Box Score DODGE CITY, Kan. -- A dominating performance by the 19th-ranked Dodge City Community College defense helped the Conquistadors overcome five turnovers and shaky special teams to come away with a 27-7 victory over Iowa Central on Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium.

DC3 (6-2 overall) allowed only 93 yards, generated two safeties and forced more punts by the Tritons (nine) than allowed first downs (seven).

"(The defense) did an outstanding job considering they had their backs against the wall a lot," DC3 coach Gary Thomas said. "... It was the good, the bad and the ugly for us. The good was our defense and that we guaranteed ourselves a winning season. The the bad was our offense - the special teams specifically. We had five negative plays on special teams - we had three bad snaps on punts, one on an extra point and a dropped punt return. All of those put us in a disadvantage and we just got to be better."

The Conqs appeared they were going to run away from Iowa Central (2-5) in the first quarter as the defense was stellar and the offense was clicking.

After forcing a three and out on the Tritons' first possession of the game, DC3's Tommy Lazzaro hit Douglas Butts on a short pass and the freshman turned it into a 42-yard touchdown with shifty moves to avoid several defenders and make it 7-0 with 11:41 left in the first quarter.

Once again the DC3 defense forced a three and out on Iowa Central's second possession and the Conqs turned it into an impressive 54-yard field goal by Dillon Burkhard to make it 10-0. The long field goal (which cleared by at least five yards) was one yard short of his career high of 55 set last season.

Another defensive stop by the Conqs gave the ball back to them at their own 20 with 2:39 left in the first quarter.

DC3 didn't need long to navigate the 80 yards as a 22-yard pass from Lazzaro to Kristofer Messer followed by a 29-yard touchdown pass from Lazzaro to Jeff George capped the six-play drive that lasted 2:28 to make it 16-0 (a bad snap on the extra-point attempt cost the Conqs a point).

In the first quarter alone, DC3 outgained Iowa Central 150-30.

However, the DC3 offense struggled to gain traction consistently following the first quarter. Thanks to a solid defensive effort though (which included the two safeties and a Marquise Blair interception), the Conqs outgained the Tritons 183-63 over the final three quarter to come away with the 20-point victory.

"We have to clean up so many aspects of what we do," Thomas said. "We are a very good football team. When we play well, it is very difficult to beat us and we've proved it. We are four seconds from being 7-1 (lost to Iowa Western in the final seconds) and then our only loss would be to the No. 3 team in the country (Butler). ...

"We are on the verge."

Lazzaro finished 13-for-20 passing for 180 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. He also rushed for 44 yards (78 not including four sacks taken).

Butts caught a team-best five passes for DC3 for 61 yards and a touchdown and George caught four passes for 51 yards and two scores.

Mark Thompson led the ground game for the Conqs, rushing for 114 yards on 18 attempts.

Linebacker Gary Johnson accounted for eight solo tackles and 12 assisted tackles to lead the DC3 defense while Blair had 6.5 tackles, two sacks and an interception. Overall, the Conqs held the Tritons to 38 yards rushing on 37 attempts while allowing only 55 yards through the air.

The Conqs are off until they face the Sterling College JV on Oct. 26 (a Monday) in Sterling, Kan.