By RANDY GONZALES

rgonzales@dailynews.net

Forcing five turnovers helped keep the Indians in the game. But not coming up with the big play when needed helped end their season.

The Hays High School football team -- in the Class 5A playoffs for the first time since 1995 -- lost 27-21 to perennial state power Hutchinson in Friday night's first round at Lewis Field Stadium.

"We created some turnovers, and missed some opportunities that were big," said Hays High coach Ryan Cornelsen.

It was 14-14 after a wild first quarter.

Hutchinson junior quarterback Trevor Turner gashed the Indians' defense for a 53-yard scamper on the first series of the game, but lost a fumble at the end of the run, and HHS senior T.J. Dreiling recovered at the Indian 3-yard line.

The Indians couldn't move the ball, and Hutchinson used a short field after the punt to score. The Salthawks ran the ball all seven plays in a 39-yard drive capped by junior running back Ja'mon Cotton's 9-yard TD run.

On the Indians' first play after the ensuing kickoff, senior quarterback Austin Unrein dashed 55 yards around right end to the Hutchinson 13. Junior tailback David Cardinal scored two plays later, from 6 yards out, to make it 7-7.

On the Salthawks' next possession, senior Lucas Munds fumbled, with HHS junior Jake Sedbrook recovering at the Indian 33.

Hays High needed four plays to score, with Unrein going around right end from 18 yards out for a 14-7 lead. The big play in the drive was Unrein's 35-yard pass to Cardinal over the middle to the Hutchinson 24.

Unrein finished with a team-leading 136 yards rushing on 11 carries. Cardinal, who had 1,388 yards going into the game, was bottled up by the Salthawks' defense, getting 77 yards on 27 carries.

"I thought Austin did a nice job," Cornelsen said. "He's kind of our counter to our tailback.

"... Obviously, they were going to try to take our off-tackle tailback plays away, and they did a good job of it," he added. "So we tried to go to some different things in our offense."

Hutchinson tied the game at 14-14 two plays after Unrein's TD. Cotton went around right end, breaking two tackles along the way for a 54-yard TD. Cotton finished the night with 234 yards on 36 carries, while Turner added 106 yards on 14 attempts.

"They're extremely good offensively," Cornelsen said. "Obviously, you load one area, they beat you another.

"We were trying to mix things up," he added. "They were gaining some yards on us. It was tough for us to slow them down."

Hutchinson lost two more fumbles in the second quarter, with HHS senior Mark Mathis recovering the first one on the Indian 9-yard line, and sophomore Preston Weigel recovering the other one at the HHS 5.

After Weigel's fumble recovery, the Indians drove to the Hutchinson 38, where the Indians had a fourth-and-2 situation. With Cardinal getting stuffed on the run, the Indians tried a trick play. Cardinal went around right end for an apparent sweep, but he pulled up and lofted a pass deep over the middle intended for junior tight end Chandler Rule, who didn't have a defender within 10 yards of him. But Cardinal's pass was off-target, and the Indians turned the ball over on downs.

"It was there; we didn't complete it," Cornelsen said. "That's part of it. Kids were doing everything they could to compete; I thought they played extremely hard.

"A couple plays there that could have helped us, we didn't execute it," he added.

The Salthawks took advantage, going 62 yards in 10 plays for the go-ahead score. Cotton's 8-yard TD run with 46 seconds on the clock gave Hutchinson a 21-14 halftime lead.

Hutchinson scored on Turner's quarterback sneak on fourth-and-goal at the HHS 1-yard line with 3:45 left in the third quarter, but senior kicker Christian Maciel missed the extra point.

Hays High had fourth down at the Hutchinson 21 early in the fourth quarter, but Unrein's pass into the end zone fell incomplete. But the Indians caught a break, forcing the Salthawks' fifth turnover, a Cotton fumble recovered by Sedbrook at the Hutchinson 21.

The Indians scored seven plays later when Unrein spun out of the pile over the middle of the line and went around left end from 5 yards out for the score to get within 27-21.

With 5:45 left in the game, the Indians then tried an onside kick, which was recovered by the Salthawks.

"The way they move the ball -- the offense, how good they are -- at that point I didn't think there was any decision," Cornelsen said. "We got to inside kick, try to get the ball back. Kid made a nice play, caught it right out of the air."

Hutchinson kept the ball, running out the clock. The Salthawks had a a third-and-inches at the HHS 42, and Turner got 2 yards on a sneak.

On the HHS 8, it was third-and-1, and Cotton got 7 yards to the Indian 1-yard line. Turner took a knee the last two plays to end Hays High's season.

Hutchinson (8-2) moves on to play host to Wichita-Kapaun Mt. Carmel (8-2) on Friday. Kapaun Mt. Carmel was a 32-21 winner over McPherson.

Hays High (8-2) ends its season with the most wins since 1993, and a share of the WAC title.

"I'm proud of our kids; I'm proud of our coaches," Cornelsen said. "You look at where we were Game 1 against Chapman, and the product you saw (Friday night), I thought there was drastic improvement."