(HCC Sports Informaiton)

GARDEN CITY – The No. 9 Hutchinson Community College football team turned in another impressive offensive performance, topping 50 points for the sixth time and 500 total yards for the fifth time this season, to remain perfect in the Jayhawk Conference with a 54-12 victory over Garden City on Saturday night at Memorial Stadium.

Hutchinson (6-1, 4-0 Jayhawk Conference) defeated Garden City (1-6, 1-3) for the fourth-straight time and also became bowl eligible with its sixth victory of the season.

The Blue Dragons rolled up 534 total yards (220 rushing, 314 passing) and had several players put up big numbers against a staunch Garden City defense. The Dragons had possession of the ball for 36 minutes, 38 seconds, running 79 offensive snaps to Garden City’s 50. The Dragons were 8 of 16 on third-down conversions while Garden City was 1 for 12.

Defensively, the Blue Dragons were stung for two first-quarter Garden City touchdowns. The Broncbusters had 156 yards of total offense in the first quarter (107 rushing, 49 passing). HCC led 16-12 after the first quarter. HCC’s defense made the necessary adjustments and shut down the Busters the rest of the game. Over the final three quarters, Garden City had just 71 yards total offense (22 rushing, 49 passing) and only three first downs. Hutchinson outscored Garden City 38-0 over the final three quarters.

“Garden City executed well on offense early,” HCC head coach Rion Rhoades said. “I was proud of our defense for making some adjustments. We don’t like giving up two touchdowns in the first quarter, but I was proud of the three shutout quarters to end the game.”

“That didn’t set well with our defense,” freshman defensive lineman Toby Johnson said. “We had a massive breakdown on defense. They have a good team, but we have to tackle better. We adjusted.”

Sophomore quarterback Elliott Alford threw six touchdown passes, which tied his own single-game Blue Dragon record. Alford also surpassed Robert Coates (2003-04) for the career passing touchdown record with 35. Alford had another stellar night throwing the football, completing 20 of 30 passes for 296 yards, the second-highest passing total of his career.

Alford became the third HCC quarterback to throw for 3,000 career yards, moving past both Shaun Hill (1998-99) and PJ Peters (1994-95) for second on the career passing list with 3,163 yards. He moved past Hill into second place on the career total offense list with 3,709 yards.

“Our coaches told us that we were going to be able to hit them with a couple of big pass plays, “Alford said. “It was a team effort. Me and my receivers are all on the same page and I have to thank my offensive line and running backs for blocking so well.”

Both sophomore Cordarrelle Patterson and freshman Jatavious Stewart had big games catching the ball.

Patterson had a career-high four touchdown receptions, catching seven passes for 162 yards, the second-most receiving yards in his career. Patterson had 196 all-purpose yards against the Broncbusters. Patterson’s touchdown catches were from 4, 1, 63 and 70 yards.

Stewart had a career-high nine receptions for 69 yards and a spectacular leaping catch for a 26-yard touchdown in which he kept both feet inbounds at the side of the end zone. Freshman Miguel Johns also had four receptions for 76 yards and one touchdown.

“All of those guys are making the plays when the opportunity arises,” Rhoades said. “When I think about our wideouts and quarterback play, there’s a bunch of guys who love to play the game and they bring a lot of excitement to our team. You have to give a lot of credit to our offensive line, too. They gave Elliott all the time he needed to throw the ball,”

Redshirt freshman Deveon Dinwiddie had his second-best rushing night of the season with 134 yards on 20 carries and a 12-yard touchdown run to lead the HCC rushing attack.

Even the Blue Dragon special teams got into the act.

Punter Kody Cook averaged 43.0 yards per punt on three punts, downing two inside the 20-yard line. Cook then blocked a Garden City punt that set up a Blue Dragon touchdown.

But the biggest special teams play came late in the first quarter after Garden City scored a touchdown to pull within 14-12. On the extra-point attempt, sophomore Anthony Mendoza blocked the extra-point try and sophomore Duane Sims picked up the loose ball and returned it for a defensive two-point conversion to give HCC a 16-12 lead with 1:13 remaining in the first quarter.

That play started a run of 40 unanswered points by the Blue Dragons.

“That turned the whole game around,” Alford said. “That could have been a tied game and it was a four-point game when Duane took it back all the way to the house.”

Garden City quarterback Rashard Burkette had a big first quarter with a 49-yard touchdown pass and a 47-yard touchdown run. Burkette finished the game 5 of 18 passing for 92 yards and a touchdown with two quarterback sacks. He had a team-high 75 yards rushing.

The Blue Dragons scored on the opening drive which consisted of nine plays and covered 52 yards. Patterson hauled in a 4-yard touchdown pass from Alford on a fade pattern from the left corner of the end zone for a 7-0 lead with 9:56 to play in the quarter.

The opening period was a track meet. It only took Garden City three plays to respond with Burkette found a wide-open Raul Silva Jr. behind the HCC defense for a 49-yard touchdown pass, but the extra-point was too low and HCC led 7-6 with 8:34 to go.

The teams traded punts, but a shanked Garden City punt of 27 yards set up the Dragons with a short field at the Buster 36. The Dragons needed seven plays to cover the distance with Patterson catching a 1-yard TD pass from Alford for a 14-6 lead.

Once again, the Busters stung the HCC defense with a four-play, 86-yard drive that Burkette finished off with a 47-yard touchdown run down the left sideline. That’s when Medoza blocked the extra-point try and Sims returned it for HCC’s first-ever two-point defensive conversion. The Dragons led 16-12 with 16-12 with 1:13 to play.

The Blue Dragons made the most of that defensive conversion, taking the ensuing kickoff 43 yards in five plays to score seven seconds into the second quarter. Dinwiddie scored when he took a lateral pass from Alford and wound his way down the left sideline for a 12-yard touchdown run for a 23-12 lead.

HCC’s defense started to overtake the Buster offense and the Blue Dragon offense put the game away with three more second-quarter touchdowns.

After Cook’s punt block, Alford found Stewart for his tight-wire 26-yard touchdown reception for a 30-12 lead with 12:22 to play. Patterson then caught a 63-yard bomb from Alford for a 37-12 lead with 9:47 to go and Johns capped off a 28-0 Blue Dragon second quarter with an 11-yard TD catch from Alford, his fifth of the first half for a 44-12 lead with 27 seconds to play in the half.

The Blue Dragons were conservative in the second half. The only scoring came when Alford tossed his single-game record-tying sixth touchdown pass of the game, finding Patterson for his fourth TD reception of the game on a 70-yard scoring strike with 1:24 to play in the third quarter.

Freshman kicker Michael Mesh booked a 25-yard fourth-quarter field goal to close out the scoring at 54-12.

Hutchinson’s victory over Garden City combined with No. 5 Butler’s victory over Coffeyville sets up a first-place showdown between the Blue Dragons and Grizzlies at 7 p.m. next Saturday night at Gowans Stadium.

GAME NOTES – HCC’s four-game win streak over Garden City is its longest since a four-game run between 1982-1985. … Cordarrelle Patterson now has 1,586 career receiving yards, which is 161 yards behind record-holder Lonnie Crittendon. … Patterson upped his career receptions record to 90. … Patterson has 168 career points, 16 behind record-holder Mack Herron. He has 28 career touchdowns, three behind Herron. … Patterson had 38 receptions for the season, which ties for 10th on the single-season list. He is eighth on the single-season receiving yards list with 678 yards. He is fourth in single-season touchdowns with 16 and is now fourth in single-season points with 96. … Elliott Alford trails Robert Coates by 616 yards for the career passing record and trails Coates by only 113 yards on the total offense list. He passed PJ Peters for second on the completions list with 220. He passed himself for sixth in single-season passing yards with 1,643 yards. Alford is second in the single-season touchdown passes list with 25, only one behind Peters’ record of 26. Alford passes himself for fifth on the single-season total offense list with 1,874 yards. … Deveon Dinwiddie is tied for 10th on the single-season scoring list with 72 points. … HCC has outscored opponents 179-44 in the second quarter. … HCC has scored 417 points, which is second most in program history. The record is 422 points set last season in 12 games.