Scott City runs past Smoky Valley
Scott City, Kan. (westernkansasnews.com)–First two times Scott City and Smoky Valley matched up, they played to a combined eight points, with the Beavers winning both games. Friday’s Week 9 Playoff game was set to be a knock out, drag out game. While the Vikings delivered the first blow of the game on the very first play from scrimmage, it was Scott City delivering a knockout punch, as they took out Smoky Valley in a 41-6 win at Darner Field.
Smoky Valley took the opening kick, as Nolan Dauer returned the kick 56 yards to the Beaver 32 yard line. On the first play from scrimmage, quarterback Karson Pihl scored from 32 yards out to give the Vikings the early 6-0 lead, just 20 seconds into the game. The two-point conversion failed. Scott City answered back right away on their first offensive possession. Lawson Bailey took the sweep, and ran 75 yards for the touchdown to give the Beavers a 7-6 lead, with the Freddy Saenz PAT, at the 11:21 mark of the first quarter. Two plays after a Viking punt, Scott City extended their lead with a Jace Thomas 52 yard run with 6:59 left in the first quarter to go up 14-6 with the Saenz extra point. Smoky Valley would run 12 plays and burn up nearly five minutes of the first quarter clock. Their drive ended at the Scott City 19.
The Beavers weren’t done scoring in the first frame. A four-play, 81-yard drive was finished off with a 64-yard touchdown pass from Dylan Metzger to Thomas to put the Beavers up 21-6, with the Saenz kick. That was Scott City’s longest drive of the season.
Neither team scored in the second quarter, as the defenses dominated the period, and Scott City took a 21-6 lead into the break.
To open up the second half, Thomas would take the shovel pass from Metzger 46 yards to the Viking 22. Three plays later, Brady Welker punched it in from a yard to make it a 27-6 Beaver lead with 1:14 off the second half clock. Smoky Valley would put together a five-minute drive to open up the third quarter, but a fumble on fourth down ended the drive at the Scott City 25 yard line. The Beavers would take a lead of 27-6 in to the fourth period.
Alex Tarango picked off a Smoky Valley pass to begin the fourth quarter, setting the Beavers up at the Viking 28 yard line. On second down from the four yard line, Metzger found Jackson Rumford on the very back of the end zone for a touchdown to push the lead to 34-6 with 10:36 left. Scott City would score one final time on improvision. A five-play, 51-yard drive that took 2:03 off the clock was finished off with a 40-yard pass play to Lawson Bailey from Dylan Metzger to make the score 41-6 with 3:45 left, as Freddy Saenz booted in the extra point. The Beavers had the reserves in after that, as they forced a turnover and ran out the clock, as Scott City won 41-6.
The Beavers finished with 440 yards of offense with 233 through the air. Dylan Metzger went 10-13 passing for 213 yards with three touchdowns, all career high’s. Jace Thomas had a career-best 109 yards receiving on two receptions and a touchdown. On the ground, Lawson Bailey had 129 yards rushing on six carries and a touchdown.
For Smoky Valley, Karson Pihl was 5-17 passing for 47 yards with an interception. Vincent Pickering was their leading receiver with 27 yards on three catches. Justice Autry unofficially had 74 yards on 17 carries, as the Vikings rushed for 164 yards, and had 211 yards of offense for the game.
With the win, Scott City improves to 21-3 all-time in Week 9/Bi-District games and are now 54-22 all-time in their 27th playoff appearance. The Beavers are now 3-0 against Smoky Valley, and are 52-15 versus current Central Kansas League schools. Smoky Valley ended their season at 4-5, and dropped to 7-10 in Week 9/Bi-District playoff games.
Scott City is now 8-1 on the season, which matches their most wins since 2019. They will face the Cheney Cardinals in the Regional round of the Class 3A playoffs next Friday. Cheney defeated Hugoton 28-7 at home on Friday, as they improved to 7-2 on the year. Their lone losses are to 9-0 Kingman and 9-0 Andale. It will be the first meeting between the Beavers and Cardinals since 2019, when Cheney beat Scott City 37-6 in the Sectional round of the Class 3A playoffs in Scott City.
Assistant Coach Derek Brau Postgame
