Fort Scott stymied

Sunday, September 17, 2006

By Scott Nuzum

Herald-Tribune

FORT SCOTT, Kan. -- Pittsburg's bigger offensive line dominated the line of scrimmage at Frary Field Friday night as the Purple Dragons gained 266 rushing yards in a 29-8 win over Fort Scott High in a battle of undefeated teams.

The Dragons' running game was so effective that it was able to eat up the last 11:13 remaining on the clock in the game. Pittsburg took over after a Zach White interception in the end zone and used 17 running plays to kill the remaining time.

The Dragons, 3-0 in both the SEK and overall, and ranked No. 5 in Kansas Class 4A by both the Wichita and Topeka papers, saw halfback Jacob Wilson run for 183 yards and two long second-quarter touchdowns on 25 carries.

"Pittsburg made plays when they had to make plays," Fort Scott head coach Don Epps said. "They had a very balanced offense. They were able to run the ball on us successfully and threw the ball on key third-down situations. Overall, they did a good job of keeping it balanced."

Pittsburg punted on its first possession after gaining only 10 yards and Ty Siam's punt went only two yards into a strong wind before he downed it himself on the Pittsburg 31-yard line.

But Fort Scott (2-1 overall, 1-1 in the SEK), gained only three yards and turned it over on downs when Dakotah Gettler's fourth-and-seven pass fell incomplete under pressure from the Pittsburg defense.

"That first series was a huge series as far as momentum," Epps said. "We had the short field. We had them on their heels a little bit. We were going to show the (wish)bone but we got stopped on second down and we had to throw the ball."

Fort Scott's defense kept Pittsburg receiver Kiara Jones under wraps in the first half. Siam only threw in his direction twice and both attempts were defended by Scott Allen.

However, Siam was able to find his tight end, C.J. Fondren, three times, twice on consecutive passes that capped the Dragons' first scoring drive. The first was an 11-yard completion on third-and-11 to the Fort Scott 36. The next play was a touchdown toss made despite Chris Banks' effort at the 1:22 mark of the first quarter. Francisco Lopez's PAT kick made it 7-0.

Fort Scott's second possession ended with a punt two plays into the second quarter. At the end of the first, the Tigers had run just five plays for minus-one yard. Pittsburg had run 16 plays and gained 81 total yards.

The Dragons continued to put up the numbers on their first drive of the second quarter and Wilson capped a relatively short drive with a 33-yard scoring run at the 9:03 mark with Lopez again kicking the PAT.

After another Dragon defensive stop, Wilson scored from 45 yards out to make it 21-0 with 4:32 left in the half.

Jared Cosens returned the ensuing kickoff to the Fort Scott 42 and the Tigers broke out the wishbone and found yards in the middle of the Pittsburg line. Banks gained 15 on the first play as the Dragons weren't prepared to stop the bone.

After eight more running plays, Fort Scott had the ball at the Pittsburg 14. Gettler found tight end Tony Karleskint in the end zone for the Tigers' first score with 33 seconds left in the half. The Tigers went for two points and Gettler was able to get the ball into the end zone.

That was Gettler's only completion on the night in nine attempts. This came eight days after he completed 14 passes for 227 yards against Kansas City-Wyandotte. Karleskint caught seven passes that night but Epps said Pittsburg was playing to make sure the junior tight end didn't cause a lot of damage.

"We were going to use our trey formation to get Chris Banks isolated in the slot and force them into a situation where the free safety had to play the middle or lock up on Tony," he said. "And they locked up on Tony. We weren't able to take advantage of the outside linebacker match-up with Banks. That was a critical part of the game also."

Blake Nelson recovered a squib kickoff at the Pittsburg 43 with 20 seconds remaining but the Tigers didn't have enough time to get into the end zone again.

"We outnumbered them at the point of attack and we got a good drive," Epps said. "We came out in the same offense in the second half and got stopped on a critical first-and-10. In the wishbone offense, you have to get positive yards on first down."

Fort Scott received the second-half kickoff as well and used the bone to get down to the Pittsburg 39. On fourth-and-five, the Tigers lined up to punt but ran a fake to the upback, Gettler, who couldn't gain the first down.

"We were controlling the line of scrimmage at the time." Epps said. "Everything was going positive. I'll take the blame -- I made a poor call on the fake punt. We had them outnumbered on that particular play, but it didn't go our way."

Pittsburg took advantage and used a 14-play, seven-minute drive to get Charlie Northcutt into the end zone on a three-yard run with 7:01 left in the third. Wilson ran in the two-point conversion.

As it turned out, those were two of just four possessions in the entire second half. Lattimer ran the kickoff back to the Pittsburg 36 with under a minute left in the third. On fourth-and-four at the 13, Gettler tried to go into the end zone, apparently for Karleskint, but suffered the pick by White.

Pittsburg had 16 first downs and 347 total yards. Fort Scott had nine first downs and 163 total yards, 149 of those on the ground.

Lattimer gained 58 yards on 11 carries while Banks had 57 on 13 totes. Siam gained 72 yards on the ground for the Dragons and completed five of eight passes for 81 yards.

The Tigers continue Southeast Kansas League play Friday night when they go to Coffeyville. The Golden Tornado played at Bishop Hogan in Kansas City, Mo. Saturday, a game arranged as a replacement when Lenexa's St. James Academy canceled its season.

Notes: This is the first time Pittsburg has won consecutive games in this series since the 1997 and 1998 seasons. The Dragons won the 1998 game on Pete Wheeler's last-second field goal. ... The game took barely two hours to play, ending at 9:05. ... Fort Scott ran just seven plays in the entire second half, gaining 64 yards. They ran just three in the fourth for no yards. ... Lattimer didn't touch the ball other than on a kickoff return until the first play of Fort Scott's first second-quarter possession. ... Wilson came into the game tied with Columbus' Corey Burton for the SEK scoring lead, each having scored five touchdowns. Wilson now has seven on the year. ... The stunner of the year so far in the SEK was probably not so much that Columbus beat Chanute Friday night but that the Titans shut out the Blue Comets, 21-0, in another battle of undefeated teams. ... Should the Titans and Dragons remain unbeaten in league play, the SEK title could be decided Oct. 13 at Columbus. Despite being in the SEK, the two teams haven't met on the gridiron since 1980 due to division and district formats.

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