#12 Red Ravens Defeat #3 Indy 19-9, Win KJCCC Regular Season Title!

Independence, Kan. - The Coffeyville Red Ravens Football Team traveled to Independence Kansas on Sunday with just a few things on the line; bragging rights in the Montgomery County Bowl, the 2021 Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference (KJCCC) regular-season title, and the #1 seed in the KJCCC post-season tournament to just name a few.  The Red Ravens answered the bell and soundly played their best game of the season in handing the #3 NJCAA ranked Indy Pirates their first loss of the year with a 19-9 defeat.  With the victory, the #12 ranked Red Ravens' overall record improves to 6-1 and Coffeyville heads into the KJCCC postseason with the #1 seed.   The KJCCC Conference title is the Ravens first since 2006 when CCC shared the title with Butler.

The game started with Coffeyville receiving the kickoff and the Red Ravens set the tone early scoring on their first drive of the game.  On the fifth play of the opening drive, Coffeyville's sophomore quarterback Jakson Thomson was able to hit sophomore receiver Chris Bellamy for a 28-yard touchdown to start the game off quickly for the Red Ravens.  Freshman Forrest Taylor connected on the extra point and the Ravens had an early 7-0 lead at the 12:18 mark of the first quarter.

After scoring on their first possession, the Coffeyville defense took their turn on the field and quickly showed everyone that they had some explosion in them as well.  Coffeyville's defense gave the Pirates fits all afternoon and especially in the first half as the Ravens' defense just simply would not allow the Pirates to gain any type of momentum.  The first quarter ended with the Ravens leading 7-0.

Early in the second quarter, after a muffed punt by the Pirates, Coffeyville again found paydirt with the Ravens capitalizing on a 6-yard touchdown run by Raven freshman running back Dorian Lewis.  Again Taylor hit the extra point and the Ravens had a 14-0 lead at the 13:52 mark of the second quarter. 

Later in the second quarter, Independence was able to climb onto the scoreboard with a 25-yard field goal to cut the Raven lead to 14-3. 

The Red Ravens answered the Pirate 25-yard field goal with one of their own as Forrest Taylor hit a 25-yard field goal for Coffeyville at the 1:15 mark of the second quarter to allow the Red Ravens to take a 17-3 lead into halftime.

Coffeyville's defense did not let up in the third quarter as the Pirates still could not solve the Ravens' stifling defense.  At the end of the third quarter, Coffeyville was able to gain a few more points after the Ravens' sophomore punter, George Eberle, drilled a 46-yard punt that the Ravens downed at the Pirate 1-yard line.  A couple of plays later, a bad snap by Independence went out the back of the endzone and Coffeyville gained two points on the safety.  To start the fourth quarter, Coffeyville had a 19-3 lead.

The fourth quarter saw Indy mount a small comeback as they scored on a 16-yard pass to cut the lead to 19-9, however, the Pirates went for two on the extra point in order to cut the lead to a one score game.  The Raven defense was not in the mood and turned away the two-point conversion to keep the score at 19-9 and a larger two-score margin.  The remainder of the game saw the Raven offense play time management and keep away as the Raven defense stood their ground and would simply not allow the Pirate offense any leeway.  The game ended with Coffeville running one play in the victory formation to run out the clock on the 19-9 Red Raven victory.

The game stats show the defensive battle of the game.  Coffeyville put up 223 yards of total offense to Independence's 163.  As far as putting up points, Independence had come into the game second in the KJCCC averaging just a shade over 40 points per game.  The Raven defense held them to a season-low 9.

Overall, Raven quarterback Jakson Thomson went 10 of 24 in the air for 163 yards and 1 touchdown.  Red Raven freshman running back Star Thomas ran for 42 yards on 14 carries and the leading receiver for Coffeyville was freshman Bryce Childress who had 4 catches for 87 yards.

With the victory, Coffeyville secured the #1 seed in the KJCCC Football post-season tournament.  The Ravens will host the #8 seed Fort Scott on Sunday, November 7th.  The kickoff in Veterans Memorial Stadium is set for 1:00 pm.