Dodge City wins first game over Tyler after three weather delays, 1 a.m. finish

Joe Blake | @JoeBlake01

After three weather delays that pushed Dodge City Community College’s opening game of the 2024 season past 1 a.m. on Friday morning, the Conquistadors prevailed in a 20-17 win over Tyler Junior College. 

The first delay of the game happened before kickoff as both teams were removed from the field during warmups. The original kickoff that was scheduled for 7 p.m. was pushed 15 minutes. 

After Dodge City blocked a punt deep in Tyler territory, running back Stone Wilson caught a pass from Bryce Conover for the game’s first score. 

The next time Dodge City got the ball, they threw a pick six that leveled the score at 7 with 10:42 to go in the first quarter. As Tyler lined up to kick, the referees stopped play and everyone had to clear the field once again for lighting. The first delay was by far the shorter of the two delays that occurred after the game kicked off, as both teams were back out onto the field as soon as they could be.

Between the delay that started with 10:42 left in the 1st quarter and the one that began with 5:45 to go in the second, Tyler scored 10 points. The Apaches benefitted from a muffed punt and good field position to make it 14-7, and then put together a long field goal drive to make it 17-7.

The next delay spanned over two hours. Rain poured down at Memorial Stadium in Dodge City and the lightning was visible throughout the delay. Many game personnel and fans gave up hope that the game would resume, but at the risk of it being declared a no contest, both coaches were adamant about playing the game. 

It wasn’t until near 11:30 p.m. until the game resumed. In the final 5:45 of the half, Dodge City managed to get a field goal to trim the lead to 17-10. Since both teams had likely seen enough of the locker room, halftime was abbreviated. Once the two teams figured out which direction Tyler wanted to kick the ball to start the half, they were back in action.

The second half was a defensive battle. Dodge City won a field position battle that resulted in a field goal before the end of the 3rd quarter that cut the Tyler lead to 17-13.

The Conquistadors managed to take the lead after a long drive ended with them lining defensive end Chris Fitzpatrick up at fullback and giving it to him for a 3-yard plunge into the end zone for the game’s final score.

“It’s a little package we put in a couple of days ago and he was fired up then,” Dodge City head coach Ryan Lusby said. “He was standing beside me as soon as we got inside the five in my ear going ‘jumbo coach, jumbo!’ I was like, ‘you know what, you’ve been playing well all night, lets give you the rock and see what happens.’”

The Dodge City defense came up big time and time again throughout the night, (and early morning) and were able to piece together two more stops without Tyler crossing midfield to clinch their first victory of the year.

“The defense played lights out all night,” Lusby said after the game.

When the game that was scheduled to kickoff at 7 p.m. was over, it was 1:13 a.m., and there were not many people there to witness it. 

Lusby was proud of the way that his team handled the delays, as the team even got to watch the ending between North Dakota State and Colorado.

“Some guys laying down, kind of getting comfortable, some guys stayed underneath the visitors side over there and kind of threw the ball a little bit, just enough to stay a little bit loose,” Lusby said. “A lot of guys were watching the Colorado North Dakota State game for a while which was a really good game… I spent a lot of time over with Tyler and their administration… kind of watching the radar and seeing what we could do.”

The win marks Lusby’s first win as head coach in Dodge City, as he was appointed in June after Terry Karg left the position late May. It took the Conquistadors all night, but they got the job done as they will look forward to playing Garden City on Sept. 7 at 7 p.m. in their first conference game.