Junction City downs Gurdon
GURDON - Junction City entered its regular-season finale at Gurdon wanting to keep its momentum going with the playoffs starting next week.
Mission accomplished.
Lamontra Hankton threw three touchdown passes and ran for two more, as the Dragons rolled to a 55-6 win over the Go-Devils Thursday night in a 5-3A tilt.
Hankton accounted for 292 total yards by completing 13 of his 17 passes for 207 yards while adding 85 yards rushing on 12 carries in the win.
Junction City's defense forced an early turnover by recovering a fumble, and Brady Penister took matters over from there, scoring on a 34-yard run to open the scoring.
Hankton then got his big night started.
The senior quarterback threw a 16-yard touchdown pass to Taylen Owens to give the Dragons a 12-0 lead.
Leading by the same margin at the end of the first quarter, Hankton plunged into the end zone on a 1-yard run on the first play of the second quarter. Hankton then found Dovonte' Grimes on the 2-point conversion to push the lead to 20-0.
The Go-Devils dented the scoreboard with a special teams touchdown by recovering a fumbled punt in the end zone, but the Dragons answered.
Hankton scored on a 1-yard run before finding Hayden Hudson on the 2-point conversion to make it 28-6.
The Dragons' next touchdown came on a superb catch by Grimes, who made a spectacular one-handed grab while navigating the right sideline to haul in Hankton's pass just in front of the pylon for a 37-yard collaboration with Cole Hanry's extra point making it 35-6.
Junction City led by the same score at halftime and continued to pull away in the third quarter.
Hankton connected with Owens for the second time with this touchdown spanning 6 yards with Hanry's extra point pushing the lead to 42-6.
Junction City's defense then added to the lead with Dominique Grimes picking off a pass and returning it 92 yards down the right sideline for a touchdown that made it 48-6. Grimes had two interceptions for Junction City.
The Dragons' final score came on special teams with Owens throwing a 22-yard touchdown pass to Dovonte' Grimes on a fake field-goal attempt.
Penister had 51 yards rushing and a touchdown on just three carries in the win for Junction City.
Dominique Grimes had three catches for 77 yards, while Dovonte' Grimes added 66 yards and a pair of scores on his three catches.
Owens had a team-high five catches for 55 yards with two touchdowns for the Dragons, who rolled up 396 yards of total offense in the win.
Brennan Lee had five tackles for Junction City on defense.
The Dragons (7-3, 3-1), who will be the 5-3A's No. 2 seed, enter the playoffs on a four-game winning streak.
The Go-Devils (3-6, 1-4), who will be the league's No. 5 seed, lost their second straight.