Life's a Garden, Reivers Dig Sixth Straight Win

Garden City, KS

The very first top-five showdown in what's been a competitive rivalry got overshadowed by the rule book on Saturday in Western Kansas.

Iowa Western and Garden City met at Broncbuster Stadium, fresh off the release of the jolting news that the home team had vacated their six wins on the season due to an ineligible student-athlete playing for the Broncbusters.

By the time the dust had settled in Western Kansas, it was Iowa Western (7-1) riding out of town unscathed in a 38-0 victory over a now winless Garden City (0-8).

In a statement, Garden City Director of Athletics, Mike Pilosof said, "All processes and procedures were followed to the letter of the law by the standards set forth by the NJCAA.  However, it was discovered that information was not disclosed to Garden City Community College. Once we were made aware of the situation, our athletic department immediately contacted the national office."

The NJCAA's ruling meant that Garden City vacated its previous wins over Dodge City, Coffeyville, Ellsworth, Community Christian, Independence, and Butler, erasing any chance of playing in the postseason.

The game went from one that looked to have an impact on the upcoming NJCAA Playoff season to one that would only harm the Reivers if the Broncbusters could pull out a win on their home field.

"We've told our guys, they have nothing to play for and nothing to lose, but one player doesn't make a team and regardless of what their record says now, they're still a team that's won six games and they're going to come out and try and beat you," said Reivers' Head Coach Scott Strohmeier before the game, "We have to be smart, we cannot be baited into anything that will hurt us going forward."

While the Reivers and Broncbusters were both victimized by emotional penalties, both teams kept their overall cool in a game that was controlled by the visitors.

Iowa Western went big on their first play from scrimmage, with receiver Keyon Brown picking up 39 yards on a toss from quarterback Hunter Dekkers.  The gain pushed the Reivers past 41,000 yards passing just a week after the rushing game had pushed past the 32,000 yard mark.

Those milestones don't count as points unfortunately and Garden City snuffed out the Reivers' first drive on an interception just three plays later.

The 'Darkside' wasn't playing around either, forcing a 'GC3' punt into the wind after a pair of incompletions and a short rushing gain.

The punt into the wind placed the visitors just outside of home territory and seven plays later Iowa Western punched their way onto the scoreboard on a Daniel Swinney run. The running back scored from seven yards out on 1st and goal with a quick run after a great block on the outside from tight end Deandre Horn.

With the score 7-0 the defense continued to play their best game of the season forcing a pair of punts as the Reivers' offense cooled.

Garden City finally marched into Reivers territory, but that drive was halted by the 'Darkside' with just under seven minutes on the clock leading the Broncbuster special teams to attempt to break on to the scoreboard with a 39-yard field goal.

The attempt was blocked by defensive lineman Antonio Sandel-Bascomb and Iowa Western recovered the loose ball in GCCC territory, but the recovery man, Jaden Turner, was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct after kicking the ball to the sideline sending the start of the Reivers' possession back into their own territory.

The miscue turned out to be no problem for Dekkers and the offense as they scored nine plays later. The redshirt-sophomore completed five passes of the drive, including a two-yard floater to tight end Naivyan Cargill for his first career touchdown as a Reiver and a 14-0 lead for the visitors into the half.

"We've had a couple of breakdowns with penalties", said Coach Strohmeier at the half, "overall though, I'm pleased with our play, we just need to stay away from their efforts to draw us into things that are gonna hurt us. We need to play the way we're capable of playing and we should be good, let's go win another half."

A quick three-and-out for the GCCC offense and another punt into the wind gave the Reivers great field position once more as IWCC took over at the Broncbuster 39-yard line.

Two plays later it was touchdown number three. After a run by receiver Fresh Walters, Dekkers found receiver Titus Myers in stride from 31-yards out for his team leading, sixth receiving touchdown of the year.

Another three-and-out for the Broncbusters led to another nail into the coffin as Dekkers and the offense found their groove in the second half.

A 12 play, 78 yard drive was capped by another Daniel Swinney score. The running back from Louisville, Kentucky gained 21 yards on the drive with a two-yard touchdown run pushing the advantage to four scores for Iowa Western at 28-0. It was the redshirt freshman's third multiple score game of the season as he moved past the 500 yard plateau on the day.

Iowa Western grabbed their first interception of the season late in the third quarter when Jaylen Boehm-Peterson grabbed an errant pass off the arm of GCCC's Tyler Nelson. The pick ended a string of seven straight contests without an interception, the longest streak in program history.

Boehm-Peterson's takeaway gave the Reiver offense the ball at the IWCC 40 at the back end of the quarter and IWCC nearly grabbed a score before the clock expired with Dekkers and crew moving inside the Broncbuster 10-yard line as the third quarter came to a close. 

After an incompletion on 3rd and goal, Max Bartachek blasted a 25-yard field goal through the uprights for a 31-0 lead. With the kick, Bartachek passed former Reiver Eddie Ogamba for sole possession of fifth place on the all-time scoring list for kickers. The sophomore from Waukee now has 119 career points, 13 shy of Bobby Patterson's two-year total for fourth place and 24 from tying Lance Irvin's one season total. Irvin's total still stands at the top mark in the NJCAA record book.

The Reivers would add one more score before the conclusion of the game as the tight end group was well rewarded on the day for a season full of hard work. Owen Gish caught his first career touchdown as Dekkers rolled out to the near side and found the redshirt-sophomore for an easy score. Collectively the group hauled in eight passes with two touchdowns, both career firsts for Gish and Naivyan Cargill.

Iowa Western continued a streak, that now stands at 14 games, of gaining 300 yards or more on offense. It's the third longest streak in program history.

The 'O' collected 426 yards on the day with Dekkers tossing three scores and 280 yards through the air, moving him into sole possession of fifth place on the all-time Reivers passing yards chart. Dekkers passed Kai Locksley (2017), Zach Stoudt (2010), and Tay Bender (2013-14) in the process. Zach Martin & Connor Bravard look to be within reach in the Reivers' next three games.

IWCC ground out 146 yards rushing with a pair of scores, the second touchdown by Daniel Swinney was the 900th program touchdown in 15+ seasons of football in The Bluffs.

With three regular season games remaining and on a Saturday full of ranked match-ups, the Reivers took care of business in blowout fashion. The playoff picture for the Reivers is getting clearer, but the overall look did get muddied a bit during the week's action. To start with Butler upset Hutchinson, the #13 Grizzlies knocked the top-ranked Blue Dragons from the ranks of the unbeaten with a 27-22 victory. #3 Georgia Military grabbed a huge overtime win on the road to hand #4 Snow their second loss of the season, and #12 Tyler knocked off #9 Kilgore to clinch the SWJCFC regular season title. #7 Mississippi Gulf Coast beat the NJCAA's other previously undefeated team in sixth-ranked Holmes in a Thursday night match-up.  #8Northwest Mississippi, #10 Lackawanna, #11 Navarro, #14 East Central and #15 Coffeyville all picked up wins in other action versus unranked opponents. It will be an interesting unveiling of this week's rankings when they're released on Monday with both Coffeyville and Butler picking up a pair of weekend wins due to Garden City's situation.

Butler is next on the docket for IWCC. The Grizzlies not only picked up an upset win over Hutchinson over the weekend, but also improved in the win column with Garden City's forfeit of last week's win in El Dorado. The Reivers own a surprising 8-2 record against Butler. The two teams' first meeting came in the 2012 NJCAA National Championship game and the second a year later with both games played in the 'UNIdome' in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The 2013 match-up, a 6-0 IWCC victory, still stands as the only game Iowa Western has not scored a touchdown in.

Since those initial meetings, the Reivers and Grizzlies have treated fans to several instant classics, including last year's Top 10 match-up in El Dorado where the Reivers were forced to hold off a furious Butler rally to win, 28-21. The Grizzlies, Dodge City, and Highland are the only Jayhawk Conference opponents that the Reivers have met 10 or more times with the teams meeting in the postseason or during the regular season outside of the scheduling agreement between the two leagues.

Game time is set for 1:00 PM in what will be the 2024 regular season home finale. Iowa Western hopes to be one of two teams to host an NJCAA semi-final game, but they'll need to close out the final three regular season games first, which will be no easy task.

The free Reivers' tailgate party begins approximately two hours before kickoff in the parking lot to the west of the main entrance of Titan Stadium. The tailgate is generously provided by Barley's Bar & Grill and features freshly grilled hamburgers and hotdogs in addition to varying accouterments.

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 AM from Titan Stadium with kickoff a half an hour later.

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