The lack of an on-site ambulance

at Friday night's playoff football game at Sandy Creek High School

led to a longer-than-usual response time from EMS medics after a player

was hurt.

But a doctor and a certified

athletic trainer were on the field during the game, which was likely the

reason school officials didn't ask to have an ambulance on hand,

according to schools spokesperson Melinda Berry-Dreisbach.

Normally, a staffed ambulance

is on hand outside the fence just seconds away from the field. But when

Patriots senior quarterback Dusty Bennett needed medical attention Friday

night, crews had to respond from the nearest fire station, said Capt.

Pete Nelms of the Fayette County Department of Fire and Emergency Services.

It took EMS crews about 10 minutes to get to the field, partially due

to the path they had to take, a gravel and dirt road behind the school

building, Nelms said.

That road is the best route

to the football field and school officials have cooperated with improving

access issues at all schools, Nelms said. The response time also was briefly

extended when medics responding in a fire truck had to park it on the

pavement and ride to the field on the gravel road in the ambulance that

responded, Nelms said.

The department has a policy

forbidding fire engines to be driven off pavement because they can become

stuck easily, Nelms said.

Previously published reports

erroneously indicated that it took 23 minutes for medics to reach the

field, Nelms said.

"We certainly dispute

that time," Nelms said.

Although officials couldn't

comment on Bennett's injuries, they were not believed to be life-threatening.

The school system usually requests

the department to have an ambulance at the game, but no request was made

for the playoff game, Nelms confirmed. A deputy chief for the department

also left a message for the schools staffer in charge of scheduling the

ambulances but the phone call wasn't returned, Nelms added.

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