Weather ruled Friday’s action as most of the 11-man quarterfinals and 8-man semifinals were played in wet & muddy conditions. Turnovers were a dominant theme in most of the games across the state, and in most cases the team who handled the weather conditions the best advanced. As a result, our Kpreps.com top five rankings featured some sort of movement in every class.
We’ll start in Class 6A, where Dodge City moved up one spot to #4 by running all over Manhattan. The Indians dropped from the second spot to #5, and finished their season at 10-1. Olathe East and Olathe North each moved up one spot to #2 and #3 respectively. The two will square off in the semifinals of the eastern side of 6A on Friday.
In Class 5A, the Bishop Carroll Eagles pulled off a 30-22 victory over previously third-ranked McPherson. Carroll moved up one spot to #4 with the win, one spot behind the new #3 Blue Valley. McPherson finished their season at 9-2 and ranked fifth.
Class 4A features new teams in the top two spots as previous #1 ranked Topeka Hayden couldn’t overcome five turnovers in a 21-0 loss to Buhler. The Crusaders are up a spot to #2 this week, and our new #1 ranked team in 4A is the Louisburg Wildcats who advanced to the semifinals with a 21-0 shutout of DeSoto. Louisburg will be on the road at Paola who enters our rankings at #5 after a 21-6 win over then fifth-ranked Baldwin.
Beloit used the weather conditions to their favor by shutting down the pass-first Hutchinson Trinity offense 38-12. As a result, the Trojans take over the #3 spot occupied by Trinity last week. Rossville enters the rankings at #4 by squeaking past Caney Valley 18-16. The Bulldogs will host second-ranked Silver Lake in the season’s second installment of the ‘War on 24’. Finally, Norton takes over our fifth spot. The Blue Jays finished the season 9-1 with a 42-35 loss to Beloit in the second round.
In Class 2-1A, the Olpe Eagles move up one spot to #3 by shutting out the defending champion Centralia Panthers, 10-0. Centralia fell one spot to #4, while Stanton County enters our poll at #5 by virtue of a 36-14 win over Ell-Saline. The Trojans will host second-ranked Meade in the west semifinal. Olpe will host top-ranked St. Mary’s Colgan on the eastern half.
The finals are set in both 8-man classes and so is our new top five poll. Madison remains #1 in Divison I with a 51-18 victory over #5 Lebo, and Hill City and Osborne trade places at #2 and #3 as the Ringnecks eliminated the Bulldogs 48-24 on Friday night. Hill City and Madison will meet in Newton for the Division I Championship on Saturday.
In Division II, Baileyville B&B won a less-dramatic rematch of our top two ranked teams by shutting out Hanover in the second half en route to a 48-22 win. Hanover drops to #3 this week to make room for the Otis-Bison Cougars which will play for a state title in Newton against B&B on Saturday. The Cougars knocked off Ashland 26-14. Ashland remains at #4 in our poll, while Caldwell occupies the fifth spot.
For a complete listing of our Kpreps.com polls, check out our rankings section.
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