Anwar Lewis rushes for 217 yards, leads Hutchinson Blue Dragons' to long-awaited first win of the season

Saturday night's win was much needed and long-awaited, and Hutchinson Blue Dragons running back Anwar Lewis played a vital role in that. 

The Hutchinson Blue Dragons earned their first win of the 2021 fall season, routing the Fort Scott Greyhounds 55-6 Saturday at Gowans Stadium in Hutchinson.

Good timing too. With the win, the Blue Dragons head into the next week's matchup as winners to play Garden City, who lost to Independence in a battle of national top-10 teams.

"Wins are hard to come by in college football," Hutchinson Community College head football coach Drew Dallas said. "Even though at times you feel like you're pulling teeth, our guys competed. They played hard. The energy and intensity was there. Of course, the game went on, and that was fun to watch."

Lewis becomes the first Blue Dragon to rush for more than 200 yards since 2014. Lewis picked up the rushing load after 2021 spring NJCAA national football championship MVP running back Tye Edwards was ruled out for the game Saturday.

"Any time you average 11 yards a carry is pretty special," Dallas said. "It's really fun to watch Anwar play. He had 19 carries tonight, you know, a lot of touches, and he did a great job every time. The fun thing about him is if we fit the front five or six right and get him the second or third level, there's a good opportunity he's going to make a guy miss. Any time he gets to showcase that in the open space is fun to watch. He can make guys miss pretty easily."

Additionally, quarterback Daisean Cash threw his first career passing touchdown to Rykem Ferguson-Laney late in the third quarter. Another first was Tim Byrd Jr.'s first career rushing touchdown with 11:20 in the fourth quarter.

The Blue Dragons defense also held the Greyhounds to -26 rushing yards and 164 passing yards for 138 net total yards. The defense also created four takeaways, including an early fumble in the first quarter to set up touchdown and an interception by Emmanuel Mann in the fourth quarter to seal the deal.

Someone who has had a rough start to the season is starting quarterback Dylan Laible, but Saturday he was hitting his receivers and reads correctly, minus some dropped passes. Laible was 13 for 24 with 132 yards and a touchdown pass.

Now, the Blue Dragons will move on to Garden City. 

The last time the Blue Dragons played in Garden City is still a disturbing image in Dallas' head. It's still early without having started a game plan, but Dallas talked about the challenge ahead of playing on the road before facing another top-10 team in Independence back in Hutchinson the following week.

"We're going to be up for the challenge," Dallas said. "Garden City will be hungry coming off a loss.

With the league being so tough, the 1-0 mentality could apply with some emphasize next week in practice heading into Saturday's game.

"Not a fun place to go play," Dallas said. "We'll be hungry. We're going to be out there. For us, it's one game at a time (and) find a way to get better every day when we get the opportunity out in the practice field and get to go show those improvements next Saturday night."