Photo Credit: Dean Backes/PrepsKC 
After falling behind 7-0 and 14-7 in the first half of Friday’s regular season finale, DeSoto started to push United Kansas Conference rival Basehor-Linwood around in the second half to earn a 48-21 triumph over the Bobcats.
That front line domination resulted in Brian King’s Wildcats claiming their second straight UKC championship and earning the No. 1 seed in the Kansas Class 5A East bracket when the KSHSAA state football playoffs begin next week.
“We got Jack Richards, James Dykes, Brett Tickle and then Seth Goins, Walker Brown and Kimbal Sweeney,” King said following the physical win. “Our line works hard in the weight room. When they control the line of scrimmage and get a big push, guys like Bennett Hutchison are going to make things happen.”
Hutchison did make things happen in a 27-point win in which the game was tied 14-14 at intermission. The 5-foot-11 senior finished the contest with 219 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 31 carries. King’s workhouse running back accounted for 173 of those yards and a touchdown in the crucial second half surge.
Both clubs struggled to hold onto the football in the early going. But eventually they settled in and began putting points on the scoreboard. Basehor-Linwood struck first in the opening quarter when Bobcat tight end Nash McCarty reeled in a 16-yard scoring strike from senior signal caller Brady VanDonge with four minutes, 49-seconds left in the opening quarter.
Hutchison responded nearly six minutes later when he found the end zone from four yards out early in the second quarter. Bobcat defensive back Kaleb Scott put Basehor-Linwood up for the last time when he scooped up a Wildcat fumble and raced 62 yards to the end zone with nearly nine minutes left in the opening half.
DeSoto junior tight end Joe Meehan then knotted the score at 14-14 at intermission when he hauled in junior quarterback Drew Parks’ 23-yard scoring strike with five minutes remaining in the second quarter.
The flood gates opened for the host Wildcats in the third quarter. After forcing the Bobcats to punt on their first possession of the second half, DeSoto took over at their own eight-yard line. Hutchison bailed King’s squad out with a 67-yard jaunt that set DeSoto up first-and-10 at the Basehor-Linwood 25.
Seven plays later, Hutchison scored his second TD of the contest, allowing the Wildcats to grab a 21-14 advantage and lead for the first time in the game halfway through the third quarter. Following a three and out and a punt by the Bobcats, junior running back Jayden Lang raced 53 yards for a score on the possession’s second play to put DeSoto up 28-14.
Six plays later, senior linebacker Sean Gibson recovered a Bobcat fumble at the DeSoto 28. Parks drove the Wildcats 72 yards in 10 plays and took more than four minutes off the clock. Parks’ one-yard plunge was DeSoto’s fourth straight touchdown and put the Wildcats up 34-14 with nine and a half minutes left in the contest.
On DeSoto’s next possession, Wildcat senior running back Amarion Green capped a five play, 49-yard drive with a six-yard run to put the contest out of reach at 41-14 with less than six minutes left.
Basehor-Linwood sophomore receiver Nash Morrison reeled in VanDonge’s 15-yard scoring strike to pull the Bobcats within 41-21 with just over four minutes left before Parks faked a pitch and cut up the middle on his way to a 28-yard TD run with 2:27 left.
“We just have to take it one game at a time,” King said of his team’s shot at a deep post season run. “We feel good and have to stay healthy. We have to keep plugging away and not get complacent and keep grinding. I feel like we can do some things. I’m excited.”
DeSoto will enter postseason play with a 7-1 record and a six-game winning streak while the Bobcats finish the regular season with a 5-3 record.
