Purple Daze: Dragons take third straight from Fort Scott on late TD run

Saturday, September 15, 2007
Kenny FELT/CAPTURED IMAGES Fort Scott's Grant Hartman (44) chases Pittsburg tailback Jacob Wilson during a first-quarter play at Hutchinson Field in Pittsburg, Kan., Friday night. Wilson rushed for 151 yards and both of the Purple Dragons' scores as Pittsburg took a 14-7 win in Southeast Kansas League play.

PITTSBURG, Kan. -- Josh Wilson's one-yard scoring run with just under four minutes left in the contest gave Pittsburg a 14-7 win over Fort Scott High School in an early battle for the lead in the Southeast Kansas League at Hutchinson Field here Friday night.

It was one of the closest battles in the history of this 112-year-old series as just 27 of the 95 meetings since 1911 have ended with the teams combining to score 21 or fewer points. Pittsburg has won 15 of those games, including Friday night's encounter. There have been four ties under such circumstances.

The defenses dominated the first half of play. Pittsburg, 3-0 in the SEK and overall, had just 91 total yards of offense but held Fort Scott, 1-1, 2-1, to 17 rushing yards while picking off five of quarterback Matt Wheeler's passes.

But the Purple Dragons' rushing game began to crank out yards and the pounding took its toll on the Tigers. Pittsburg ran the ball on all 48 of its second-half plays, rolling for 143 yards.

The Dragons began their game-winning drive at their own 28 seven seconds into the final stanza. Tailback Jacob Wilson, quarterback Zach White and fullback Brock Garrett began to find the holes and pushed their way inside Fort Scott's nine with 6:20 to go.

White gained five on a keeper on first down. Wilson gained two on a second-down toss sweep. White kept over the right guard for one on third down.

Pittsburg decided to go for it on fourth down and Wilson took a toss to the left for the score with 3:56 remaining. Blake Wilson kicked the extra point.

"The defense played really fine," Fort Scott head coach Don Epps said. "We just ran out of gas a little at the end of the game. The kids played hard; they left it out on the field.

"I take my hat off to Pittsburg. They were able to put together a drive when they needed one."

The Tigers took over at their own 29 after the kickoff and Wheeler hit Alex Barner down the right sideline for 30 yards on the first play. Unfortunately, Fort Scott couldn't gain any more ground and had to punt.

Wilson took a toss to the right to turn a third-and-one into a first down at the Pittsburg 31 with under two minutes to go. Fort Scott used all its time outs but Garrett converted a third-and-six at the 35 and the Dragons killed the clock with two kneel downs.

The loss puts the Tigers behind the 8-ball in the SEK race. In order to win it, Pittsburg and Columbus will each have to lose a game somewhere along the way while Fort Scott wins its remaining league games. However, since the Tigers and Dragons are in different districts, this outcome will not have any bearing on the postseason.

"We're going to learn from this," Epps said. "There's a lot of great things we can take from this game. I told the kids they have two choices. They can fall apart -- which we won't do -- or they can come out next week and be stronger together, learn from it, and get ready to play Coffeyville."

The Tigers scored on the game's first possession as it looked as if the Wheeler-to-Barner combination was going to have a career night. Wheeler hit the lanky junior receiver in stride at the Pittsburg 30 to turn a third-and-13 situation into a 44-yard gain down to the Pittsburg nine. Three plays later, Wheeler hit Barner over the shoulder in the right side of the end zone for what turned out to be Fort Scott's only score.

Although Tanner Smith returned the subsequent kickoff to the Fort Scott 48, the Tigers were quickly in position to add to the lead as a bad pitch led to a fumble, which was recovered by Andre Davis and returned to Pittsburg's 15.

But a penalty and a stubborn Pittsburg run defense brought up fourth-and-13 at the 18. Wheeler went for the end zone but was hit by linebacker Kirk Smith on the throw and C.J. Fondren got the interception in the end zone.

The Tigers forced a punt but Fondren thwarted things again with his second interception of the night. Then, after another punt, Fondren's third pick of the night just moments into the second quarter forced Fort Scott to go back on defense.

Blake Nelson recovered a Tanner Smith fumble at the Fort Scott 49 with 9:39 to go. But Wilson picked Wheeler off this time and Pittsburg took over at its own 33.

The teams exchanged punts and Pittsburg took over at its own 22 with 3:06 to go in the half. The first two plays were runs, setting up third-and-seven at the 25. On that play, Wilson went up the middle, and then cut back left. The Tigers over-pursued on the play, leaving the back side open and Wilson ran 75 yards for the tying score with 1:32 to go in the half.

Prior to that run, Pittsburg had rushed for 11 yards on its first 14 carries.

Zach Richardson intercepted Wheeler on the Tigers' next possession. But the defense held, forcing a 19-yard punt that John Leek returned 14 yards to the Pittsburg 45 with 15 seconds to go.

On the next play, Grant Hartman threw an option pass to Blake Nelson down the left sideline for a gain of 25. At first, it looked as if Nelson got out of bounds on the play but the official didn't indicate so. The Tigers tried to line up to spike the ball to kill the clock but an illegal procedure penalty was called. Fort Scott then lined up to kick a field goal but since the previous live play was ruled inbounds, the clock was wound as soon as the ball was spotted and the half ended before the snap.

"There were a couple of drives we should have kept going," Epps said. "That hurt us in the second half."

Pittsburg had first possession of the second half but had to punt it away. The Tigers took over at their own 20 and moved the ball downfield with the aid of a third-and-10 pass from Wheeler to Nelson that gained 29 yards to the Pittsburg 41.

Hartman gained 11 on a run on the next play but the drive began to bog down. Wheeler tried to sneak over the right side of the line on fourth-and-one at the 21 but was held short of the first down.

Fort Scott finished the night with 243 total yards but only 49 on the ground on 31 carries. Hartman was the Tigers' leading rusher with 33 yards on eight totes.

Wheeler completed 12 of 20 passes for 169 yards but had those five interceptions.

"I put him in some bad spots a few times," Epps said. "That's my fault. And a couple of them were going deep and if (it didn't work), it would be like a punt and those turned out that way. But he's had a good year so far."

Barner caught six passes for 107 yards. Tight end Tony Karleskint caught four for 33 yards and Nelson hauled down two for 54.

Pittsburg, which had no first downs at the half, finished with 239 rushing yards. Wilson, who had just nine yards on his first eight carries, finished with 151 on 21 rushes. White gained 56 yards on 15 carries.

Fort Scott will be at home the next two weeks. Coffeyville visits Frary Field this Friday for another Southeast Kansas League game. The Golden Tornado, 2-1, defeated Bishop Hogan of Kansas City, Mo., 15-14 Friday.

"They're going to be athletic like always," Epps says. "Right now, we're going to focus on our end the first part of the week and focus on what we do best and what we need to fix. Then, we're going to come back and work on Coffeyville later in the week."

NOTES -- This was Pittsburg's third straight win in this series. The last time the Purple Dragons won three or more in a row over Fort Scott was when it they won 11 straight times from 1985-95….

Independence finally snapped its modern-era (since 1962) Southeast Kansas League record losing streak by defeating Fredonia, 26-8, Friday night on the road. The streak began with the first game of the 2003 season, a 23-14 loss to Labette County….

Iola's 16-12 win over Parsons was the Mustangs' first over Parsons since a 9-6 win in 1988….

Columbus' 38-7 win over Chanute gives the Titans consecutive wins over the Blue Comets for the first time since 1997-98….

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