Derby blocks out the noise to reach fourth straight title game
A day before the Derby-Manhattan Class 6A semifinals football game, an article was released with Manhattan’s head coach Joe Schartz describing Derby’s playing style as “antics.”
Schartz stated that Derby uses intimidation as a way to win their games.
“The fans, Derby, the team, it’s all about trying to intimidate you and get you to not think about the football game,” Schartz said to The Manhattan Mercury. “I don’t know if we can win the pregame antics, but I know we can win the football game.”
Those comments added fuel to the fire for Derby.
Fans and students made their fair share of remarks about the article, but Derby head coach Brandon Clark said that his team didn’t need anything to fuel their already passionate playing style.
“(The comments) calmed us down actually,” Clark said. “We’ve got enough emotion on our sideline. Our kids play with emotions, they play with a lo of passion and we don’t need any more.”
Derby went out and beat Manhattan 24-6 on Friday night at Derby and will next play for a state championship against Blue Valley North.
“It was an unbelievable atmosphere before the game,” Clark said. “The kids were locked in, they were zoned in. It was pretty fun.”
It is the fourth straight season Derby will play for a state championship in football.
Derby got off to a hot start on Friday with a touchdown on the opening drive by junior running back Tre Washington.
Senior quarterback Hunter Igo ran the ball in for another touchdown and then threw a nearly perfect pass to defensive back Dax Benway for another touchdown.
The Panthers were up 24-0 by the half. The entirety of the second half was nearly scoreless for both teams, until Manhattan finally got on the board at the end of the third quarter.
“We got off to a good start from the first play and the first few drives, but then we kind of hurt ourselves with not completing our drives the rest of the game,” Igo said. “But our defense was phenomenal tonight, they really showed out.”
Senior linebacker Jay Fisher said the team’s success was shown without having to respond to any comments about Derby’s “antics.”
“We don’t come out on this field to talk, we came on this field today to play our game,” Fisher said. “As you can see, that’s what happened. We played our game and as the end result we won.”
The Panthers are focused in on winning it all.
“We’re not going to be satisfied just going to state,” Clark said. “These kids have been talking about not going to state, but winning state and hopefully we can accomplish that.”
In order to accomplish that, Clark said that Derby is going to be focusing on a thing they’ve been drilling into their minds the whole season: controlling only what they can control.
The Panther’s main game plan for that state championship is to not worry about outside factors that can decide a game, but to focus on what they can do to stay unbeaten.
“Our motto all year was ‘don’t beat Derby,’” Clark said. “Take care of penalties and take care of the things we can control, and if there’s a team good enough to beat us then so be it, but we got to control the controllables.”
This story was originally published November 16, 2018 at 11:38 PM with the headline "Derby blocks out the noise to reach fourth straight title game."