Garden City loses to Hutch in season finale

Garden City, KS-One call changed the complexity of the game. 

On Hutchinson's opening possession, Garden City linebacker, DJ Thompson appeared to make a clean play on wide receiver Ja'Cory Thomas, dislodging the ball on third-and-10. It was the type of bone-crushing hit that appeared textbook in nature: a shoulder tackle that dropped Thomas to the turf. 

But moments later, head official, Brandon Bermea announced that the play was under further review for targeting. After several minutes, officials determined that it was not a legal hit, and Thompson was ejected.  

From that point on, the life was officially sucked out of Broncbuster Stadium.  

With the drive extended, Samari Collier threw one of three touchdown passes on the day, Waymond Jordan ran for 135 yards and a score, and No. 3 Hutchinson beat Garden City, 42-17 Saturday afternoon.  

The loss officially ended the Broncbusters' season at 1-10 overall and 1-5 in conference play. 

"It's disappointing for sure," Head Coach, Kiyoshi Harris said. "A few weeks ago, we were in contention. Then we weren't. But we will get this thing going in the right direction." 

Tyler Nelson rushed for 141 yards, the third time this season that he eclipsed the century mark for Garden City, which lost to the Blue Dragons for the sixth straight time. Dejuan Lacy, who entered the regular-season finale with an outside shot to win the rushing title, was limited to just 46 yards on 18 carries, his second lowest output this season.  

Following the third-down targeting call on the Blue Dragon's opening drive, Hutchinson marched 75 yards in just seven plays, punctuating it with Collier's 10-yard touchdown pass to Tre Brown for a 7-0 advantage. 

Garden City managed to respond on their ensuing possession when Lacy raced for 20 yards on a fourth-and-1 at the Hutchinson 40. Three plays later, Nelson located Zac Dyer in the end zone for a six-yard score to tie the game with 8:19 remaining in the first.  

But the Broncbuster offense, for the most part, struggled the rest of the way.  

Early in the second, Nelson was picked off by La'Mondrick Spencer at the Blue Dragon 46. That eventually setup Jordan's one-yard rushing touchdown that gave Hutchinson the lead for good. 

After Garden City went three-and-out, Collier found Brown in stride for a 27-yard score to make it 21-7. 

Nelson managed to keep things respectable later in the period when he rolled left and hit Jayson Salkey for a 36-yard touchdown. But the Blue Dragons responded with a pair of touchdowns in the final 1:38: a 10-yard td run by Collier and a 17-yard touchdown pass to Benson Prosper that gave Hutchinson a 35-14 advantage at the break. 

"I'm proud of how our guys dealt with adversity this year," Harris added. "This wasn't an easy situation." 

The Blue Dragons ran for 306 yards on the ground including Titus Petteway's 19-yard touchdown late in the fourth quarter that made it 42-17.  

Collier finished 8-of-21 for 127 yards and three touchdowns for Hutchinson, who punched a ticket to the NJCAA playoffs by securing the Jayhawk Conference Championship. Brown finished with three catches for 50 yards and two scores. 

Nelson was 8-of-24 for 92 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions for Garden City.  Tyler Lassiter finished with a season-best 14 tackles.