GARDEN CITY – For the first time in program history, the Hutchinson Community College football team had four 100-yard rushers in a single game, doing so on Saturday at Garden City.

Treyvon Paulk, Tyren Jones, Blaik Middleton and Tre Griffin ran the bulk of a season-high 493 rushing yards as Hutchinson snapped a two-game losing streak with a 49-14 Jayhawk Conference victory over Garden City at Broncbuster Stadium.

The Blue Dragons improve to 4-3 overall and 2-3 in the Jayhawk Conference. Garden City drops its sixth-straight game and falls to 1-6 and 1-3 in the league.

Hutchinson looked to establish a dominant rush attack against the Broncbusters. After two first-quarter interceptions, HCC started to pound the ball at the Busters, who allow 181.1 rushing yards this season. Hutchinson ran the ball 71 of its 91 offensive plays against Garden City, rushing for a net 493 yards. It’s the first time the Blue Dragons have rushed for 400 or more yards since Oct. 1, 2011 when it had 430 rushing yards against Fort Scott.

HCC had seven rushing touchdowns in the game by four different backs.

Paulk posted his first 100-yard game of the season with a game-high 137 yards on 15 carries. He had a 54-yard touchdown run with 8:54 to play in the second quarter that tied the game at 14-14. Paulk averaged 9.1 yards per carry.

Jones posted his third-straight 100-yard game, going for 24 yards on 18 carries. Jones had three rushing touchdowns, scoring on plays of 21, 3 and 27 yards. His 27-yard run was particularly impressive as he carried multiple defenders the final 10 yards into the end zone.

Middleton tallied his second 100-yard game of the season, going for 104 yards on a season-high 17 carries. He scored Hutch’s first touchdown of the game, a 3-yard run with 5:56 to play in the opening quarter. He added a 21-yard scoring run with 8:10 to play in the final quarter to close out the scoring.

Heading into the fourth quarter, Griffin seemed the least likely of the Blue Dragon stable of backs to break 100 yards. Then he broke through the Buster defense for 49-yard run to put him over the century mark, going for 104 yards on 12 carries.

The Blue Dragons broke the 500-yard mark for total offense for the fourth time this season, going for 592 yards.

Quarterbacks Dimonic McKinzy and Kylen Binn combined for 9 of 20 passing for 99 yards.

Defensively, the Blue Dragons made life miserable for Garden City quarterback Jayru Campbell. The Blue Dragons sacked him 11 times totaling 53 yards. J.J. Holmes and Terrance Summers had two sacks each. Hutchinson’s defense had 20 total tackles for loss for 80 yards. Holmes had four tackles for loss and Leslie Maruo had 3.5.

Hutchinson’s defense held Garden City to season lows of 15 rushing yards on 36 attempts, 79 passing yards and 94 total yards on 55 plays. Garden City came into the game averaging 261.8 passing yards per game.

The Blue Dragons found themselves down 14-7 early in the second quarter.

With HCC leading 7-0, the Busters tied it on a weird play. Holmes forced a sack-fumble on Campbell, but before the ball went out of bounds, Garden City’s Lawyer Davis picked up the loose ball and returned it 14 yards for a touchdown. The extra point try missed and HCC still led 7-6 with 1:40 to go in the opening quarter.

Then after forcing an HCC punt, the Busters went 69 yards in seven plays and took a 14-7 lead on a Campbell 1-yard sneak and two-point conversion.

The teams then traded punts before HCC’s ground game took full effect. On the first play after a Garden City punt, Paulk burst for a 54-yard touchdown and tied the game at 14-all with 8:57 to go in the half.

The Dragons forced another Garden City three-and-out and marched the ensuing possession 57 yards in six plays, getting a 21-yard Jones touchdown to take a 21-14 lead with 5:12 to play in the first half.

The Dragons scored 28 unanswered points in the second half. The made it 28-14 on Jones’ 3-yard touchdown run with 7:37 to play in the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter, the Blue Dragons had 181 rushing yards to minus-40 for the Busters. HCC scored 21 points in the final quarter on a 10-yard McKinzy run, Jones’ powerful 27-yard run and Middleton’s 21-yard scoring strike.

Hutchinson stays on the road next Saturday, traveling to Highland for a 1 p.m. kickoff at Kessinger Field.

GAME NOTES – The Blue Dragons now have an eight-game winning streak against Garden City and tied the all-time series with the Broncbusters at 37-37. … The Blue Dragons are 22-1 under Rion Rhoades when rushing for 300 or more yards as a team and are 57-3 when leading at halftime under Rhoades. … This was HCC’s fourth-straight win at Garden City, the first at new Broncbuster Stadium. … HCC made its first appearance in Garden City since 2012. … This was the first time this season HCC had the time of possession advantage at 34:38.

(HCC Sports Information)