Breathing Fire – HutchCC Football Ranked No. 2, All but Securing Playoff Spot

By Greta Klein
Sports Editor
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The Hutchinson Community College football team is bringing the fire as the Blue Dragons closed the regular season with a win Saturday against Garden City, 42-17, and now prepare for a NJCAA playoff game in a couple weeks. 

The Blue Dragons have made great strides this season going 9-1 overall and 5-1 in conference play. 

With the newest NJCAA Division I football poll released on Monday, Hutch moved up to No. 2 with 138 points after being tied for second with Georgia Military, which is now No. 3 with 129 points.

The perk of being ranked higher on the poll means a better chance of hosting a playoff game. While it would be an honor to host and an enjoyable time for HutchCC fans, Blue Dragons coach Drew Dallas knows it is another opportunity to play for a national championship.

“I think any of those top four teams are probably deserving of hosting a playoff game,” Dallas said, “just because of the resumes they’ve all been able to put together. I think for us, it’s more so that we’re in it, and we’ve got a chance to continue to play for a national championship, and that’s the most important thing.”

While every team hopes to host a playoff game, only No. 1 and No. 2 will get the opportunity in their stadiums. Some teams naturally play better at home while some play better on the road. 

“I think it just depends on our focus,” Dallas said. “I think we’ve proven to play well at home, proven to play well on the road throughout the year. I think it really just comes down to what’s our focus level, how much attention to detail we’re getting put in.”

The focus for the Blue Dragons will be on this playoff game, where it is the make or break of which team is headed to the national championship. Last season, the Blue Dragons fell short during this semifinal game against East Mississippi 27-23.

“I think our guys that were around last year that experienced that loss in the semifinals, those things stick with you,” Dallas said. “It kind of drives you throughout the off season and into the regular season. So now that we’re at that spot again, you hope that that message is relayed to the other guys on the team and those guys that were here. They remember that feeling and don’t want to experience it again. So it should drive us for the opportunity to kind of get back from having that bad taste in our mouth last season.”

As players on last year team returns, they want to rewrite their story and leave this season as a better memory.

“I know what that feels like to lose (in a semifinal game),” sophomore Christian Johnson said. “I don’t want to go through that again.”

While the final NJCAA DI Football Poll does not come out until next week, the Blue Dragons are in a time of waiting to see who, when and where their playoff game will held. In the meantime, there are a few preparations to be made but also a main focus on school and health.

“It’s kind of a combination of a bye week and also trying to keep guys prepared to go into the normal game week again,” Dallas said. “There’s a three week time span where you’re not playing games. But you got to get healthy and got to get your focus on the end of the semester. There’s some focus on recruiting as well so you got to kind of weigh all of those things.” 

Having a break between now and the semifinal game is good but the team also knows there needs to be work put in throughout that time and truly focusing on an opponent.

“Then you got Thanksgiving sandwiched in between there as well,” Dallas said. “So for us, we’re going to practice couple times a week each over the next two weeks. Take a little bit of break for Thanksgiving.

“Spend a lot of time on the academic side of things. Just try to keep the iron sharp, and then when we get back from break on December 1, we’re going to turn our focus solely into preparing for an opponent.”

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