Friday Playoff Preview

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The Shawnee Mission West Vikings may be the runner-up and traveling to face the Shawnee Mission Northwest Cougars, but they definitely enter the game with the edge in confidence.

Shawnee Mission West beat Shawnee Mission Northwest 37-13 in the second week of the season, but the Vikings must beat the Cougars a second time to advance in the playoffs.

West senior running back William Livingston, who leads the team with 788 rushing yards, ran for 126 yards and two touchdowns in the win against Northwest.

The Cougars won their district, but beat three teams with a combined record of 5-22. In order to beat the Vikings, they must do a better job of controlling the clock and hanging on to the football. In the first meeting, Northwest was limited to 29 yards rushing on 33 carries and committed three turnovers.

West will win again, but this time it will be closer.

The Olathe South Falcons return to the playoffs after a two-year absence and will travel to take on the Sunflower League co-champion Shawnee Mission Lancers. 

Olathe South began this season with a new look. Third-year coach Jeff Gourley changed the Falcons offense from more of a spread to the Wing-T. 

The move has paid off.

After losses to Lawrence Free State and Olathe North to open the season, the Falcons reeled off six straight wins before falling to third-ranked Olathe East last week. 

Nick Sands has been the workhorse in the backfield for South, rushing for 1,332 yards and 14 scores. Sands rushed for 160 yards and a touchdown in the district championship game against Olathe East.

The Shawnee Mission East football program has been rebuilt under Chip Sherman as the Lancers already have their most wins in a season in over 35 years. 

Senior quarterback John Schrock had led the Lancer offense this season in throwing for 1,635 yards and nine touchdowns before sustaining a collarbone injury two weeks ago. Schrock didn’t play in last week’s win over Shawnee Mission South, and his availability for Friday’s game is unknown. 

The Lancers will instead rely on last year’s quarterback Robby Moriarty who threw for more than 750 yards as a junior in 2009. 

Adam Lowe leads the Lancers ground attack with 650 yards and five scores on the season.

The Lancers have been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs four time in the past six season, but should have just enough to get by the Falcons. 

 

The top-ranked Wichita Heights Falcons will begin their run back to the state title game as they host Garden City on Friday night.

Heights has been nothing short of dominant this season led by a defense that didn’t allow a point until week four. In all, the Falcons have posted five shutouts and are allowing just under nine points per game.

The Falcon offense has been equally impressive in averaging 56 points per game, including three games with over 70 points.

It’s no secret what they want to do on offense. The Falcons feature a rushing attack with multiple backs that could explode for big numbers.   KU-commit Dreamius Smith leads Heights with 1,059 yards and 24 touchdowns while averaging 14 yards per carry. 

Daniel Deshazer has been just as effective putting up 978 yards and 13 scores while averaging 16.6 yards per attempt. Quarterback Matt Reed has also rushed for over 650 yards. 

Their task on Friday will be the Garden City Buffaloes under first-year Coach Brian Hill. 

After starting the season 1-3, the Buffs won four straight before falling to arch-rival Dodge City 29-26 last week. In that game, Garden City blew a 26-0 lead and gave up the winning score with just over a minute to go. 

On offense, Garden City is led by a three-year starter at quarterback in Cody Berbeck. But it will be Keith Curran and the Buffs’ defense that will have to play big on Friday night.

 

A multi-pronged offensive attack protected by a huge offensive line has delivered the Indians an undefeated season and top-five state ranking, while the Derby defense has been porous behind the return of only two starters this season.

Derby is no stranger to playoff football under coach Brandon Clark, but the defense just can't find the personnel to slow down the opposition allowing 70 points in last week's District title match-up with Wichita Heights, and over 42 points in a game four times during the regular season. The Panthers must contend with rushing threats Ty Suggs, Jordan Nelson, Trey Campbell and quarterback Ryan Wilkinson. Wilkinson will also look to strike through the air to his favorite target Will Kern.

When the Panthers go on offense they're led by strong-armed quarterback Tyler Harrison who is protected by an experienced offensive line that features Kansas Pregame cover-boy Travis Anderson. The Panthers have posted solid offensive numbers this season and Harrison has hit wide-outs Ethan Jewell and Keenan Sparks early and often in the passing game, but the defensive secondary and linebackers for the Indians are solid, if not spectacular.

For Derby to keep it close the Panthers must get stops on defense early and let the Panther offense air it out into the end zone.

 

Lawrence Free State (5-4) at Olathe East (8-1)

Shawnee Mission North (2-7) at Olathe North (8-1)

Junction City (7-2) at Wichita Northwest (5-4)

Haysville Campus (3-6) at Dodge City (9-0)

 

The respective seasons of the Mill Valley Jaguars and the Shawnee Heights Thunderbirds haven’t gone exactly as planned.

Mill Valley lost senior quarterback MacAuley Garton to a season-ending injury in the second game of the year, and Shawnee Heights lost its first six games in an extremely competitive Centennial League.

Yet, here the Jaguars and T-Birds are for the first round of the Class 5A playoffs.

Mill Valley sophomore Skyler Windmiller stepped in at quarterback to direct the Jaguar offense by completing 96 of 157 passes for 1,798 yards and 19 touchdowns.

“It was tough to see MacAuley go down like that in his senior year,” Mill Valley head coach Joel Applebee said. “Skyler’s done a good job. He’s a poised kid. He doesn’t get too excited or too down. He’s been a pleasant surprise.”

Making the adjustment easier for Windmiller has been the play of senior running back Kyle Brunson.

The 6-0, 190-pound back has taken the pressure off the young quarterback with 1,786 rushing yards and 25 touchdowns on 217 carries.

“Having Kyle back there to hand off to makes things easier,” Applebee said. “Kyle is a hard-nosed kid. He has the best vision of any back we’ve had since I’ve been coaching. He’s a zone runner. He finds that cut-back lane and hits it quickly.”

Shawnee Heights rebounded from an 0-6 record by running the table against Topeka Highland Park, Topeka West and Topeka Seaman in district competition.

Like Mill Valley, Shawnee Heights is led by a quarterback and running back tandem. T-Bird quarterback David Gauntt has passed for more than 1,600 yards, and running back Donnie Lockhart has compiled more than 1,300 yards on the ground.

The slight edge goes to the T-Birds since they are at home and play the more difficult regular season schedule.

In one of the most intriguing first-round game in the state, Blue Valley – Stilwell will go on the road to take on Bishop Miege in a rematch of Eastern Kansas League rivals. 

The two teams met in week four where Blue Valley came away with a 28-13 win. 

In that game, Blue Valley scored two first quarter touchdowns in building a 21-7 halftime lead. The Tigers would expand their lead to 28-7 in the fourth quarter on Justin Fulks’ second touchdown run. Tiger quarterback Kyle Zimmerman threw for 232 yards; 129 of which went to P.J. Debey who also caught a touchdown. Fulks rushed for 150 yards on 29 carries against the Stags. 

But that night the Tiger defense was the key in sacking Shortell five times, forcing 15 incompletions, and picking off one pass. They’ll need a similar performance to slow down the Minnesota-commit Shortell who has thrown for 1,276 yards and nine touchdowns since a week five loss to St. Thomas Aquinas. For the season, the Stags senior signal-caller has thrown for 2,509 yards and 16 touchdowns while completing 55 percent of his passes. Miege enters Friday having won four straight.

Last year’s defending 4A state champs, Miege has the weapons to make a run this season in 5A. Tre’ Parmalee and Chris Aguilar have big-play capability at wide receiver, and Mark Thorson and Keenan Savage pose threats out of the backfield.  They’ll go against a Tiger defense that has been strong all season, but may be reeling after giving up over 400 yards rushing to Gardner-Edgerton last week.

Blue Valley made a deep playoff push of their own in 2009, reaching the semifinals before falling 16-14 to eventual champ Olathe North on a last second field goal.

 

At first glance, this seems like a no-brainer.

The McPherson Bullpups clobbered the Andover Central Jaguars 46-7 in the first meeting between the two teams in Week 3. In addition, the Bullpups are at home, and their only loss of the season was 49-42 to the No. 2-ranked and undefeated Gardner-Edgerton Trailblazers.

Still, you can’t completely discount a team with the amount of talent as the Jaguars.

Andover Central boasts two linemen in Kansas State-commit Boston Stiverson (6-3, 287) and Jens Danielson (6-5, 280) who received interest from Division I schools. Behind the brutes up front, the Jaguars have a several quality players at the skill positions.

Senior quarterback Landon Huslig has completed 67 of 133 passes for 1,036 yards and 15 touchdowns, while junior running back Alex Bontz has 1,432 yards and 16 touchdowns on 231 carries. Junior wide receiver Taylor Lock has 26 catches for 456 yards and nine touchdowns.

However, that’s not to say the Bullpups are lacking in talent. Junior quarterback Tyler Matthews has completed an astonishing 128 of 166 passes (77 percent) for 2,233 yards with 27 touchdowns and only three interceptions. In fact, he is already receiving attention from the likes Kansas, Kansas State and Oregon for the 2012 recruiting class.

Matthews’ go-to receiver has been senior Christian Ulsaker, who also is receiving interest from Kansas and Kansas State. Ulsaker has 56 catches for 984 yards and 11 touchdowns.

So, it will be closer than the first game, but expect McPherson to come out on top again.

In what appears to be one of the most evenly matched playoff match-ups Kapaun Mt. Carmel will take on the Emporia Spartans. The Spartans have losses to McPherson (33-7), Manhattan (26-7) and Washburn Rural (27-26) but also have an impressive week six victory over Junction City.

First-year coach Dustin Delaney has the Spartans running the same flexbone scheme he employed as the offensive coordinator at Hutch High under Randy Dreiling and he has talented quarterback Brandon Gentz to fuel it. He also has a big offensive line and a number of physical running backs to help take the pressure of Gentz.

For Kapaun, Keaton Lewis is one of the most talented quarterbacks in Kansas nobody is talking about. Lewis is mobile and accurate, two traits which nearly stole the show two years ago in a ESPNU match-up with the Blake Bell led Bishop Carroll Golden Eagles. Speaking of which, the Eagles are the only team to hand the Crusaders a loss this season - a 41-3 set back in week six.

When the Crusaders go on defense they are led by 6-4, 220 pound defensive end, Michael Reynolds, one of the top baseball players in the state known for his 92 mph fastball.

Kapaun appears to have the edge talent wise, but the execution of the flexbone by the Spartans could keep scoring at a minimum.

 

Bonner Springs (4-5) at Gardner-Edgerton (9-0)

Topeka Seaman (3-6) at Lansing (8-1)

Bishop Carroll (7-2) at Great Bend (4-4)

Salina Central (6-3) at Hutchinson (8-1)

 

Despite the differences in records, the game between Washington County and St. Marys may be the toughest first-round game in 2-1A to predict. Both have common opponents in Centralia and Onaga, and each of those match-ups produced similar results on the scoreboard.

Washington knocked off Onaga 40-19 and was shutout by Centralia 34-0. The Bears beat Onaga 42-12 last week to win the district championship, and were beaten by Centralia 40-8 in week six. 

The Tigers, on the other hand, have advanced past the first round only once during that time. 

Both teams feature strong running games with Dorian Sills-Berry and quarterback Mitch Baumchen for the Bears, and Isaac Miller, Mitch Savage, and Ryan Fiser for Washington County.

Baumchen is also effective in the passing game having thrown for more than 1,000 yards on the year. 

The Tigers are led by Savage who has rushed for more than 800 yards on the season. 

Each of these programs have been to the playoffs for at least the last eight years. St. Marys has had more success in that time advancing to the semifinals three times, and finishing as state runner-up in 2006.

Give the edge to St. Marys in this one as the Bears are battle-tested having played through the Mid-East League. They’ve entered the playoffs with less than sparkling records before, and parlayed that into deep playoff runs.

The Olpe Eagles will make the nearly 100 mile trip northeast to take on the Valley Falls Dragons in a 2-1A first-round game. 

The Eagles are in the playoffs for the sixth consecutive season, while Valley Falls is making its third straight trip. 

Olpe was impressive last week in the first-half of their district title game with top-ranked Colgan. The Eagles scored first on a short touchdown run by Tyson Pettijohn, then recovered a fumble on the kickoff to set up their second score. When the half ended, Olpe had built a 14-0 lead and had held Colgan to just 50 yards of total offense.

The second half was a different story as the Eagles turned the ball over on their first three possessions as Colgan exploded for nearly 300 yards and 28 points. Olpe would score on the final play to pull the margin to 28-21. Ealge running backs Linden Stueve and Tyson Pettijohn combined for 95 yards on 30 carries in the game.

Valley Falls has won five straight games after starting the season 1-3. The Dragons edged district runner-up Oskaloosa 48-46 in double overtime in week five. 

Veteran Coach Ron Bunde’s team is led by a dual-threat quarterback in Alex Lederer who has thrown for more than 1,500 yards with 15 touchdowns and rushed for more than 800 yards.

 

Can you say rivalry game? This first round 2A playoff match-up also doubles as the first meeting of these two Saline County rivals since 2004.

It's air attack versus ground game as the Ell-Saline Cardinals boast an effective passing game behind the strong arm of senior quarterback Tate Omli - back after missing most of the first half of the season - and the explosive running of Sacred Heart tailback Brandon Rapp.

Rapp has rushed for 1,286 yard this season, and posted rushing totals of 183, 303, 261 and 203 yards during the Knights current four game win streak. The streak delivered a District Championship and a playoff berth while the Cardinals rebounded from a 2-5 start to get a key district win over Inman and a come-from-behind win over Moundridge in a non-district match-up last week.

Omli will look to pass the ball to soft-handed sophomore Kaleb Whitehair, a deep-ball threat with jump-ball ability. The running game is fueled by Cardinal fullback Jose Arias and speedy tailback Zach Willis, a Salina South transfer.

Knights first-year coach Bruce Graber is new to this rivalry after stints at El Dorado, Norton and Hutchinson before coming to Salina. For veteran Ell-Saline coach Terry King it's not his first rodeo as he'll try to advance the Cardinals past the first round of the playoffs for the third consecutive year.

Neither defense has been spectacular this season and the Cardinals have been especially vulnerable to the rush in recent contest with Moundridge, Inman, LaCrosse and Plainville. The Knights have improved on defense during their four game winning streak, but against opponents with a combined 6-30 record.

Expect a shoot-out in this one with the Knights having just a bit more firepower.

 

Two traditional playoff qualifiers will square off on Friday as Stanton County travels to Ellis to take on the Railroaders. 

Over the past few seasons, Ellis has been on the cusp of reaching the 2-1A promise land in nearby Hays only to run into the likes of Oakley, Meade, and St. Francis. The Railroaders have reached the playoffs eight consecutive times, and have advanced past the first round in each of the past four seasons.

This season, Butch Hayes’ team has been faced injuries to as many as six starters which has thrown a wrench in the process of reloading from losing a talented senior class last season.  Even still, Ellis has perservered through a challenging schedule to win the District 7 title.

The Railroaders are led by senior quarterback Jacob Kinderknecht who is a threat to run or pass. Kinderknecht has thrown for more than 730 yards on the season, but does most of his damage on the ground where he’s racked up 1,031 yards and 13 touchdowns. 

Stanton County had reached the 2-1A playoffs four consecutive times before missing out last season. The Trojans, who have won their most games since finishing 8-2 in 2006, have only lost to Meade 46-6 in week five.

The Trojans are led by Austin Narin in the backfield. Narin has the potential to produce big numbers as evident by his 287-yard, five-touchdown performance against Southwestern Heights earlier this season.

In week seven, Narin and Marcus Logan propelled Stanton County in to the playoffs by breaking open a scoreless tie with two second-half scores in a 14-0 win over previously unbeaten Elkhart.

Despite the Railroaders’ injuries, their strength of schedule has them well prepared to compete in the western side of 2-1A that doesn’t appear to be at the level it has been in the past few years. 

 

Oskaloosa (7-2) at St. Mary’s Colgan (9-0)

Onaga (4-5) at Centralia (8-1)

Moundridge (3-6) at LaCrosse (9-0)

Atwood-Rawlins Co. (5-4) at Meade (8-1)