NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
MAIZE, Kan. — It was a tale of two dominant quarters on Friday night at Maize South High School.
Hutch High had the dominant second quarter, outscoring the Mavericks 20-7 in the second period for a 13-point halftime lead.
Maize South had the dominant third period, scoring two touchdowns to take a 21-20 lead after three quarters, but then both teams battled all the way through the fourth and Maize South made just enough plays to hold on to their one point lead and advance to play Kapaun Mt. Carmel in the next round of the Class 5A playoffs.
There was no way to know this at the time, but the missed extra point following Hutch High's first touchdown with 11:27 to go in the first half would end up being their undoing.
Hutch had rushing scores from Kade Smith, Robert Hunter and Skyler Graham in the second quarter.
Maize South's Tate McNew threw for a late second quarter score, then added another touchdown pass with 5:11 to go in the third and then executed a perfect naked bootleg run with 27 seconds left in the third to tie the game and a Sam Parks extra point gave the Mavericks the lead that they held on to.
Hutch High ends their season at 7-3. Maize South improves to 8-2 and will play Kapaun Mt. Carmel who won over Great Bend 36-34 Friday.