HUTCHINSON, Kan. — In his Blue Dragon debut, NC State transfer Erin Collins rushed for 104 yards and reached paydirt three times.
For Collins, the credit belongs to one group in particular:
The defense deserves a lot of credit, too. The Blue Dragons only gave up 53 yards of rushing to the visiting Ellsworth Panthers. The Blue Dragon D intercepted Panther quarterbacks on four occasions. Letayveon Beaton led the defense with two interceptions.
The Dragons gave up 212 yards to the Panthers overall, but made key stops to hold Ellsworth to four field goals. That effort was not lost on Head Coach Rion Rhoades:
Panther kicker Adijan Muhamedjic knocked in field goals from 35, 28, 31 and 22 yards away. His first field goal of the night gave Ellsworth its only lead of the game. His 28-yard field goal with 12:41 left in the second quarter pulled the Panthers within one — the closest Ellsworth would ever get again to Hutchinson.
While Ellsworth lived off the kicking game, Rhoades was not pleased with the Blue Dragon effort in that department:
Hutchinson led by a touchdown at halftime and saw that margin drop to four with 11:58 left in the third when Muhamedjic nailed his final FG of the game. At 16-12, the Blue Dragons used the final quarter to put the Panthers away.
Erin Collins started his night with a 1-yard burst into the end zone with 4:15 left in the first half. He added a 9-yard TD early in the fourth quarter and capped off his night with a monster 46-yard touchdown run.
After trailing 3-0, Hutchinson quarterback Brandon George hit sophomore WR Jaylen Erwin on a 65-yard touchdown pass. George was 2-of-2 passing for 61 yards and the TD, but his promising night ended early when he sustained an injury during a rushing attempt. George dove between two Panther defenders and was slow to get up. He did not return to the game and his injury status is unknown.
Mason Schucker got most of the work at quarterback for the Blue Dragons. He went 13-of-30 for 97 yards and had an interception.
The Dragons finished with 348 total yards of offense and led 16-9 at halftime. Despite racking up nearly 350 yards, Rhoades felt his offense didn’t click until the final 46-yard run that put the game out of reach:
Collins’ electrifying 46-yard run with 4:05 remaining left no question about the game’s outcome.
FINAL: Blue Dragons 30 Panthers 12
The Blue Dragons hit the road next week to face the No. 5 Independence Pirates. Indy (1-0, 1-0) defeated Dodge City (0-1, 0-1) 38-20 to open the season. The Pirates won the Region VI Championship last year and were voted to repeat in 2018.
Game time is set for 7 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 1.