Scott City visits Concordia in regular season finale

Scott City, Kan. (westernkansasnews.com)–For a second consecutive year, the Scott City Beavers will travel to Concordia to face the Panthers in the final game of the regular season. Last year, it was a week nine game, and moved to week eight this year, since the new district formula this year has a first round playoff game in week nine.

Scott City enters tonight’s game as the District 8 Champions, and 7-0 on the season, after a 35-12 win at home over Colby last Friday night. The Beavers led 7-0 after the first quarter, 14-6 at the break, and led 22-12 after the third quarter. They added two more scores in the fourth quarter to secure their 10th consecutive district title. Scott City put up 377 yards of offense, and held Colby to 177 yards of offense. This year, the Beavers are scoring an average of 45 points per game and 383 yards of offense, while limiting opponents to just four points per game and around 119 yards of offense per contest. They are led on offense by senior Wyatt Hayes, who has rushed for around 1,100 yards and 21 touchdowns, and Parker Gooden, who is near 600 passing yards for the season in six games. Defensively, Scott City is led by Parker Vulgamore with two interceptions and 55 tackles.

Concordia is 3-4 entering tonight’s game with a 16-6 setback at rival Beloit last Friday night. All the scoring was done in the first 14 minutes, as the Trojans scored 16 first quarter points, and the Panthers scored in the first minutes of the second quarter. In the defensive struggle, Concordia had 233 yards of offense, with 133 coming on the ground, while Beloit ran for 220 yards as part of their 265-yard performance. The Panthers are mixed with several underclassmen on both sides of the ball, and will more than likely start three sophomores on offense and five sophomres on defense, and mix in freshman on both sides of the ball. Sophomore Hunter Schroeder leads the Panthers on the ground with just under 600 yards and 10 touchdowns this year, and senior quarterback Dyelan Reed has passed for just over 600 yards this season. Concordia averages just under 300 yards of offense, with a bulk of it coming on the ground, while scoring an average of 18 points a game. They’ve allowed under 300 yards of offense and 19 points per game this season.

Both teams are in the playoffs. Entering tonight, Scott City will be the top seed out of District 8, and will host the fourth place team from District 7 next week. Concordia is in the playoffs for the first time since 2015, and would be the third seed with a win tonight and a Beloit loss at Russell. A Beloit win and/or a Concordia loss will send the Panthers to Pratt next week.

The Beavers lead the series 2-0, inlcuding a come from behind win in Concordia last year 28-12. Scott City is 11-1 against teams from the North Central Kansas League, and enter with a 32-game win streak in district play.

Kickoff at Harold M. Clark Stadium in Concordia is at 7 pm, with a 6:30 pregame on Mix 94.5. You can also hear the game online at westernkansasnews.com/mix94, on the Mix 94.5 App or on TuneIn Radio.