By DAREN DUNN
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — No. 1 Hutchinson (11-0) and No. 4 Coffeyville (8-3) got off to an inauspicious start for the Dragons Saturday afternoon.
Both teams entered with top five defenses for points allowed in the country.
Coffeyville took the ball to start the game and reached the Hutchinson 24-yard line on the third play of the game when J.R. Martin hit Mario Sanchez on a 40-yard strike.
Hutchinson tightened its defense before giving up a critical 3rd & 1.
Martin's five-yard rush set the Red Ravens up with 1st & Goal.
Coffeyville nearly fumbled the ball away before settling for a short field-goal attempt on 4th & Goal from the 15.
Hutchinson's Jerrell Boykin's Jr. got his hands up and blocked the kick. The defense held despite bending for the first drive of the game — or so the Dragons and their fans thought.
A flag from the middle of the defense was identified as a rare "roughing the snapper penalty" and gave the Red Ravens new life.
That half-the-distance penalty got a half-the-distance penalty tacked onto it when head coach Drew Dallas questioned the call.
Another penalty for a facemask on running back Romal Webb put the Red Ravens on Hutchinson's 2. Webb got the ball again and put the first points on the board in a drive that officially took 10 plays and 5:42 off the clock.
Quick to match, the Hutchinson offense used nine plays over the course of 4:19 to cover 85 yards and tie the score with just under five minutes left in the first quarter.
Martin then took a Coffeyville broken play 62 yards to the house. Fortunately, the Red Ravens were called for an illegal shift, negating the points and lead.
That's when things got really interesting.
Martin was sacked on third down to stop the Coffeyville drive, but Ja'Mez Drummer was called for a facemask.
The Hutchinson defense forced another third down, but penalties by both teams were offset, resulting in another third down.
Walter Bob Jr. stopped Jacqez Barksdale after a one-yard gain, finally forcing a fourth down since no penalties were observed on the play.
That stop brought the first quarter to an end with the game tied at 7.
Hutchinson would fight to a 10-7 lead by the break, despite three more scoring opportunities.
Hutchinson drove to the Red Raven 12 before being forced into a 29-yard field goal. Mr. Consistency, Cole Segraves, finally saw his kick-streak come to an end after going wide left.
Two minutes later, Segraves connected from 39, but then missed a would-be school record from 52 with 20 seconds left in the half.
After giving up the first seven points of the game, the Dragons would ultimately go on to score 38 unanswered.
Running back Dylan Kedzior slowly broke through the stout Red Raven defense with each run that ended in a two-yard gain or loss.
For three quarters and despite a 29-yard romp earlier in the contest, Kedzior was held to runs of nine yards or fewer.
That was, until he sliced through the Raven defense on a 74-yard, game-changing play.
The run was set up by a third-quarter, 65-yard bomb from Laible to the nation's top recruit, Malik Benson, to put the Dragons up 10.
Kedzior provided even more breathing room on a run that should have been stopped in the backfield. Kedzior side-stepped a defender and proceeded down the sideline.
Just as he looked cornered after a big gain and was about to be ushered out of bounds, Kedzior took another jump-cut and ran to daylight.
Nearly nine minutes later, Benson would score again, this time on an 11-yard pass from Laible.
Colin Shields entered the contest and put the finishing touches on a Dragon 31-point victory with his 4th & Goal run from the 4.
FINAL: HUTCHINSON 38 COFFEYVILLE 7
Hutchinson committed 12 total turnovers the last two times these teams met. The Dragons lost in 2021 (17-10) but won earlier this season (14-9).
On Saturday, Hutchinson fumbled once, but the ball rolled harmlessly out of bounds.
Meanwhile, Coffeyville fumbled twice (recovered both) and threw an interception in Dragon territory.
The Dragons held Coffeyville to 35 rushing yards on 30 attempts while racking up 289 yards on the ground themselves.
Kedzior rushed for 156 yards on 23 carries with two touchdowns of 2 and 74 yards. Kediri, the 2022 Jayhawk Conference Offensive Player of the Year, became the second-straight Blue Dragon running back to surpass 1,000 yards for a season. Kediri now has 1,056 rushing yards this season.
Benson finished with seven catches for 114 yards, his 10th career game with 100 or more receiving yards in a game. Benson caught touchdowns of 74 and 11 yards. Benson, for the season, now has 51 receptions for 923 yards and 10 touchdowns. Those marks rank 10th, seventh and a tie for sixth, respectively, in Blue Dragon single-season history.
The Blue Dragon defense gave up 75 yards in the opening quarter and limited the Red Ravens to 35 total yards and four first downs over the final three quarters. Coffeyville had season lows of 35 rushing yards and 77 passing yards.
Blue Dragon head coach Drew Dallas tied David Wheeler for fifth place on the Blue Dragon coaching list with 28 wins. Dallas is now 28-2 on the Blue Dragon sideline.
Blue Dragon freshman kicker Cole Seagraves tied a Blue Dragon single-season record with his 14th field goal of the season, matching the 2012 mark of Michael Mesh. Seagraves kicked a 39-yard field goal with 1:59 to play in the second quarter that gave the Dragons a 10-7 lead.
The Blue Dragons rolled up 460 total yards (289 rushing, 171 passing) and had no turnovers on Saturday. The Dragons had 12 turnovers in the last two games against the Red Ravens.
Blue Dragon quarterback Dylan Liable completed 14 of 24 passes for 171 yards with two touchdowns.
Defensively, Dasheen Jackson and Jamari Morris had five tackles each. Morris added a sack, 1.5 tackles for loss and an interception.
Leading 10-7 at halftime, the Blue Dragon struck quickly when Benson caught a short pass from Liable and sprinted 63 yards for a touchdown, which gave the Dragons a 17-7 lead with 10:09 to play in the third quarter.
After Morris' interception early in the fourth quarter gave Hutchinson the ball at its own 14, two plays later, Kediri burst through the Raven defense for a 74-yard touchdown run and a 24-7 lead with 14:15 to play in the fourth quarter.
Benson made it 31-7 with an 11-yard touchdown strike from Liable with 5:52 to play. Back-up quarterback Collin Shields closed the scoring with a 4-yard touchdown run with 34 seconds remaining in the game.
GAME NOTES – Making their 25th NJCAA postseason appearance, the Blue Dragons are now 16-7-2 with five-straight postseason wins. … The Dragons are now 32-56-4 all-time vs. Coffeyville. … Liable upped his career passing yards total to 5,810 yards and his career touchdown passes record to 65. … Benson extended his career receiving yards streak to 2,153 yards.
No. 1 Hutchinson now awaits the Sunday winner of No. 2 Northwest Mississippi and No. 4 Iowa Western.
The national championship game will be in Little Rock, Arkansas, on Dec. 14 at 8 p.m. local time.
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