Blue Dragon football stays atop the polls after routing Coffeyville

By Greta Klein
Staff writer

Fans huddled into Gowans Stadium Saturday to see the No. 1 Hutchinson Blue Dragons take down the Coffeyville Red Ravens to open the Jayhawk Conference play.

Earning their first Jayhawk Conference win against Coffeyville, the Blue Dragons won 37-7.

With this win over Coffeyville, the Blue Dragons remain No. 1 for the fourth-straight week in the NJCAA Division I rankings.

Not starting out the way they usually do, the Blue Dragons had the first kickoff of the game which resulted in a fumble received by the Red Ravens.

Getting back in the game quickly, Samurai Collier made a 34-yard run resulting in the first Blue Dragon touchdown of the game.

From the start of the game, both teams were chippy with each other. At the end of the night there were 12 unsportsmanlike conducts.

“We love to see that energy, effort, tempo, enthusiasm but you can’t let it turn to chaos and you can’t let it turn to stupidity,” Blue Dragons coach Drew Dallas said.

Dallas is enthusiastic about his team this season but knows there are things that need fine tuning.

“At the end of the day you want your guys to play hard, you want them to play free and fly around and have fun out there,” Dallas said. “But there is a fine line and we have to be great as a football team of not crossing that line and I don’t think we did a great job of that tonight. We have to make those corrections and be better at that, moving forward.”

With 2 minutes, 52 seconds left in the first quarter, Tre Richardson made a 63-yard punt return putting the Blue Dragons up 17-0. Richardson also made a 70-yard punt return in the fourth quarter as well.

“Oh it feels good. To be the go-to guy for the No. 1 team, that’s big. I feel great about it,” Richardson said.

The Blue Dragons had 167 rushing yards compared to the 122 rushing yards the Red Ravens had.

“Our guys are extremely hungry to play football,” Dallas said. “When you only get limited opportunities, it’s easy not to overlook those. For us, it’s a weekly focus of we get one opportunity a week to cash out on those deposits that we make during the week of practice. Taking advantage of it, not overlooking an opponent and just trying to make the most of each opportunity we get.”

The Blue Dragons will travel to Butler for their third road game of the season. No. 1 Hutchinson will be up against No. 10 Butler (3-1) at 7 p.m. on Saturday in El Dorado.

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