BY CHARLES CHANEY

Ellsworth (1-1) at No. 15 Butler (1-0)

When: Saturday, Sept. 13, 7 p.m.

Where: BG Products Veterans Sports Complex—El Dorado, Kansas

TV: Butler Grizzlies streaming website

RADIO: KNSS 98.7 FM/1330 AM

Butler Community College returns to the field Saturday night for its home opener, hosting Ellsworth Community College at BG Products Veterans Sports Complex. The Grizzlies are coming off a 27-20 win at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M two weeks ago and used their bye week to focus on execution.

New interim head coach Kyle Woodall said the extra time allowed Butler to address mistakes that showed up in the opener.

“I thought our resiliency showed. I thought our toughness showed,” Woodall said. “But when you watch the film, there’s just a lot of mistakes. We just have to clean up the X’s and O’s. It’s a lot easier to fix things after a win than a loss.”

Butler relied heavily on its rushing attack against NEO, attempting fewer than 10 passes. Woodall said that was simply how the game unfolded.

“My motto has been whatever we need to do to win, that’s what we’re going to do,” he said. “We want to be balanced. I think Dylan and our receivers are very capable of throwing it when we need to, but it’s going to be a game-by-game thing.”

One major point of emphasis coming out of the bye was limiting penalties and mental errors.

“We’ve got to quit shooting ourselves in the foot,” Woodall said. “Our ability not to do that is huge. We just have to be more consistent in what we’re trying to do. We know we have guys that can make plays, but we have to be better at not giving opportunities away.”

Ellsworth (1-1) comes in with a split start to its season. The Panthers opened with a 49-0 win over Division III Central Lakes before falling 51-14 to Independence in Week 2. Like Butler, Ellsworth also had last week off.

Saturday will also mark Woodall’s first home game as a head coach.

“I really haven’t thought about it too much,” Woodall said. “I think it’ll feel the same as any other game, and that’s how we want it. It’s just another opportunity to be the best Butler we can be.”

The Grizzlies dropped in the recent rankings, despite their win. Coach Woodall isn’t concerned with any rankings for now. 

“We don’t look at opponents’ records or rankings,” he said. “Our focus is on our standard. If we meet that every day, everything else will take care of itself.”

HISTORY

Butler and Ellsworth first met in 1987, when the Panthers stunned the Grizzlies 30-21 in El Dorado and followed with a 69-26 rout in Iowa Falls the next season. Those early losses set the tone for a series that was once surprisingly competitive before Butler flipped control.

Since 1990, Butler has won eight of the last nine matchups, including five straight home victories in El Dorado. The Grizzlies’ dominance has grown in recent years. Their last three wins have come by a combined score of 153-17, capped by a 66-0 shutout in Iowa Falls last season.

The all-time series now stands at 8-3 in favor of Butler:

1987 – Ellsworth 30, Butler 21 (El Dorado)<n>1988 – Ellsworth 69, Butler 26 (Iowa Falls)<n>1990 – Butler 31, Ellsworth 7 (El Dorado)<n>1994 – Butler 38, Ellsworth 14 (Iowa Falls)<n>1998 – Butler 28, Ellsworth 6 (El Dorado)<n>2002 – Butler 45, Ellsworth 10 (Iowa Falls)<n>2005 – Butler 33, Ellsworth 7 (El Dorado)<n>2010 – Ellsworth 24, Butler 21 (Iowa Falls)<n>2015 – Butler 42, Ellsworth 14 (El Dorado)<n>2022 – Butler 40, Ellsworth 9 (Iowa Falls)<n>2023 – Butler 47, Ellsworth 8 (El Dorado)<n>2024 – Butler 66, Ellsworth 0 (Iowa Falls)

Ellsworth has endured eight straight losing seasons and has not had a winning record since 2015, when it went 7-5. The Panthers’ Week 1 win over Central Lakes was one of their few victories over NJCAA competition in recent years.

SPREAD

MasseyRatings.com is a site that provides computerized simulations of a multitude of sports. They have multiple levels of NJCAA sports on their site. They were one of the computer simulation polls in the BCS rankings.

According to Massey Ratings, Butler is a 37 point favorite over Ellsworth. The over/under, or total points expected, is 55.5.