DRAGONS KEEP POSTSEASON HOPES ALIVE WITH VICTORY AT INDEPENDENCE
By Steve Carpenter
HCC Sports Information Director
Saturday, October 24, 2009
INDEPENDENCE – The Hutchinson Community College football team still has an opportunity to compete in the postseason after a must-have road victory on Saturday night at Independence.
Freshman Chris Anderson led a Blue Dragon rushing attack that had another 300-yard game as Hutchinson defeated Independence 30-20 in a Jayhawk Conference victory at Shilthis Stadium.
The Blue Dragons (5-3, 3-3 Jayhawk Conference) now have a one-game, winner-take-all showdown with Garden City next Saturday night at Gowans Stadium. The winner earns the No. 4 seed for the Region VI playoffs, which begin Sunday, Nov. 8.
Hutchinson won its third-straight game, for the eighth-straight time at Shulthis Stadium and for the 20th time in the last 21 meetings over Independence, which lost its fifth straight game. The Blue Dragons, who won their second straight after a three-game losing streak, did so by rushing for 303 yards and freshman quarterback Angelo Pease throwing for a season-high 153 yards.
For three quarters, the Blue Dragon defense was dominant, shutting out Indy (2-6, 2-4) through three quarters and limiting the Pirates to seven yards in the first half and just 53 yards through three quarters, including a minus-13 rushing yards.
But with HCC leading 16-0 after three quarters, the game turned into a track meet with Independence outscoring HCC 20-14 in the final 15 minutes and causing Blue Dragon players, coaches and fans to remember the bad memories of Hutchinson’s last trip to Montgomery County – a 44-38 overtime loss to Coffeyville two weeks ago after HCC led 31-7 early in the third quarter.
“(Independence) did a good job, but I also think you saw some fatigue (by HCC’s defense),” HCC head coach Rion Rhoades said. “When you have a bunch of consecutive three-and-outs (offensively), you get some tired defensive players. I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get more first downs to continue drives and keep our defense off the field a little bit.”
Ryan Bellenger’s 19-yard touchdown pass from Brodrick Waters pulled the Pirates within 30-20 with 2:53 to play. But the Dragons stopped Indy’s 2-point conversion try and keep the game at a two-possession deficit.
“It kind of felt like that,” HCC freshman running back Chris Anderson said, referring to the Coffeyville game. “We stepped it up in the fourth quarter this time and didn’t let the scoreboard get to us. This time we stayed focused and stayed with our assignments and got the job done.”
“For a second we were thinking don’t let it be another Coffeyville,” said HCC linebacker Matt Fairchild, who had a critical fourth-quarter interception inside HCC’s 5-yard line. “We had to buckle down and trust everybody would do their jobs. We didn’t execute completely, but we got the job done tonight.”
The Blue Dragons had 456 yards of total offense, the third-best output of the season. HCC got 151 yards on 25 carries and a touchdown from Anderson. Sophomore Chris Clay ran for 99 yards on 15 carries and a touchdown.
Pease completed 8 of 20 passes for a season-high 153 yards and one touchdown. Sophomore fullback Jacob Yoder had a team- and career-high four receptions for 48 yards. Sophomore Ethan Ungles had one catch for a 62-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter.
“It was a little flashback to Coffeyville,” Yoder said. “I had to have this win to keep our playoff hopes alive. We had to keep fighting. We couldn’t give up. We should have scored a lot more points, but coming here for a road game and the situation that we are in, it was just good to get a win.”
Waters used his running ability to keep plays alive in the fourth quarter and threw for three touchdowns. Waters was 11 of 32 passing with two interceptions for 260 yards. In the fourth quarter, Waters was 6 of 17 passing for 190 yards and three scores. But he also threw a pair of interceptions to Fairchild and Dorrian Roberts inside the red zone.
“Those were big plays,” Rhoades said. “They were must-have plays for us. Not only they kept points off the board, but they gave us the ball, which was critical.”
Independence had 266 yards total offense, but the Dragon defense gave up a season-low six yards rushing, the second time this season the Dragons have held an opponent with less than 10 rushing yards.
The Blue Dragons built a 16-0 halftime lead on a Pease 2-yard TD run in the first quarter, an Anderson 40-yard sprint to the end zone (the extra-point snap was mishandled) and a Kelly Roberts’ 24-yard field goal on the final play of the first half.
HCC survived two third-quarter fumbles to maintain the shutout through three periods and looked to have cemented the victory on Clay’s winding and weaving 54-yard touchdown run gave HCC a 23-0 lead with 14:46 to play in the fourth quarter.
Indy struck right away after the kickoff when Waters scrambled and found Kameron Riley behind the HCC defense for a 70-yard touchdown pass for a 23-7 HCC lead with 14:25 to play.
Just 58 seconds later, Pease hooked up with Ungles for a 62-yard bomb for a touchdown on 2nd-and-10 to give HCC a 3-7 lead with 13:27 to play.
Just 1 minute, 19 seconds later, Indy was driving again. Jacovi White caught a 39-yard pass and looked to be going in for a score, but Thad Williams forced a fumble that was recovered by Indy’s Martin Trimble in the end zone for a touchdown, cutting the Dragon lead to 30-14 with 12:08 to play.
After Indy scored with 2:53 to play to slice the lead to 30-20, the Dragons recovered the on-side kick and was able to run the clock out.
GAME NOTES – Hutchinson is now 46-21-5 all-time vs. Independence and 18-13-1 at Independence. … Head coach Rion Rhoades is 14-14 at HCC, reaching the .500 mark for the second time this season. … Rhoades’ 14th victory ties him for seventh on the HCC coaching list with Larry Hook. Rhoades ties Hook for 10th in winning percentage at .500. … Running back Chris Clay moved past Leonard Brice into sixth play on the HCC career rushing list with 1,578 yards. … With two quarterback sacks, sophomore Adam Davis has 22.5 sacks for his career, second-most in HCC history. … HCC is 14-3 under Rhoades when leading at halftime. … This was the fourth-time this season that HCC has rushed for 300 or more yards in a game and the third time to have 450 or more total yards in a game. … HCC has 28 quarterback sacks this season with three vs. Indy. … HCC held the ball for 10 minutes, 22 seconds more than Indy. … Anderson has 311 rushing yards in the last two games. … Clay has 949 rushing yards for the season.
BOXSCORE
OTHER QUOTES
Head coach Rion Rhoades
On having flashbacks to Coffeyville in the fourth quarter …
“I think everybody thought about that at some point. You have to keep trying to be positive. After they scored their second touchdown, we had a good three-and-out and it gave us a boost.”
On containing Indy QB Brodrick Waters …
“I thought he did a great job. I think our pass rush by our ends sometimes was too good because we ran by him a little and we tried to slow those guys down a little. You have to give them credit. They were able to capitalize on a couple of those scramble plays and found an open guy.”
Freshman Chris Anderson
On the fourth quarter …
“We had to step it up. It was really intense in the fourth quarter. We had to find the motivation to keep the W and play hard for the rest of the game.”
Sophomore Jacob Yoder
On his pass receptions …
“I just tried to take advantage of my opportunities. Independence’s defense flows really well to the ball. All the passes I caught were to the back side. The defense flowed to one side and I went out the back side. We practiced that all week and it worked really well.”
Sophomore Matt Fairchild
On the fourth quarter …
“Their confidence took off. They had a batter game plan for us (in the second half) with the short passing game because our defensive line did such a good job in the first half. We locked down when it mattered. After the Coffeyville game, it doesn’t matter what the score is. We have to play the whole game like we do in the first half. We have to keep our composure and keep trusting each other.”
On containing Indy QB Brodrick Waters …
“I think we did really good against a great athlete. He’s fast and can throw the ball. He’s a great quarterback. We did a great job of locking him down.”