Trailing most of the game until the final minute of the contest Highland battled through adversity and the heat to extend their winning streak over Fort Scott to six straight games and open the 2018 season 1-0 after scoring late and holding on for the 29-28 win on the new turf football field at Porter Family Stadium.

Scotties found themselves down by two scores in the first half as Fort Scott busted off a 77-yard touchdown run by quarterback, Gunner See for the first score of the game coming with 8:05 left in the first quarter. The Greyhounds extended their lead taking advantage of a short field because of the Scotties second fumble of the game and shortly into the second quarter Fort Scott made it 14-0.

The Scottie offense broke through in the second quarter and put together their first scoring drive of the season that featured a 25-yard run by freshman runningback, Michael Thomas and was punctuated by sophomore quarterback, Avery McCall with a one-yard touchdown run to make it 14-7 with 7:20 left in the first half. Scottie offense drove 72 yards on nine plays to tally the score.

Defense stepped up just like last year and made a big play and found the endzone on their side of the ball as sophomore safety, Darius Johnson who lead the team in interceptions last year picked off his first pass of the 2018 season and returned it 70-yards to paydirt. With the extra point the Scotties tied the game at 14-14 with just over three minutes left in the first half.

Fort Scott had an answer before halftime marching down the field in eight plays covering 65 yards with See rushing for his third touchdown of the day this time a four-yard scamper giving the Greyhounds the 21-14 lead at the half.

After trading drives in the second half the Scotties broke through first out of the half as freshman kicker, Ryan Schemtob split the up rights for a 30-yard field goal to bring Highland within four points at 21-17. Fort Scott just 52 seconds later had an answer as See connected with wide receiver, Kolby Easley for a 62-yard touchdown pushing the lead to 11 points with 3:48 remaining in the third quarter.

Both teams mounted drives late in the third quarter and early in the fourth but the turnover bug bite Highland again and Fort Scott miss fired on a field goal. Highland cut into the lead again with 10:27 remaining in the game as Thomas punched in a 13-yard touchdown and the Scotties went for two to make it a three-point game but the attempt failed and it was 28-23. Fort Scott looked again to have another answer but they missed a 25-yard field goal try and the Scotties got the ball back for what would be the game winning drive.

With 5:50 remaining the Scotties mounted a drive and converted a big fourth down to keep the drive rolling and Thomas reached the goal line but fumbled into the endzone and sophomore wideout, Antoine Thompson recovered the ball for the Scottie touchdown giving Highland the 29-28 lead. Highland once again went for two but was unable to convert and held the one-point lead with 1:02 remaining.

Fort Scott tried to mount something late but had no timeouts to work; however managed a 59-yard attempt on the final play of the game that fell short and gave Highland the comeback 29-28 victory.

"I thought we were tough today. We said it before the game that I thought the tougher team would win. Late in the fourth quarter we showed that we were the tougher football team; that's why we were able to drive down there and finally punch one in. Tougher teams are going to have to rise up and our guys did a great job and I'm really proud of them," said Head Coach Aaron Arnold about the comeback win.

Highland overcame four turnovers in the contest and used the run game to lead the way rushing for 281 yards as a team led by Thomas who ran for 129 yards on 21 carries with a touchdown. Sophomore runningback's, Justin Ruiz and Kevin Brown added 73 and 71 yards on the ground each. While on defense sophomore linebacker, Reco Hannah led the charge with 11 tackles and two sacks.

Scotties continue the season next Saturday, September 1st when they travel to Iowa Falls, IA to play Ellsworth (0-1) who lost 30-12 at Hutchinson in their season opener.