Saturday evening's football game with the Fort Scott Community College Greyhounds against the Highland Community College Scotties was a traditional late-season football clash in the Kansas Jayhawk Conference. The two conference rivals battled it out to see who was going to move up the standings ladder, and the Scotties came away with a narrow 20-17 victory.
Highland, 6-3 overall, scored first with only twenty-seven seconds off of the game clock. Running back Marquis Terry scored the first of his two touchdowns of the day, scampering 64 yards for the opening score of the contest to give the visitors a 6-0 lead after the two-point conversion failed.
The Greyhounds, 4-5 overall, took their first possession of the game and marched 76 yards on 15 plays to lead to a 1-yard blast through the middle of the line to score. Kicker Brody Southwell booted the PAT kick to make it 7-6, with 10:23 left in the first quarter.
The second quarter belonged to the Scotties as they put up a pair of touchdowns and a two-point conversion to make the score 20-7 at the half. It appeared it was going to be an easy victory for Highland, but the Greyhounds had other ideas.
Southwell, the Fort Scott High School alumnus, connected on a 33-yard field goal to cut the lead to 20-10 with 4:54 left in the game. Southwell has completed seven out of thirteen of his field goal tries this season.
Both defenses kept the offenses at bay until halfway through the fourth quarter, when Greyhound quarterback Nathan Rourke found sophomore Ke'Von Love in the corner of the north end zone for a 32-yard touchdown pass. Southwell's PAT kick cut the lead to three with 7:47 left in the game.
The Rourke-to-Love touchdown connection capped a 99-yard, 12-play drive—the longest of the season for the Greyhounds.
Fort Scott had two more chances to get within striking distance of either tying the score or going ahead with a touchdown, but the Scottie defense stymied the home team. Highland ended the threats and took home the victory with a final score of 20-17.
Rourke threw the ball 51 times in the game, completing 27 of those passes for 291 yards and 1 score. He was sacked 7 times in the contest and was intercepted twice. Rourke has surpassed the 2,000-yard mark; he currently has 2,058 yards.
Wide receiver Fred Daughtry caught one of Rourke's passes for 74-yards while receiver Sirr Green hauled in six throws for 66 yards.
Dominic Cizauskas continues his hot play at his linebacker spot, contributing 17 tackles. Linebacker teammate Logan Edwards hauled in 14 takedowns.
Fort Scott will look to even up their season record on Saturday, where they will complete the home portion of the 2016 season schedule.
The 'Hounds will face the Hutchinson Community College Blue Dragons. Hutch is coming into the Fort with a 4-5 record and is coached by former Greyhound head coach Rion Rhoades.
Kick off at Frary Field on Saturday is set for 7:00pm.