Duerksen’s acrobatic catch helps Hesston solve Pratt

HESSTON – In the three years Hesston coach Clint Rider has been with Scott Duerksen, he has come to accept that the senior receiver is going to make plays in unusual ways.

That freedom to improvise led Duerksen making what everyone in Friday night’s Central Kansas League showdown between Pratt and Hesston called the best catch they’ve seen in person.

It came in the second quarter, on third-and-11, when Hesston quarterback Zach Esau escaped the pocket to buy time for his receivers and lofted a pass into the end zone 25 yards away. The throw was wide of Duerksen, but he stuck out his right hand to control the ball in the air and bring it to his body for an electrifying one-handed touchdown grab.

It was the spark that Hesston needed in a 14-7 victory over Pratt to improve to 5-1.

“Sometimes you’ve just got to let him play the way he plays his game,” Rider said, laughing. “That was probably the best catch I’ve seen in person.”

Esau sounded like a coach when asked about it afterward, probably echoing a thought that raced through Rider’s head when the play occurred.

“At first I was kind of a little mad,” Esau said. “I was like, ‘Catch it with two hands, please don’t drop that ball.’ ”

The touchdown, which tied Pratt at 7-all right before halftime, was the first third-down conversion of the game for Hesston, which converted 5 of 7 third downs after that play.

“It’s a lot of fun because this is my last year,” Duerksen said. “It’s probably the best play I’ve ever made.”

Up until that point, Pratt had controlled the clock, and as a result, the game. But after scoring on its opening drive, Pratt’s chances were doomed by four turnovers and a handful of stalled drives near midfield.

Even then, Pratt (4-2) had three drives in the fourth quarter with a chance to tie. Esau ended two of them with interceptions from his safety position, and other drive ended with an incompletion on fourth down near midfield.

“We don’t feel like we lost the game,” Pratt coach Jamie Cruce said. “We just ran out of time at the end. We played well, we just left some scoring opportunities out there on the field. I don’t think we took a step back tonight.”

Rider feels that Hesston sometimes is unfairly classified as a team that can’t grind out a victory because it runs a no-huddle, spread offense. The Swathers proved on Friday they are perfectly capable of leaning on their defense, led by Garrett Roth and Zach Vogt, and shrinking the clock to protect a lead.

“It’s encouraging for us to know that we can win a game that way,” Rider said. “Last year I think we had the mindset that we were going to outscore everybody. So it’s good to know we can win a game playing great defense.”

This story was originally published October 10, 2015 at 12:01 AM with the headline "Duerksen’s acrobatic catch helps Hesston solve Pratt."