46, 1:28]

FS -- Adams 15 pass from Cross (Oshel kick), 4:25 [6, 28, 1:33]

Fourth quarter

FS -- Lovett 4 run (Oshel kick), 14:34 [5, 51, 1:54]

FS -- Cole 14 fumble return (Oshel kick), 5:02

Individual statistics

RUSHING: Highland -- Hall 15-28, Robinson 7-27, Carlis 1-8, Gay 6-minus 23, team 1-minus 25, Connolly 11-minus 73. Fort Scott -- Lovett 29-104, Cross 9-71, Jameson 6-1, team 2-minus 2, Reaves 2-minus 15.

PASSING: Highland -- Gay 4-8-0-39, Connolly 6-18-0-84. Fort Scott -- Cross 9-18-2-130, Helton 1-1-0-37.

RECEIVING: Highland -- Hilton 4-71, Fowler 2-16, Carlis 1-15, Wille 1-14, White 1-9, Hall 1-minus 4. Fort Scott -- Adams 4-71, Riley 1-41, Jordan 1-37, Loveless 1-9, Jameson 1-9.

MISSED FIELD GOALS: Fort Scott -- Oshel, 35 (Short).