Time to get the kinks out: TJC here Saturday

Photo by Lester Murray RUN! — Kilgore College tailback LaRon Elmer (4) of Mesquite outruns Fort Scott's Owen Gill to the end zone. The Rangers lost, though, to Fort Scott, 40-20, last weekend. Saturday, they'll get a non-conference shot against Tyler Junior College, to be played here at 7 p.m. The Southwestern Junior College Football Confernce — Texas' junior college football conference that prides itself as maybe the toughest JUCO football conference in the country — went 5-3 last weekend in games against the Kansas-based Jayhawk Conference.

Unfortunately, Kilgore College wasn't celebrating one of the four victories.

The Rangers dropped their season opener here at R.E. St. John Memorial Stadium to a team they had defeated in a bowl game in December 2006, Fort Scott, Kan., a team that had a dynamic wide receiver in Tyler Fleming and a more-than-capable tailback in Jasmin Hopkins.

KC coach J.J. Eckert knew his team had a few questions coming into the season, including who would take over at quarterback and an offensive line with not a lot of junior college football experience. The Rangers walked off the field with maybe more questions than answers as they prepare for probably their biggest arch rival, the Tyler Junior College Apaches, on Saturday.

Photos by Lester Murray ANOTHER KILGORE FOOTBALL WEEKEND — Kilgore High School's Sabit Bauta (9) and Shaun Edwards (30) pull down a Carthage player (above). Right: Kilgore College cornerback Jimmy Anderson (2) goes up for a ball against Fort Scott receiver Tyler Fleming (84). Both KHS and KC are in action this week — KHS visits Hallsville on Friday night, and KC hosts Tyler on Saturday. This game is the first of two games between the teams this year: this game is non-conference and the one to be played at Rose Stadium in Tyler on Oct. 11 will count in the conference standings.

TJC's Apaches (1-0) beat Independence, 28-14, last weekend in the conference-versus-conference battle between Texas and Kansas. The Apaches are once again coached by Danny Palmer, who went 5-4 last year in his first season as TJC head coach, 3-3 in conference play.

TJC has a strong trio of players on offense in quarterback Steven Schwark and tailbacks Ira Duckworth and Chris Davis. Also, the Apaches have a former Kilgore High School standout, linebacker Rick Thomas, a 2007 KHS graduate.

The biggest concern for KC might not be TJC, but getting matters fixed themselves. The Rangers' offense was led by four different players at quarterback, with Woody McClendon, an All- American tight end, former Hallsville quarterback Shane Fry and Lane Johnson, a freshman from Groveton, getting the bulk of the playing time. McClendon, who started and played the first two series, had a second-half touchdown pass to Cortez Smith that Smith managed to take for a 42-yard touchdown. Each of the three quarterbacks got more than one series, with Johnson getting most of the playing time in the fourth

Another bright spot for KC was the play of running back LaRon Elmer, a Mesquite native. Elmer had a 23-yard touchdown run in the game, tying it in the first half, and finished with 104 yards on 17 carries.

But the Fort Scott Greyhounds had a big offensive day from three key players: quarterback Zach Dickey, wide receiver Tyler Fleming and tailback Jasmin Hopkins. Dickey went 13-of-25 for 213 yards and had three touchdowns, all three to Fleming, who also caught one on a fake field goal. Fleming had seven catches, and four scores, as mentioned. Hopkins did his share of damage, too, rushing for 200 yards on 44 carries.

KC will get this game with Tyler to tune things up, then take an open date on Sept. 13 before opening conference play at Navarro in Corsicana on Saturday, Sept. 20.

To hear the call of the game on Saturday with Manny Almanza, the voice of the Rangers, and Mark Fried, tune into 105.3-FM on Saturday night, about 10 minutes before the game kicks off at 7 p.m.

By the way, in that Texas versus Kansas conference matchup: Texas has a 14-9 edge since the series began in the 2006 season.