Hutchinson finishes one spot short of NJCAA football playoff following Jayhawk title
The Hutchinson Community College football team completed a dominant run to the Kansas Jayhawk Conference playoff championship, topped off by a 49-19 win over Garden City on Sunday afternoon at Riverfront Stadium in Wichita.
But the Blue Dragons (8-2) got bad news when Monday’s National Junior College Athletic Association football rankings were released. They were ranked fifth, one spot short of being included in the new four-team playoff for a national championship.
Hutchinson, which won the national title in the spring season just six months ago, finished the season on a five-game winning streak, including routing two straight ranked teams, No. 15 Independence and No. 11 Garden City, by a combined 91-19.
“There’s no doubt in my mind we’ve done enough,” Hutchinson coach Drew Dallas said before the rankings were released Monday afternoon. “A Jayhawk conference team needs to be represented in the playoff. It is without question the toughest conference in junior college football. To me, there’s no argument that we’re one of the best four teams in the nation.
“A little bit of that is out of our control now, but if you’re asking about the best four teams in the country, there’s no doubt Hutchinson should be in there.”
Hutchinson certainly made a compelling case on Sunday, as its defense forced five turnovers and its offense produced 314 passing yards on just 12 completions.
Garden City led 13-7 in the first half, but it was all Hutchinson after that in the first non-baseball event hosted at Wichita’s $75 million downtown stadium with more than 2,000 in attendance.
The Blue Dragons exploded for five unanswered touchdowns between the second and third quarter to pull away for the Jayhawk title.
Quarterback Dylan Laible threw for three touchdowns, while Malik Benson hauled in five catches for 194 yards and Cortez Braham and Micah Woods also added touchdown grabs. The running combination of Anwar Lewis and Tye Edwards produced 133 yards and four more touchdowns.
“Our running game has been strong and that’s required defenses to pack the box on us, which opens up those opportunities for downfield shots,” Dallas said. “Malik and Cortez are just special players and they have the ability to stretch the field vertically and pair it with our running game and it makes you pretty dangerous when you can score in a lot of different ways.”
Hutchinson hit its stride after a slow start to the season, which came after a short turnaround following its title run during the spring season. The Blue Dragons lost three of their first five games, although the loss to Butler was reverted to a win due to a forfeit. Hutchinson won its three playoff games by a combined margin of 168-19.
“We didn’t really do anything specifically, we just continued to trust that the process would get us there in the end,” Dallas said. “The biggest challenge was finding our new identity because we are a different team than the one from the spring. We just had to get back and get our feet under us and catch our breathe and get our guys going again. Our guys have been extremely focused and their attention to detail was great on a daily basis.”
Hutchinson learned its fate Monday afternoon from a playoff selection committee similar to the one used in NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision.
The top four teams remained unchanged from last week: Iowa Western (9-0) was first, followed by New Mexico Military (10-1), Northwest Mississippi (9-2) and Snow (7-1).
Hutchinson (8-2), which was ranked eighth, moved past Monroe College (10-0), East Mississippi (9-1) and Hinds (8-3) in the new rankings.
