Two days before his team was set to play in its biggest game of the season, Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College Coach Drew Dallas spoke at length that his already tight-knit team got even tighter when covid-19 hit last year, particularly because it taught them how to stick together whenever they're faced with a bout of adversity.
On Saturday, that unexpected learning tool helped the Blue Dragons become the first team to win a National Junior College Athletic Association football title in the pandemic-stricken era.
"We just battled our tails off against a really good football team," said a smiling Dallas, who finished off his historic first season as the Blue Dragons coach by leading the team to a 29-27 victory over No. 2 Snow (Utah) College in the championship game at War Memorial Stadium. "I couldn't really tell you what happened during the course of the game, I just know we came out on top at the end."
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Finishing at the top of the NJCAA mountain was the ultimate goal the day Dallas assumed control of the Blue Dragons' program in December of 2019.
The victory was a fitting end to the season for Hutchinson (8-0), which got 139 yards rushing and two touchdowns from the game's Most Valuable Player, Tye Edwards, and 73 yards on the ground and two additional scores from his backfield sidekick, Anwar Lewis, to capture its first-ever national title.
However, the Blue Dragons didn't take their first lead of the game until Lewis' 3-yard touchdown run with 12:48 left in the fourth quarter and trailed 14-0 before the midway point of the first quarter.
"We had to just stay up and keep playing how we've been playing," said linebacker Tre Pinkney, who picked off a pass from Snow backup quarterback Gave Sweeten with 1:11 left in the fourth quarter to seal the win. "We didn't give up at all. We just had to stick to the game plan and make it work."
Earlier in the week, Dallas praised how his Blue Dragons have been able to navigate through the perilous times the country is going through because of the coronavirus. After being promoted from offensive coordinator to head coach when Rion Rhoades resigned to join Sam Pittman's staff at the University of Arkansas, Dallas made it his business to build his team in a calculated way. According to him, that meant no looking ahead, no lapses in judgment and no short cuts. Just day-to-day work and week-to-week preparation.
But even the team that's been No. 1 in the NJCAA rankings all season long couldn't have foreshadowed the trouble they'd be in almost from the start.
Before Saturday's game, Hutchinson had trailed just twice all year for a total of 16:38 in games against Arkansas Baptist and Independence (Kan.). The Blue Dragons eventually outscored both by a combined 90-32 to win, but Snow scored on 8- and 69-yard touchdown passes from Garrison Beach within the game's first 15 plays to just out to a double-digit lead.
Hutchinson began to show signs of life on its third drive when it moved from its own 29 to the Badgers' 5. Yet, the Blue Dragons weren't able to pick up any yardage in three consecutive plays – the final two of which were a dropped pass in the end zone and another one caught out of bounds – and had to settle for a 22-yard field goal from C.J. Moya.
Snow (8-1) seemingly zapped even more life out of the Blue Dragons when it stopped them on fourth-and-inches from Hutchinson's 31. Fortunately for the Blue Dragons, the Badgers couldn't capitalize.
Hutchinson, nevertheless, regained the momentum it'd lost on its previous possession by hitting the Badgers quickly on its next series. Edwards, whom Snow Coach Zac Erekson was leery of coming in, took a handoff and raced 68 yards down the right sideline for a touchdown with 14:37 left in the second quarter.
"We go by a certain motto," Edwards explained. "Our coach told us that every time we get the ball, run to score. Me and Anwar, that's what we try to do. The running back group, there's no jealousy and nothing like that. It's a brotherhood.
"If one person is out there making plays, we cheer them on. We go out and try to get the job done."
Snow built its lead to 21-10 late in the third quarter on an 11-yard scoring run from Mekhi Lewis, but Erekson's team begin to experience some tough times of their own. The Badgers, who'd missed three field goals in the first half, lost Beach in that third quarter when he injured his left leg on a hard hit. He'd completed 11 of 16 passes for 185 yards up until that point. With him out, Snow's offense struggled.
Hutchinson, on the other hand, surged. Lewis's 29-yard score pulled the Blue Dragons within 21-16, and his touchdown in the fourth put them out front. Edwards added a 1-yard score with 7:27 left in the game to push Hutchinson's lead to 29-21.
Snow got a 6-yard score from Sweeten with 4:50 remaining to cut their deficit to two, but his two-point conversion pass failed. The Badgers got the ball back with 1:19 showing before Pinkney's final interception prompted a wild celebration along Hutchinson's sideline.
"The only way to get [to the national title game] was to be 1-0 every week, and our guys knew that," Dallas said. "We talked to them early in the season, told them that this was our ultimate goal, and our path to get to it was to win one game at a time. You can't go out on Saturdays and win two football games, you can only win one of them.
"For a team as close as we are, I couldn't be more proud of how they responded to adversity because that's really been the theme of this football season, especially with covid and all that stuff going on. Had a lot of adversity, we fought back and made the most of our opportunity."