Walk-off pick six seals Garden City's OT win in Coffeyville

Coffeyville, KS-"BoBo" McKinnon took a rather arduous path to Garden City. He was an all-state defensive back at Dillon High School in South Carolina, who signed a letter of intent with Highland in the spring of 2021. That year, he played in only five games for a program that finished 2-7.  

It would take another three years for the now sophomore defensive back to get another shot to play, and it was Kiyoshi Harris that welcomed him with open arms. 

On Saturday night, with their season on life support, it was McKinnon that made one of the biggest defensive plays in the storied history of the program. 

McKinnon's electrifying 86-yard pick-six in overtime helped secure a 29-23 heart-stopping victory over Coffeyville at Veterans Memorial Stadium. 

"They're not always pretty" Harris said afterwards. "But you take them any way you can get them. Tonight, we figured out a way to win. 

Never mind the fact that Coffeyville had two chances to win the game at the end of regulation. The first of which came after Brec Long reeled in Carson Creehan's line-drive pass along the right sideline at the Broncbuster 39 for 15 yards on third-and-13. After the drive stalled at the Garden City 36, Roan McCarthy pushed a 49-yard field wide left. But Garden City was flagged for running into the kicker, giving the Red Ravens another shot. 

"We should never even have been in that situation," Harris said. 

Fortunately, McCarthy's encore kick missed wide right, sending the game into overtime.  

But as Harris mentioned, the contest should never have been extended. 

With the game tied at 23, Garden City was driving late in the fourth. Zo'marion Harper, who replaced starting quarterback, Liam Oczkowski, who was filling in for the injured Tyler Nelson, connected with Dejuan Lacy on a screen pass for 22 yards that set the Broncbusters up near midfield. But on second-and-1, Kameron Cyprien punched the ball out of backup tailback Julius Tikoisuva's arms, and Frederick Giles recovered for Coffeyville at the Garden City 47. 

"If we don't fumble there, we probably run the clock down and kick a field goal," Harris said. "But we gave them a chance."

And the way this game played out for most of the night, it was only fitting that it was decided in overtime. 

With Nelson sidelined and Oczkowski struggling, Harris turned to Harper, the second-year player who transferred to Garden City from Iowa Central last season. 

The sophomore did not disappoint. 

Midway through the third, Harper, using a heavy dose of option reads, engineered a 10-play, 68-yard scoring drive, and his 21-yard run on third-and-4 kept the march alive. Six plays later, Tikoisuva powered in from four yards out, and the game was tied at 23.  

"There are a lot of things to correct, that's for sure," Harris said.  

Of obvious concern was the run defense, which surrendered 220 yards on the ground. Tre'avis Jones carried the ball 21 times for 150, and De'Andre Kelly finished with 17 carries for 56. But, when they needed crucial stops in the second half, Steve McCollom's unit came up in a big-time way. 

"We made the plays that we had to make," Harris added. 

After Garden City grabbed an early 3-0 lead on the back of Tanner Rinker's 25-yard field goal in the first quarter, Coffeyville responded with 14 straight points. Creehan hit Yetxiel Perez Gilbes for a 10-yard touchdown pass, and Kelly added a three-yard scoring run late in the first period to make it 14-3.  

That's when the defense made its' first real stand of the night.  

After Garden City's offense was forced to punt early in the second, Creehan was picked off by Jeremiah Caldwell, who raced 29 yards to the end zone to bring the Broncbusters back to within five, 14-9.  

But disaster struck the next time the Broncbusters had the ball. Backed up inside their own five, Oczkowski hit J'Kharri Thomas on a screen. However, the wide out went backwards and was eventually tackled in the end zone by Lonnie Burt for a safety. 

Garden City though forced Coffeyville to punt on its ensuing possession, which eventually setup Harper's one-yard touchdown run that tied the game at 16.  

"We did a lot of good things, but we had way too many mistakes again," Harris said.  

The Red Ravens, which dropped to 2-1 overall and 0-1 in conference, went back on top late in the first half behind Kelly's three-yard rushing touchdown that polished off a 10-play, 75-yard drive that chewed up nearly three minutes.  

It was 23-16 at the break.  

Garden City missed an opportunity to tie the score at the beginning of the third when Mohamed Altayeb stripped the ball away from Jones, and Nathan Baudry recovered at the Coffeyville 47. But the Broncbusters followed that up by going three-and-out. 

It also did not help that every time it appeared that the Broncbusters had made a key defensive stop, that a yellow flag was somewhere in the vicinity. Case in point-on Coffeyville's second possession of the fourth, Zachariah Siulepa made a tremendous individual effort to sack Creehan on third-and-13. But Garden City was called for a personal foul face mask giving the Red Ravens an automatic first down. Throw in the roughing -the-kicker call at the end of the fourth, and it was definitely a night of near misses.  

In the end though, the Broncbusters found a way to capture a huge conference victory.  

Dejuan Lacy finished the night with 126 yards rushing on 22 carries for Garden City, which improved to 2-1 overall and 2-0 in the Jayhawk. University of Miami transfer, Tyler Lassiter tallied a team-best 11 tackles and one momentum-shifting sack in the fourth quarter, and the defense forced three more turnovers.  

Creehan went 16-of-29 for 161 yards, one touchdown and one interception for Coffeyville before he was knocked out of the game on the first possession of overtime.