By Brad Hallier
CANYON, Texas – Brady Whitman headed toward the steps on the north end of Bain-Schaeffer Buffalo Stadium on Wednesday evening, but it would be several minutes before the Hutchinson Community College sophomore linebacker began the ascent.
The pain was evident on Whitman’s face. Several of his teammates had the same pained look, with tears welling in their eyes. Rather than climbing the steps toward the Blue Dragon locker room, Whitman kept walking into teammates and embraced each one.
For the third time in four years, the Blue Dragons and Iowa Western met for the NJCAA national championship, and for the second time, the Blue Dragons came up short, falling 28-10.
Hutchinson beat Iowa Western in last year’s championship game, 28-23. Iowa Western won 31-0 in 2022.
“It hurts, there’s no other way to put it,” said sophomore linebacker Teegan Haines, who had six tackles and an interception. “It’s one of the worst feelings I’ve had so far. The only way to take it is to learn from it. It hurts, but it doesn’t define me as a person.”
Hutchinson’s defense gave up 409 yards but had plenty of bright spots and kept the Blue Dragons in the game until the fourth quarter.
The offense, which had a strong start on Wednesday, soon fell under an avalanche of relentless pressure from an Iowa Western defense that led the NJCAA in quarterback sacks. The Reivers, without blitzing a lot, harassed quarterback Christian Johnson and sacked him nine times.
Hutchinson finished with just 159 yards of offense and 10 first downs, three of which came on the first possession.
“Yeah it hurts,” Dallas said. “I’m just proud of this team for getting to this point. And I thought the guys played hard. We just didn’t make enough plays, and I’m really proud of how fast they started and our defense hung in there, gave us some chances, but at the end of the day these things hurt. They need to hurt and that’s how you learn from them and grow. And we’ll have a chip on our shoulder moving on for sure.”
Iowa Western won the coin toss and elected to take the ball first, but the Blue Dragons were off the field in a jiff.
“We were fired up when they wanted the ball first,” Haines said. “We took that personally, so we wanted to get a stop and put them behind.”
That’s exactly what happened. Iowa Western mustered just five yards on its first three plays, and Hutchinson took over at its 35-yard line. Johnson’s 39-yard run moved the ball inside the Iowa Western 20, and two plays later, Johnson fired a 15-yard touchdown to Derrick Salley.
After another quick Iowa Western drive, Hutchinson scored again when Alejandro de la Poza kicked a school-record 52-yard field goal – and it would have been good from at least 65 yards.
But early in the second quarter, the tide changed, as Iowa Western took advantage of the steady wind out of the south. After closing to 10-7, the Reivers took advantage of the wind by first pinning the Blue Dragons deep in their territory. Then, after the wind knocked down a Denzel More punt, a 15-yard penalty on the Blue Dragons gave the Reivers the ball at the 20-yard line.
One play later, Tre Brown caught a 20-yard touchdown pass from Malachi Marshall, and Iowa Western led for good at 14-10.
While the offense sputtered, especially against the wind, the Blue Dragons’ specialists shined. Not only did de la Poza set a school record for longest field goal and most field goals made in a season with 15, but More punted well, dropping four of his nine punts inside the 20-yard line, including one that rolled out of bounds at the Iowa Western 3-yard line.
“(The wind) played a big factor,” More said. “But it was the same for both of us. You can’t change it, and it came down to them dealing with it better.”
More’s punt that landed at the 3-yard line helped give the Blue Dragons their best chance to reclaim the lead and get momentum back in the third quarter. The defense forced a three-and-out, pushing Iowa Western back to the 2-yard line. After a punt and 11-yard return by Kordell Gouldsby, the Blue Dragons had the ball at the Iowa Western 28-yard line. But on third down from the 30, Johnson was hit when he threw the ball, and it was ruled a fumble, which Iowa Western recovered. Replays, however, showed it was likely an incomplete pass. Hutchinson, however, could not challenge as the Blue Dragons unsuccessfully challenged what they thought was an Iowa Western fumble in the first half.
Hutch got the ball back once more to go ahead, but after not scoring, Iowa Western scored on an eight-play, 87-yard drive, capped by Marshall’s 23-yard touchdown pass to Cyrus Courtney.
The Blue Dragons had just one first down the rest of the game, which came on the game’s final drive.
The loss was painful for the Blue Dragons, who aspired to win their third title in six years and win consecutive titles. And it was a rare loss, as it was just the sixth loss in Dallas’ six-year tenure.
“We played hard, but we just didn’t make plays,” Dallas said. “We’ll learn from it and grow from it. We’ll pick ourselves up. There’s no other option. We won’t fold up shop.”
