Fort Scott shows no mercy to Parsons in 34-0 blanking

By Scott Nuzum

Herald-Tribune

PARSONS, Kan. -- Fort Scott High School's season-opening 34-0 whitewash of Parsons in Southeast Kansas League play at Marvel Park Friday night says a lot about the Tigers' offense on just the face of it.

But it was the defense that made things possible with big stands early in the game.

Two Fort Scott fumbles gave Parsons possession inside the Tigers' 35-yard line twice in the first quarter. But the defense made stands each time to keep the Vikings out of the end zone.

Alex Barner was hit hard on the opening kickoff and Parsons' Jordan Pierce recovered on Fort Scott's 34-yard line.

But the Tigers held the Vikes to two yards in losses on three plays and Parsons was forced to punt. Later in the period, Luke Halsey fumbled on a running play and Parsons' Malcolm Odom recovered, taking the ball back 25 yards to Fort Scott's 37. This time, the Tigers forced Parsons to settle for a 31-yard field-goal attempt but Tyler Gilley's kick was partially blocked by Tony Karleskint and failed.

"We got through some adversity in the first half." Fort Scott head coach Don Epps said. "Our defense played solid. I'm really happy."

Barner atoned for his fumble by picking off an Odom pass with 12 seconds left in the first quarter. That helped keep the first quarter scoreless.

Fort Scott went on to score 28 points in the second period. Mitchell Stoughton's 58-yard run on a well-timed pitch downfield by quarterback Matt Wheeler moved the ball down to Parsons 7 to help set up the first score. Halsey went over the right side of the line for the TD on the next play, and Wheeler snuck over for the score with 8:35 left in the half. Halsey kicked the PAT.

On the first play after the kickoff, Parsons' Donte Flores fumbled at his own 27 and Barner scooped up the ball at the 21 and ran untouched to the end zone with 8:19 remaining. Halsey's PAT made it 14-0.

Two plays after the next kickoff, Alex Bowman, who was playing with an injured foot, made a leaping interception to set up the Tigers' next drive. But Parsons started to figure out the veer and wishbone formations that Fort Scott uses and stuffed the Tigers for nine yards in losses.

So Epps broke out the shotgun formation. And in the first play Fort Scott ran from it, a third-and-19, Wheeler found Barner for a 65-yard scoring strike with 5:51 to go in the half.

Odom thought he had a chance to intercept the pass. But the 6-foot-5 Barner used his height advantage over the 5-9 Odom to pluck the ball away. Odom could only stand in place flatfooted wondering where the ball was.

"They have a five-man front with a nose (Pierce) who's a really athletic player and I wanted to make sure we got settled into the game a little bit before we started going shotgun with all that pressure on our center," Epps said. "Denton Ramsey did a great job of snapping the football.

"We want to run the ball in the gun as much as we want to throw it. But it also makes the defense spread out a little bit. We're still Fort Scott football; we're still going to run downhill and hit you in the mouth. But we want to get teams spread out a little but on us. Last year, at times, I felt teams were piling up on us putting 10 in the box. Now we're going to be able to get those odds in the box better for us."

Wheeler showed how effective the Tigers could run out of the gun as well as they ran effective option plays from the formation. It led to plays such as his late pitch to Stoughton late in the half which culminated in a 58-yard touchdown run, making it 28-0 with 1:58 left in the half on the first play after a 12-yard Barner punt return.

"Our offense took advantage of the opportunities the defense gave us," Epps said. "It was a situation where we needed to wear them out. We got into the wishbone in the first quarter a lot to wear on them. Second quarter, conditioning became a factor already and we were able to get the ball on the edge a little bit."

Flores was able to break up the middle for a long return on the ensuing kickoff before Corey Midkiff made a touchdown-saving tackle at the Fort Scott 40. But the Vikings were unable to take advantage of the return as the half ended.

At halftime, Fort Scott had 237 total yards in a nearly balanced attack: 130 yards rushing on just 15 carries and 107 yards passing. Parsons, meanwhile, had only 32 yards of total offense, all of it on the ground.

Fort Scott scored its first-half points on drives that had a grand total of eight offensive plays. The only score of the second half came on a clock-burning, 11-play drive. Wheeler overcame an illegal forward pass penalty and leg cramps midway in the drive that forced him to sit out for two plays to make to good plays. The first one was an 11-yard pass over the middle to his "Y" tight end, Karleskint, that moved the ball to the Tigers' 48. The next one came right after the illegal pass penalty when Wheeler followed lineman Cole Murrin's block for a 26-yard gain.

Wheeler suffered his cramps after that play and backup quarterback Aaron Judy filled in. Although his first play was a loss on a fumbled snap, he came back on third-and-12 to gain 14 before fumbling the ball out of bounds.

Wheeler came back in and the Tigers scored on four running plays, the last a nine-yarder by Halsey with 4:14 left in the game. A conversion pass failed.

The drive took over four minutes off the clock. After that, the control of the game went back to the Tigers' defense.

Fort Scott finished the game with 324 total yards. The Tigers gained 206 on the ground on 32 rushes. Stoughton had 129 yards on only five carries. Halsey had 46 yards on eight totes.

Wheeler completed five of 10 passes for 118 yards. Barner caught two for 75 and Karleskint caught two for 40.

Parsons finished with 152 total yards, all of it on the ground. Odom didn't complete any of his seven passes and the Vikes didn't attempt a pass in the second half despite the fact that they were trailing. The averaged only 3.2 yards a rush against the Tiger D.

"We have a lot of depth on D and we've got four linebackers in our 4-3 we can rotate in and out of the game" Epps said. "All of our linebackers can run free but they can't do their job unless the D-line does their job and I was happy with the D-line play."

Fort Scott plays its home opener Friday, a non-league game against Wyandotte High of Kansas City, Kan. Parsons will host Pittsburg, which shut out Labette County, 21-0, Friday night at Pittsburg.