Kapaun has big second half, rolls by Southeast in football opener
As the teams ran out for the second half, there was a definitive difference in energy.
Wichita Southeast was hollering and jumping around. Kapaun was trotting without saying a word. The Crusaders knew there was business ahead of them, and they tended to it.
Kapaun led only 6-3 at halftime before blowing the game open in the third quarter for a 26-3 victory on Thursday in the season opener. Last year, Kapaun won by 51.
Southeast won one game in 2017 and finished second to last in the City League. Kapaun coach Dan Adelhardt said he had a feeling Southeast would be better, and they proved it.
“We’ve got 18-, 17-, 16-year-old kids, and you have to tell them, ‘Be ready, be ready; they’re going to be better,’” he said. “And they were.”
Adelhardt said he knew there would be stumbles, but there were more than a few. Kapaun had 14 penalties for 130 yards. That stagnated the offense.
The Crusaders struggled to get first downs, relying on their defense to hold the Southeast offense, which was struggling just as badly.
The Golden Buffaloes came out with a lot of energy, and that only improved as kicker Kadyn Miller booted a 49-yard field goal to cut the Kapaun lead to 6-3 before halftime.
Southeast coach Erik Dobbins said there were a lot of positive takeaways from holding Kapaun to six points after two quarters.
“The first half was amazing,” Dobbins said. “But not really amazing in my mind because I knew who we were going out there, but amazing at the part of how well we performed and executed.
“But then the second half, the old Southeast kind of came back. We started making errors and not performing as well.”
Kapaun got rolling early midway through the third quarter with a 40-yard rip down the left sideline from senior quarterback Jack Hacking to his 6-foot-4 tight end Jacob Schmitz, who towered over his defender and strolled into the end zone.
Hacking said that play was huge not only for him but also the team.
“It sparked us,” Hacking said. “Defense was grinding all night, so we just had to get something going on offense after that lethargic first half. And that did it.”
The scoring gates opened.
About 30 seconds later, Southeast fumbled the snap on back-to-back plays, and Kapaun caught junior quarterback Quinton Thomas for a safety. Two minutes later, Hacking threw his second touchdown — this one to senior running back Jacob Nye.
The Crusaders were up 20-3, and the game was dusted.
Hacking and Adelhardt agreed it’s better to get a bad half of football out of the way early in the season. It proved to them that anyone in the City League — even a team that won one game last season — can compete.
“I told them, ‘Maybe it’s an awakening,’” Adelhardt said. “We need to grind. We need to be the underdog and have a chip on our shoulder every game.”
This story was originally published August 30, 2018 at 11:03 PM.