Box Score The Conquistador Football team once again put together an impressive drive to score late the in the game on Saturday, but in the end came up short against Butler Community College. The Grizzlies escaped Memorial Stadium with a 33 to 30 win in double overtime against Dodge City.
Dodge City started the game with a methodical 10 play drive that lasted five and a half minutes. In the end it resulted in a 37 yard field goal from Devonta Guillory to give the Conqs a 3-0 lead. Butler would answer with a field goal of their own on the ensuing drive to tie the game up at three. The Grizzly defense stiffened on the next drive and forced a punt from Dodge City's Lewis Halton. The Conq defense also found their footing on the next drive and forced a Butler punt with under a minute left in the first half. This would be the first big play of the day for Daquan Bailey-Brown. Brown managed to get around the back wall for Butler and block Tyler Zenter's punt to set the Conq offense up at the Butler 29. Time would run out on the first quarter with the score remaining tied at three.
Dodge City would take advantage of the blocked punt by driving all the way down to the Butler four yard line, but could not get the ball into the end zone. They once again settled for a Guillory field goal to take a 6-3 lead. Butler's offense found a way to move the ball on their next possession. They drove the ball 75 yards on 15 plays and took a 10-6 lead with a Trae Self touchdown pass to Rhett Weidenbacher. Each team would trade punts again before Bailey-Brown provided his second big play of the half. After a personal foul penalty moved the ball from inside their own ten yard line to the Conq 23, Drew Harris found Bailey-Brown behind the Butler defensive secondary and hit him for a 77 yard touchdown pass to give Dodge City the lead back at 13-10. The Conq defense forced a three and out on the next Grizzly possession, but the clock ran out on Dodge sending the teams to half with the Conqs leading by three.
Both teams had short unproductive drives to begin the second half and once again traded punts on their first possessions. Butler then put together another long drive as they went 79 yards on 10 plays and Self hooked up with Weidenbacher for the pair's second touchdown connection of the day. That gave Butler the lead back at 17-13. The two teams again traded punts before Dodge City's offense found a little footing of their own. They put together an 80 yard drive on seven plays with the big play being a pass from receiver Kyle Jones to fullback Zachary Hughes for a 38 yard gain. Harris finished this drive with his second touchdown pass on the day, this time a five yarder to Anthony Watkins. With that score the Conqs returned to the lead by a 20-17 count. Time would run out in the third quarter with Dodge City holding that three point lead.
Butler would strike first in the fourth quarter on another methodical drive. They once again used up 10 plays to cover 68 yards this time finishing with a Je'Kevius Vickers three yard touchdown run to give Butler the lead back at 24-20. After Harris was intercepted by  Tay Gowan, Zentner struck for a Grizzly field goal to give Butler a 27-20 lead which was the first time either team led by more than four points in the game. The Conqs got the ball back with 5:18 remaining in the game and put together their most sustained drive of the day at a perfect time. They drove the ball 80 yards on 12 plays, including twice converting on fourth down. The second fourth down conversion was a Harris to Terrell Warner eight yard touchdown pass to tie the game with just 58 seconds remaining in regulation. Time would run out with the teams tied at 27 to send the game to overtime.
Butler got the ball first in overtime and managed to drive to the Conq four yard line, but had to settled for a field goal to go up 30-27. Dodge City had the ball second and goal at the Butler four yard line, but two incomplete passes forced a fourth down. Guillory stepped in and tied the game again at 30 sending the game to a second overtime. In the second overtime Dodge City got the ball first. After another two incomplete passes, Harris was sacked to force Guillory to try a 50 yard field goal. The Grizzlies got a good push up front and blocked the field goal. On their next drive, Butler managed to get their third field goal of the game, a 35 yarder from Zentner, to give them the 33-30 victory.
"I am proud of the way the guys fought all night," said head coach Gary Thomas. "We stayed in there and competed on both sides of the ball against a very big and physical team. In the end we ran out of gas a little in the second overtime."
The loss drops the Conqs to 2-3 overall and 0-3 in Jayhawk Conference action. They will return to action with a non-conference game at 1:00pm on Saturday in Council Bluffs, IA against Iowa Western.