Garden City, KS
The Broncbusters of Garden City looked up at the scoreboard with less than three minutes gone in the opening quarter against Iowa Western Saturday and realized that life does indeed pass you by in the blink of an eye.
The NJCAA's second-ranked squad scored on their first two offensive plays and held off the 10th ranked 'Busters (1-2), 44-27, to stay undefeated with their third win of the season.
On the opening drive, a false start penalty moved the Reivers back to their own 44-yard line before their first snap. Quarterback Hunter Watson then tossed a short pass to sophomore back Bryant Williams who was waiting wide open in front of the Iowa Western sideline. 56-yards and just 12 seconds into the game, the visitors led 7-0.
Watson would double that score after freshman receiver Lucci Fidone fielded a Garden City punt on a line-drive to set the Reivers up at their own 19-yard line. A play fake later, Watson outran the Broncbusters' defense, scoring from 81-yards out, to make the score 14-0 with 12:19 still remaining in the opening stanza.
From there the pace would slow, but Iowa Western would lead wire-to-wire as the home team, given several chances, could never draw even.
In addition to the 81-yard explosion by Watson, the QB also scored from 46-yards out, racking up 150 yards rushing to lead both teams on the day. The Reivers piled up 259 total rushing yards, with the two long runs for Watson and short blasts from Williams, Jonathan Humpal and Shawn Gary, Jr. .
The Reivers' defense got to Garden City's quarterbacks seven times on the day, picking up their first safety of the season and got stops when they needed them, but the unit was snakebit again by big plays. Garden City was able to stay within striking distance on three touchdowns of 60-yards or more, but in the end the 'Darkside' ended the day with enough stops and celebrated on the winning sideline. Outside of the three big plays, the Broncbusters' offense managed just 57 total yards.
Linebacker Ahmad Johnson led the team with nine tackles and a fumble recovery while Walt Gray was credited with the forced fumble and racked up one and a half sacks.
The Reivers moved to 5-3 overall in the series against Garden City with a three games to one advantage at Broncbuster Stadium.
Next up for IWCC is Highland. The Scotties come to Council Bluffs on a two-game skid after opening the season with an upset win over Coffeyville. HCC has never beaten the Reivers in Council Bluffs, with their lone win in the all-time series coming in 2016 at Porter Family Stadium on the Highland campus.
All the action can be heard, free of charge, on the Reiver Sports Network. The game, with Jake Ryan, Russ Nelsen, Josh Odson, and Tony Boone on the call, can also be found on Iowa Western's 100,000-watt FM radio station, 89.7 The River. The RSN Countdown to Kickoff begins at 12:30 on the radio side with the video stream starting just before kickoff at 1:00 from Lewis Central's Titan Stadium.
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