***all coach & player quotes courtesy of Chet Kuplen and Kansas-Sports.com or @sportsinkansas
It has been the deepest classification all season.
Eleven different schools have been ranked at some point during the weeks leading up to Saturday’s state championship game.
One of those, the Andale Indians, has sit atop the Class 3A rankings since Week 5. Prior to that, Andale was the No. 2 team in the state behind two-time defending champion Sabetha.
On the other sidelines will be the Perry-Lecompton Kaws – a team that at one point was 3-3 before reeling off six consecutive victories to earn a spot to play in the state title game for the second time in school history.
Andale and Perry-Lecompton will square off at Gowans Stadium in Hutchinson. Kickoff is set for 1:00 p.m.
While many expected Andale to reach the final game in Hutchinson, Perry-Lecompton is much more of a surprise. Especially considering the Kaws graduated one of the most decorated players in program history in two-time all-state back Dalton Kellum. Kellum rushed for more than 3,000 yards and 46 touchdowns in each of the past two seasons and passed for more than 1,500 yards as a junior in 2017.
This season, junior Thad Metcalfe has filled Kellum’s shoes in rushing for 1,328 yards and 14 touchdowns. Metcalfe also has more than 340 receiving yards and five scores.
The Perry-Lecompton offense has shown good balance with the emergence of junior quarterback William Welch. Last season, Welch shared time at quarterback with Kellum and passed for more than 700 yards and eight touchdowns.
In taking over full time this fall, Welch has completed 65 percent of his passes for 2,214 yards and 26 touchdowns with only six interceptions.
“He (Welch) has been huge,” Metcalfe said about his classmate. “His arm is incredibly talented and he sees things that most high school students don’t.”
“He has helped us become more two-dimensional and that’s what has really put a lot of teams in a bind in not being able to stop us. He’s just an incredible playmaker in the pocket and he can run the ball too.”
The Kaws average 33 points per game with 193 yards coming through the air and 139 yards on the ground.
“The concern is how balanced they are,” Andale head coach Dylan Schmidt said. “They kind of take what you give them. The Metcalfe kid is their tailback and he’s done a great job there, and, obviously, the Welch kid at quarterback. Man, he’s a consistent passer.”
Welch has spread the ball around to a number of different receivers. Juniors Dawson Williams and Parker Stone lead the team with 649 and 627 yards, respectively. Overall, five different Kaws have at least five touchdown receptions with six players having double digit receptions.
And Perry-Lecompton’s stats have come against a brutal schedule that include eight games against opponents who finished with at least six wins. The Kaws handed Topeka Hayden its only two losses of the season and also have wins over contenders in Prairie View, Holton, and Wamego.
The Kaws’ three losses have come to Holton (14-7), Sabetha (41-21), and Jefferson West (8-3). Perry-Lecompton later eliminated Holton with a 35-21 playoff victory.
“You go through and look at their schedule with playing Holton and playing Hayden, Jeff West and Sabetha, and all the teams that they’ve played, they’ve definitely beaten a lot of quality opponents,” Schmidt said.
Metcalfe agreed, “I definitely feel like our competition…we have one of the tougher schedules in the state and I think it’s prepared us for this November run.”
Meanwhile, Andale has cruised to an unbeaten season with their biggest challenge coming in a 29-22 victory over Cheney in district play. Outside of that, the Indians’ closes margin of victory was a 28-point win over Wellington back in the second week of the season.
The Indians have outscored their opponents by an average of 51-7 the season.
“Defensively, we’ve been lights out,” Schmidt said. “We’re giving up about a touchdown a game, and to be honest, about half of those have been scored on our junior varsity. We’ve had eight of our 12 games where we’ve had a running clock.”
The Andale defense has been exceptional and opportunistic in forcing 40 turnovers including 22 interceptions and 18 fumble recoveries. Senior Scotti Easter leads the unit with 86 total tackles and two interceptions, while Eli Rowland has a team-high seven interceptions.
“I’ve really been impressed with how our guys have ran to the football and created takeaways. It’s been fun to watch,” Schmidt said. “It definitely is an advantage offensively when you have short fields an I hope they can keep it up for one more week.”
Offensively, Andale averages 277 yards per game on the ground and 117 yards through the air. Those numbers may not blow you away, but certainly the running clocks and short fields after turnovers have had an impact on the Indians stats sheet.
Rowland leads the team with 1,137 rushing yards and 20 touchdowns. Mac Brand is also a standout two-way player and has added 716 rushing yards and nine score.
Noah Meyer played several weeks at quarterback for the injured Easton Hunter and rushed for 519 yards and 11 touchdowns. Meyer has also thrown for 393 yards and six scores.
Hunter has returned and passed for 923 yards and ten scores this season. Easter has been the Indians’ leading receiver with 24 receptions for 413 yards and seven scores, while Cole Landers has added more than 300 receiving yards and five touchdowns.
The Indians have provided a challenge for every defense they’ve faced. In Perry-Lecompton, they’ll face a unit that is allowing less than 16 points per game and features four players with more than 100 tackles on the season.
The Kaws’ top three tacklers are juniors in Hayden Robb (141), Ryley Besler (116), and Metcalfe (113). Senor Grant Roush has added 102 stops and a team-high 14 tackles for loss with five sacks. Metcalfe has a team-high five interceptions.
Metcalfe and the Kaws have been impressed with what they’ve seen out of Andale.
“They’re going to be a quick, physical team, just like us,” Metcalfe said. “It’s going to be a hard-fought battle. I think they’re going to come out and do a lot of good stuff and hopefully we can counteract that.”
Schmidt maintains that Andale prides itself on playing physical.
“When you get down to it in the game of football at any level, especially at the high school level, it comes down to usually the more physical team wins,” he said. “With what we do in running the ball and wanting to be a run-first team, you know it develops that mentality, that toughness, that physicalness.”
A victory on Saturday would add a fourth football banner to the rich athletic history at Andale High School.
Schmidt said competing for state titles is something that’s important at Andale in all sports.
“We expect all of our kids to be out for sports and it’s something we push,” Schmidt said. “I’m proud of our coaches and our administration at Andale High School because we’ve created a structure there to facilitate that.”
“We’ve definitely tried to work together to make sure we’re doing a good job of sharing our athletes,” he continued. “Athletics is important at Andale, all activities are. The biggest thing that helps us is parental support and the parents wanting their kids to be involved.”
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