MAIZE, Kan. - Mother nature was able to slow down the Hutchinson Salthawks on Friday versus Maize, but just a little, as the Salthawks earned back-to-back shutout victories for the first time in 40 years with a 21-0 win over the Eagles.
The stingy Hutchinson defense started the domination with the first of two consecutive three and outs in the first quarter allowing the Salthawks' Kade Smith to score on a one yard plunge into the Eagle's end zone after a nine play, 48 yard drive with 5:59 remaining to give Hutch a 7-0 lead.
Then it was mother nature's turn to put on a show. The Salthawks had just forced another Eagle punt and had the ball on the Hutchinson 40 yard line when are lightning forced a one hour and 40 minute lightning and rain delay.
When play resumed, momentum had swung to the Maize sideline as several Hutchinson drives stalled and the halftime score was 7-0.
At the start of the second half, Hutchinson took the kickoff from to their own 42 yard line when Smith bolted up the middle for his longest run of the season to put the Salthawks on top 14-0.
That 58 yard yard run capped off at 6 play, 80 yard drive just 2 minutes and 11 seconds into the third quarter.
After that, the Salthawk defense took over only allowing Maize 91 yards on 39 offensive plays, of which 35 yards were passing yards.
Hutchinson earned 286 yards of total offense with Smith accounting for 196 of those yards on 33 carries. Terrell King accounted for the lone 4th quarter score, running it in from four yards out to give the Salthawks a 21-0 lead with 3:33 to go in the contest.
King accounted for 46 yards on 10 carries on the night.
Hutchinson (2-1) will now travel to Salina South (0-3) for a rare Thursday night game and Maize (0-3) will be on the road next Friday in Derby (3-0).
Derby beat Salina South 59-7 on Friday.