#4 Red Ravens Fall 38-7 In NJCAA Semifinal vs #1 Hutchinson

Hutchinson, Kan. -  This game was the first NJCAA Semifinal of the weekend and pitted Coffeyville against Hutchinson.  The winner of the matchup would advance to the NJCAA Championship game on December 14th in Little Rock Arkansas.

The game started as good as it could for Coffeyville as the #4 NJCAA ranked Coffeyville Community College Red Raven Football Team took the opening kick-off and marched 61 yards in ten plays on the opening drive of their NJCAA Semifinal matchup to take an early 7-0 lead against their old Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference foe, the Hutchinson Blue Dragons.  Coffeyville scored on a Romal Webb 2-yard touchdown run barely five minutes into the first quarter.  Unfortunately, that was the last score the Red Ravens were to see on the afternoon, and Coffeyville lost 38-7 to the undefeated Blue Dragons.

If there is such a thing as a close 38-7 defeat, this may have been it.  Coffeyville scored first to take a 7-0 lead, then Hutchinson scored 10 unanswered through the rest of the first half to take a 10-7 lead into halftime.  Surely, the Ravens would come out after halftime and put up some points to take back the lead.  

And early in the third, it looked like that might just be the case.  Hutchinson took the kick-off to start the third quarter and Coffeyville got a quick three and out, the resulting Hutchinson punt had Coffeyville starting their drive at the Blue Dragon 49-yard line.  After six plays, the Ravens attempted a 52-yard Forrest Taylor field goal that fell well short.  Hutchinson took over after the missed field goal and two plays later scored on a long 63-yard touchdown pass.  Instead of being tied at 10-10, the Blue Dragons took what seemed like a commanding 17-7 lead over the Red Ravens and didn't look back.

The Red Ravens started the fourth quarter trailing by that somewhat close 17-7 score and in chasing points to get back into the game, allowed the Blue Dragons Dragons to score 21 points in the final quarter to seal the 38-7 final score.  It was just not to be for the Red Ravens.

Offensively, it was not a pretty afternoon for Coffeyville.  The Red Ravens were only able to post a total of 110 yards of total offense (75 passing and 35 rushing) to Hutchinson's 460 (171 passing and 289 rushing).  The average yards per play was 6.9 for Hutchinson compared to 2.3 for Coffeyville.

Coffeyville's head coach Jeff Leiker in talking about the game said that "Giving up big plays and an inconsistent offense in the second half allowed Hutchinson to get away from us".

Coffeyville ends its season with an overall record of 8-3.