Panthers hold on for 34-26 win

Fort Scott High's playoff hopes were dashed Friday night at Frary Field as Paola held on to beat the Tigers, 34-26, in Class 4A-Division I District 3 play.

The Tigers fell to 0-2 in the district (3-5 overall) and cannot finish in a position where they could hope for a tie-breaker to work in their favor.

Ottawa stunned Louisburg, 48-28, to take the lead in the district at 2-0, 6-2. Louisburg (1-1, 6-2) is currently ahead of Paola (1-1, 4-4) on tie-breaker points.

Ottawa secured the district championship with its win over the Panthers since the Cyclones have beaten both Louisburg and Paola. The winner of next Friday's Louisburg-at-Paola game will gain the second playoff spot out of the district.

There could be a couple of calls at the very least that could be thought of as incorrect interpretations of the rules that hurt the Tigers. There were some chances that Fort Scott was unable to take advantage of. And yet, it seemed that a higher power was trying to give the home team a chance to maybe force overtime.

A very short punt gave the Tigers the ball at their own 26 yard-line with 34 seconds to go. They had no time outs and there was a penalty against them on second down.

But quarterback Jesse Jones found Mason Ferguson on third-and-23 from the 13 to give the Tigers a first down at their own 37. Three plays later, Paola was called for a pass interference penalty that gave Fort Scott an untimed down from the Paola 48.

Paola forced an incompletion on that untimed down but the Tigers used every second they could and then some to try and extend their season.

"I'm really proud of the kids," Fort Scott head coach Bob Campbell said. "I thought we played a very good game against a very big and physical team. Our kids hung in there and played well on both sides of the ball."

There were touchdowns on the game's first four possessions. Fort Scott scored first on the opening drive, an 11-play, 64-yard effort that took 7 minutes and 16 seconds. It ended with Zarek Fewell's 1-yard run for the first of his four scores with 7:16 on the clock. Brady Tourtillott's kick was successful.

Paola marched back the other way with a long drive of its own, a 10-play, 76-yarder that ended when Colton Gleghorn ran in from 10 yards out with 2:37 to go in the first. The Tigers blocked the extra point.

Fort Scott responded quickly, needing just four plays to score. Fewell got his second TD when he hauled in a pass from Jones from 54 yards out with 37 seconds left in the period. This time the PAT was no good, so it was a 13-6 lead.

The Panthers then drove 72 yards with quarterback Bryce Huber keeping around the left side and scoring from 36 yards out at 9:56 of the second quarter. The PAT tied the score 13-13.

The first defensive stop of the night came on the next possession when Magnus Van Hoecke intercepted a pass. The Panthers took over at their own 18 and started to move downfield as Huber proved to be the toughest Paola runner for the Tiger defense to stop.

A 29-yard halfback pass from Dalton Rankin to Donovan Sutti got the ball to the Fort Scott 4. Rankin scored on the next play and another successful kick gave the Panthers their first lead, 20-13 with 1:05 left in the half.

Paola received the second-half kickoff but Gleghorn fumbled it and Chris Stell recovered for the Tigers and the 27-yard line. On the first play from scrimmage, Fewell ran into the end zone. Tourtillott's kick tied the score 20-20.

Paola then took the ball and held it 15 plays and over seven minutes, extended at one point by a quationable fourth-down pass interference call. Huber's running again proved problematic, with the quarterback accounting for 56 yards. But it was Gleghorn who scored on a 5-yard run with 3:36 on the clock. Derek Bollinger blocked the extra point, but Paola was in front 26-20.

An interpretation of the rules that was most likely incorrect gave the Panthers the chance to extend the lead to two scores. Jones was forced to scramble on a fourth-and-11 play from the Paola 26. He wasn't able to get far but was hit out of bounds at the end of the play.

The penalty was marked off and the ball placed at the Paola 28, well past the distance the Tigers needed for a first down.

But the officials rules that the hit wasn't a part of the play but, instead, took place after the play. This made it a dead-ball foul. The officials had given Paola the ball at the spot where Jones went out of bounds as a turnover own downs, then enforced the penalty.

The Panthers did not score on the possession they were given. But they did work off the four minutes of the fourth quarter before turning the ball over on downs at the Fort Scott 25.

The Tigers were unable to move the ball and set up to punt. The snap was high to the up-back, Jessie Lawrence, and he had to get on the ball in order to keep Paola from picking it up and scoring. The lane was open for a big gain if the play had been executed as it should have been.

Paola took over at the 18 and made it a two-score game with 5:38 to go when Huber snuck over from one yard out. He then threw to Brendan Ohlmeier for the 2-point conversion to make it 34-20.

Fort Scott, undeterred, moved downfield with Jones hitting Fewell for 41 yards on a key play to get the ball to the 7-yard line. Four plays later, Fewell scored his 15th touchdown of the season. The kick was not good but the Tigers were within 8 points.

The defense forced a punt but the Panthers got the ball back with an interception. Then came the short punt which set up the Tigers' final opportunity.

Fewell rushed for 136 yards on 24 carries and caught two passes for 95 to lead the Tiger offense, which gained 315 yards in total offense as Jones passed for 164 yards.

Huber finished with 190 yards on 23 carries while Gleghorn gained 75 on 13 carries. The Panthers had all but 29 of their 380 yards of total offense on the ground.

The Tigers will play at Ottawa next Friday in what be their last game of the season. Louisburg and Paola will face each other for the other playoff spot from this district at Paola.

NOTES -- With a 48-21 win over Coffeyville, Independence clinched its first Southeast Kansas League football title since winning the Upper Division in 1995. The Bulldogs (4-0, 7-1) are now two games ahead of every other team in the loss column.

With Coffeyville and Labette County both losing -- Chanute stunned the Grizzlies, 15-12 -- the Tigers are assured of at least tying for second in the SEK.

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PAOLA.................... 6 14 6 8 -- 34

FORT SCOTT........ 13 0 7 6 -- 26

Scoring plays

First quarter

FS -- Fewell 1 run (Tourtillott kick), 7:16 [11, 64, 4:38]

P -- Gleghorn 10 run (kick blocked), 2:37 [10, 76, 4:39]

FS -- Fewell 54 pass from Jones (kick failed), :37 [4, 66, 1:55]

Second quarter

P -- Huber 36 run (Heid kick), 9:56 [6, 72, 2:33]

P -- Rankin 4 run (Heid kick), 1:05 [11, 82, 4:49]

Third quarter

FS -- Fewell 27 run (Tourtillott kick), 11:46 [1, 27, :07]

P -- Gleghorn 5 run (kick blocked), 3:36 [15, 70, 7:03]

Fourth quarter

P -- Huber 1 run (Ohlmeier pass from Huber), 5:38 [4, 18, 1:37]

FS -- Fewell 1 run (kick failed), 3:09 p8, 61, 2:25]

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: Paola -- Huber 23-190, Gleghorn 13-75, Rankin 17-66, Phillips 5-20. Fort Scott -- Fewell 24-136, Jones 7-15, Stoughton 3-7, Lawrence 3-minus 7.

PASSING: Paola -- Rankin 1-1-0-29, Huber 0-2-0-0. Fort Scott -- Jones 8-23-2-164.

RECEIVING: Paola -- Sutti 1-29. Fort Scott -- Ferguson 4-53, Fewell 2-95, Tourtillott 1-9, Lawrence 1-7.

MISSED FIELD GOALS: None.