Greyhounds score late in fourth for 14-10 win, KJCCC title

Just as the Butler Grizzlies looked poised to hand the Fort Scott Greyhounds their first loss of the season and claim the KJCCC regular-season championship, Jasmin Hopkins decided that was not going to happen.
The Grizzlies took the go-ahead score with 8 minutes, 24 seconds left in the game, but Hopkins helped guide the Greyhounds 93 yards on 19 plays — scoring on a 1-yard dive — to give Fort Scott a 14-10 win at Frary Field Saturday afternoon.
That was not the only drama.
As Butler’s Marcus Kennard caught a 14-yard touchdown pass from Ross Dausin putting Butler (7-2, 6-1 KJCCC) up 10-7 midway through the fourth quarter, Grizzlies’ punter Logan Ortiz buried Fort Scott (9-0, 7-0 KJCCC) deep at their own 7 with just over eight minutes left in the game.
That is when Hopkins sprung into action.
“Even before we went back on the field, I told the guys to keep their heads up,” Hopkins, a 5-foot-8, 170-pound sophomore, said.
It seemed to work as the Greyhound offensive line allowed Hopkins to pick up 50 of his game-high 208 total yards on the final drive of the game.
At the time the drive started, Fort Scott was just trying to get into field goal range for Fort Scott native Luke Halsey. As it turned out, they picked up more than that as a 23-yard pass from Dominque Davis to Hopkins put the ball on the Butler 28.
Later, Davis got caught in the backfield and was dropped for a 10-yard loss by Scott Smith, putting a field goal try in question.
But, Davis rebounded and completed a 23-yard pass to Zach McFall down to the Butler 2. Two plays later, Hopkins capped the drive with the score.
“We needed to make plays and step up,” said Fort Scott head coach Jeff Sims, who was 0-3 against Butler going into Saturday. “We were dropping passes in the middle of the game and we were able to catch those passes late.”
The Greyhounds held a 7-3 lead through most of the fourth quarter. Their lone early touchdown came as Hopkins scored from four yards out in the first quarter. The drive came after Dausin fumbled the ball at the Greyhound 14.
Ortiz bombed a 36-yard field goal in the third quarter and Butler scored in the fourth after Davis was intercepted by Ryan Downing at the Fort Scott 17.
Two plays later, Dausin connected with Kennard for the go-ahead score for the Grizzlies.
Then, Ortiz boomed the kickoff down to the Greyhound 7, leaving Butler head coach Troy Morrell with a good feeling.
“We pin them back deep on the kickoff, of course I felt pretty good,” Morrell said. “They just came out and made plays and they are a very good football team.”
The Greyhounds out-rushed Butler, 197-152 and Davis finished going 19 of 38 for 173 yards in the air as Fort Scott will hold the top seed in the Region VI playoffs, which begin next week.
Fort Scott will also have home-field advantage throughout the playoffs as the new rules set forth by the KJCCC state that the highest remaining seed will host the championship game in two weeks.
That is a game that Morrell hopes the Grizzlies are a part of.
“We are still alive and it is the playoffs,” Morrell said. “We have to just keep our heads up.”

Matthew Clark can be reached at matthew.clark@morningsun.net or at 620-231-2600, Ext. 140. Follow Morning Sun sports at twitter.com/mssports