10 Takeaways: A trio of Wichita area teams will play for state championships
Moving week is here.
Every team left in the Kansas high school state playoffs will be on the road Saturday for their state championship game after making it through a wild sub-state round. Here are 10 takeaways from the football semifinals across Kansas:
1. One of Wichita’s bests
So many things had to go right.
Wichita Northwest beat Maize 67-60 in the Class 5A semifinal round Friday. The Grizzlies snagged a go-ahead score with 30.7 seconds to go as Reagan Jones hit Zion Jones on a 28-yard seam route that was drawn to perfection.
Three plays earlier, Maize had a chance to end it. Up a point and no timeouts in hand for Northwest, the Eagles forced Reagan Jones to hoist a ball into double coverage, but an interception was dropped that would have sealed Maize’s spot in the state championship game.
A play before, Northwest faced fouth and 10. Jones stepped up in a collapsing pocket and took off. He gained about 25 yards and kept the game alive.
The Grizzlies have been one of the top teams in the Wichita area for years but are still seeking their first state championship. Coach Steve Martin said this 2018 team is different.
“This run started two years ago,” he said. “After that loss to Derby, we check in all our equipment that year as soon as we got off the bus. We said, ‘We’re going to start brand new Monday morning,’ and these guys have consistently shown up.
“I’m kind of speechless that they have the resiliency because you always dream of it, and stuff like that, it’s crazy. It’s just crazy.”
Northwest will play undefeated St. Thomas Aquinas in the state championship game at 1 p.m. Saturday at Pittsburg State. The Saints reached the title game last season but fell short to Bishop Carroll. The Grizzlies will try to make it back-to-back City League champions.
2. No motivation needed
The Derby senior class will witness its fourth straight state championship game Saturday.
The Panthers beat Manhattan 24-6 on Friday in what could have been a testy contest but never amounted to one.
Thursday, Manhattan coach Joe Schartz told the Manhattan Mercury he believed Derby coach Brandon Clark and his staff “taught” their players to kick up the “antics” pregame in order to intimidate their opponents.
“I don’t know if we can win the pregame antics, but I know that we can win the football game,” Schartz told the Mercury. “And that’s what matters.”
On the first play from scrimmage, Derby junior running back Tre Washington broke four tackles and ran 60 yards untouched. The Panthers got up 24-0 by halftime.
Clark said the “antics” quotes had a reverse effect than what might be expected.
“(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’s title game will be a rematch from last season. The Panthers face defending champion Blue Valley North at 1 p.m. Saturday at Emporia State.
3. By the grace of Goddard
McPherson was in the Goddard red zone three times in the second half and came out with zero points.
Goddard beat the undefeated Bullpups 15-14 to advance to the Lions’ second state championship game appearance in three years. As it has all season, the Lions’ defense came up with monster stops.
With 1:15 and 51 yards to go and no timeouts, McPherson went to work. Senior quarterback Kyler Hoppes was methodical for one of the rare times on the Goddard defense. But on his final throw as a Bullpup, Goddard’s Kaeden Hoefer tipped the ball and fellow defensive back Gentry Cole dived to make a game-clinching interception.
Goddard coach Tom Beason said the game sat at 14-9 for what seemed like hours.
“They needed one more score to put us away, and we needed one more score to come back and tatke the lead,” he said. “It was almost a quarter and a half of just back-and-forth. No one could do squat.”
The Lions broke through with 4:29 to go after backup quarterback Jared Mocaby fired into triple coverage on fourth and 7, but receiver Blake Mitchell still came down with it and took it into the Bullpups’ 20-yard line. That was close enough for running back Ben Bannister to plunge it in and give Goddard its first lead since the first quarter.
“It’s kind of an example of who we are, what kind of team we are,” Beason said. “They could have very easily rolled over and closed up shop.”
Goddard will move on to play Bishop Miege at 1 p.m. Saturday at Topeka’s Hummer Sports Complex. Miege enters having won four straight championships, looking to make it a half decade of dominance.
4. Andale out
It won’t be back-to-back appearances.
Andale bowed out of the Class 3A playoffs Friday with a 21-19 loss at undefeated Pratt. The game came down to a two-point conversion that the Greenbacks stacked up.
With a couple of minutes left, quarterback Easton Hunter hit receiver Scottie Easter for a big gain and went to him again on a hitch route for the score.
But on the two-point conversion, Pratt forced a fumble on Hunter and recovered to ice it.
The Andale seniors didn’t go a year without winning at least eight games. They made it to the Class 4A-Division I title game last year. They won three AVCTL IV championships and reached three state semifinal games.
The Indians’ Class of 2019 might go down as the school’s most accomplished to not win a state championship. Coach Dylan Schmidt said he has a lot of reasons to be proud of his team from Friday.
“It was definitely a fun year,” he said. “Obvioulsy we would like the game to go the other way, but I was just so proud of our kids through the whole game of never giving up.”
5. All-Metro
Friday had a battle within.
Maize’s Caleb Grill and Wichita Northwest’s Reagan Jones are two of the top candidates for the Eagle’s 2018 All-Metro team. The problem is they play the same position.
Only one quarterback will be named to the All-Metro team, and based on Friday, both are certainly deserving.
In a loss, Grill threw for seven touchdowns. He was one away from tying a state record. He threw three to junior receiver Preven Christon, who gave the Grizzlies’ secondary nightmares. His last came with 2:51 to go and gave Maize a 60-59 lead.
On the other sideline, Jones waited for his crack and took advantage. As part of a four-touchdown night, Jones put Northwest through to its second state championship game appearance with an 28-yard strike to Zion Jones.
The quarterback race is the closest for the All-Metro team. Grill’s season is over, but he made his case with what he showed in a 60-point loss. Northwest coach Steve Martin said his quarterback did, too.
“I think Reagan Jones is a Division I football player if someone gives him a chance,” Martin said. “He’s a gamer.”
6. Mertz mania
For the second straight year, Blue Valley North and its All-American quarterback are playing their best ball heading into championship weekend.
Blue Valley North pulled out a 51-49 win over Olathe North in its Class 6A semifinal. Mertz threw for 527 yards, five touchdowns and a pair of interceptions.
“There’s always challenges, but we get together and we overcome them,” Mertz said. “Me and my brothers, I love them. It’s a crazy game. We had a 2OT (game) last year, and we just found a way to win. I’m proud of our guys.”
With the win, Blue Valley North has won nine straight after starting the season 0-3 with losses to Bishop Miege, Blue Valley and Pittsburg. Now the mustangs have wins over Olathe North, then-undefeated Gardner Edgerton and Mill Valley.
Friday’s win sets up a Class 6A title rematch from 2017 with Derby.
“Everything. It means everything,” Mertz said. “We’re coming for it.”
7. Marching in
The Saints are back.
For the second straight year, St. Thomas Aquinas has reached the Class 5A state championship game, and the sentiment across Kansas is this year’s group might be the best coach Randy Dreiling has coached either at Hutchinson or Aquinas.
The Saints made Olathe West look like it was in its first year of varsity football, which it is, with a 67-21 semifinal win Friday. They will play Wichita Northwest for the school’s first title in just its second appearance.
Dreiling is in his fifth season at Aquinas. The Saints were 3-7 the year before he arrived. Their three wins came against teams with two wins combined.
Now Aquinas has college-caliber talent across the field and together with Northwest could make one of the most entertaining title games.
“Next week, we’re going to have to go stop a team that runs the ball,” Northwest coach Steve Martin said. “We’ll buckle up and figure out our defense. But they’ve got to stop us, too.”
8. Staggering
Bishop Miege is playing for its fifth straight state championship Saturday.
Dreiling’s Hutchinson teams from 2005-09 were the most recent to do it. The Salthawks won six straight.
Miege handled one-loss Basehor-Linwood as if it were the first round of the playoffs with a 46-7 win Friday. Goddard is next, a team built on grit and scrappiness.
Lions coach Tom Beason said his group won’t back down.
“We wouldn’t even have a shot to talk about Miege - we wouldn’t even have a shot to put our name on the state title trophy, if we didn’t get to where we are now,” he said.
9. Others looking to repeat
The dream is still alive for five.
Blue Valley North, Bishop Miege, Sabetha, Smith Center and Hanover are heading into the final week of the Kansas high school football season with a chance at back-to-back titles.
Sabetha came out of the other side of the state’s most competitive classiciation, beating Galena 21-0 to face Pratt in Class 3A.
Smith Centrer steamed through Plainville like dry cleaning with a 49-7 win. The Redmen are seeking their 10th state championship this season and will get it with a win over undefeated Olpe on Saturday.
Hanover continues to lead Kansas’ smallest classiciation after a 60-14 win over Axtell. The Wildcats haven’t lost since Nov. 21, 2015, in the title game. Hanover will face Osborne for a shot a a three-peat.
10. Wichita’s last game
Wichita is the most populated, convenient city in Kansas, but it hasn’t hosted a state championship game since the 20th centrury.
Wichita has three teams heading to state championship games Saturday - Derby, Northwest and Goddard - and that is likely part of the reason all of them will travel at least an hour and a half.
The closest, most recent home-field advantage for a state championship-winning team was Andale in 2006 playing in Hutchinson, still a 40-minute drive away.
With so many teams in the Wichita area spreading from Class 6-1A, it would be a year-after-year gamble of giving a team a severe advantage.
From 1975-1981, Wichita Southeast and Kapaun Mt. Carmel combined to win five state championships played in Wichita.
Cessna Stadium is the largest in the city with a 24,000-person capacity. If it was in rotation through the Kansas State High School Activities Association, it would be three times larger than the next biggest used in 2018.
Northwest’s home win over Maize on Friday was the last high school football game in Wichita until fall.
This story was originally published November 17, 2018 at 6:14 AM.