Relive the best moments captured from the 2018 Wichita high school football season
The 2018 Kansas high school football season was filled with fun storylines and heroic performances.
Here are the top moments from from all 13 weeks across the Wichita area:
Week 1
The 2018 season kicked off with a game that will probably be remembered as the finish of the season.
Defending 5A state champion Bishop Carroll hosted Northwest, and it came down to the final seconds as the Grizzlies’ sophomore kicker Carson Arndt booted the first field goal of his life to give Northwest a 23-22 win.
The kick would prove to be crucical in the City League race.
Before the kick, Northwest coach Steve Martin found Arndt and told him he wouldn’t send him out there if he didn’t trust him.
Arndt ask Martin how long the kick was. Martin said 20 yards.
“That’s easy,” Arndt said.
Down the road, Wichita North earned its first win in 21 tries with a 29-22 win over South.
Redskins junior running back Joe Williams III scored from 10 yards out late in the third quarter, and a 2-point conversion gave North a lead it wouldn’t give up.
With the win and Carroll’s loss, the Redskins were ahead of the Golden Eagles in the City League standings for the first time in more than 20 years.
To round out a wild Friday in the City League, Heights’ senior quarterback K’Vonte Baker put the Maize South defense on ice with a 99-yard touchdown in the Falcons’ 35-21 win.
The Mavericks had no answer for one of the shiftiest players to ever come through Wichita.
Week 2
North doubled down.
After turning heads in Week 1 with their win over South, the Redskins did it again with a 13-6 road win against Liberal. North coach Scott Moshier said most of his players had never won a game coming into 2018.
After that Friday, they had two.
“It’s not just some big guy you can’t tackle,” Moshier said. “It’s the little things and the mental part of it. It was sure nice to be able to call on that after we played well and won.
“We have their undivided attention now. That’s for sure.”
Week 3
The Maize defense was in the middle of a streak that would soon catch the eyes of everyone in Kansas.
The Eagles capped their third shutout in Week 3 with a 21-0 road win over Campus. The streak would go on for another two weeks.
The Maize defensive line made a nest in the Colts’ backfield with a more than 10 sacks that night.
“We got guys that can play four different positions on the defensive side of the ball,” senior defensive lineman Noah Stanton said. “We’re super deep, and we’re a team that was built in the offseason.
“We’re not letting up.”
But Maize wasn’t the only team marking its identity in Week 3. The eventual 4A West champion Goddard Lions laid claim to being the most entertaining team in the Wichita area with a 17-16 overtime win over Andover Central.
The win would prove to be one of five in which the Lions trailed at halftime.
“I was as frustrated during a football game as I can remember,” Goddard coach Tom Beason said. “We could not get out of our own way. Thank god our defense is so good.”
Week 4
Outside of the Carroll-Northwest matchup of Week 1, Week 4 had the best scheduled game of the 2018 season.
Derby traveled to Bishop Carroll in a showdown of a 2017 champion and runner-up. The Panthers came out with a 24-6 win. The Panther defense was expected to be good, but holding Carroll to one score proved Derby was onto something in 2018.
As the clock wound down, the Derby student section let Carroll know it, too.
“This is 6A,” they chanted.
“Our goal is to always put up a goose egg, but we knew Carroll,” coach Brandon Clark said. “We didn’t expect to stop them. We didn’t expect to score a ton of points on them. We kind of knew it was going to be a defensive battle, and it was.”
From title contenders to a team looking for its first win since 2016, Circle celebrated for the first time in 742 days in Week 4.
The Thunderbirds beat Rose Hill 20-10, and the Circle students made it look like they had won a national championship in one of the more awesome scenes of the season as they rushed the field.
“Sometimes your kids don’t know how to win, but I think we’re starting to turn a corner where we’re not intimidated by anyone,” coach Logan Clothier said after his first win in charge.
And Week 4 started with one of the catches of the season.
In Andover Central’s 27-17 Thursday night win over Valley Center, junior quarterback Shomari Parnell ripped a deep ball to the end zone for junior receiver Xavier Bell.
Bell adjusted his body midair and towered over his defender for the score.
“I really wasn’t expecting it,” Bell said. “He was on me. He was on me good. Usually people try to jump under me and tip it out, but I just felt like I had a higher advantage this time. I caught it with a strong grip and just kept it.”
Week 5
After three straight losses, Maize South caught fire in Week 5.
With 39 seconds to go, trailing to Andover Central, Mavericks quarterback Collin Shields threw a fade to junior receiver Braden Pfeifer who walked in his first high school touchdown to give Maize South a 21-20 win.
Pfeifer is the coach’s son.
“It was pretty unbelievable,” Maize South coach Brent Pfeifer said. “He ended the with two catches for 80-something yards. ... It was a pretty proud dad moment.”
It was one of six straight wins for the Mavs.
Week 6
Bishop Carroll made it two decades.
With a 28-14 win over rival Kapaun in the Holy War, the Golden Eagles reached 20 straight years with a win over the Crusaders. Everyone in the stadium knew.
“Twen-ty ye-ars,” the student section chanted.
The Eagles had to resort to their fourth string quarterback for a crucial third down conversion as Carroll’s, “Next man up” mentality was stretched thin.
“They just think about the streak and try to beat us,” senior running back Jackson Nichols said. “We just try to beat everybody.”
Week 7
Student sections across the Wichita area raised more than $2,500 in Week 7.
From Andover to Derby and Maize South, student sections pushed for donations for cancer research and even to help a classmate battle lymphoma.
And all that happened outside of the lines.
Goddard suffered its first loss of 2018 with a 23-22 double overtime defeat to a blazing hot Maize South team as Mavericks senior receiver Corey Minks scored the game-winner.
On the other side of town, the Backyard Brawl lived up to the hype.
Andover Central topped rival Andover 16-14 after a safety in the closing minutes. The final sounds of the week came from the Jaguar student section.
“This is our town,” they chanted.
Week 8
League champions were crowned in dramatic fashion.
Derby captured the AVCTL I and top seed in Class 6A West with a 35-21 win over Maize. It was the most points given up by the Panther defense all season.
The Eagles got down to the Derby 1-yard line but couldn’t punch it in. The Derby stop proved to be the difference in seeding as the Panthers finished seven points ahead of Free State.
“We play with emotion,” coach Brandon Clark said. “We coach with emotion. The kids know that, and they allow it to just kind of sink in for a second and go on to the next play. These games are fun, and emotion is fun. It doesn’t matter if it’s negative or positive.”
To the south, Goddard clinched its third straight AVCTL II title, and coach Beason was confident even before the game. After the Lions’ 32-3 win over Andover, he handed out championship T-shirts to his players.
“If we had to share the title we weren’t going to take credit for it,” Beason said. “We knew we would have been in third place out of the deal, so it mattered to our guys and they came ready to play.”
First Round
One of the great stories of 2018 was born.
No. 13 Arkansas City upset No. 4 Mulvane with a 29-26 road win in the first round of the 4A playoffs. But the Bulldogs weren’t done.
Mulvane wasn’t the only team on upset alert though.
Bishop Carroll escaped with a 40-34 win over Newton in the first round. The Golden Eagle defense struggled to contain the Railers’ passing attack, but Carroll got the last score as sophomore quarterback Aiden Niedens hit senior receiver Gunner Lynch for 42-yards with 4:39 left.
Regional Round
There was only enough room for one Maize school to go through.
Maize and Maize South met in the second round, and Eagles flipped a 35-7 loss four years ago on its head with a 35-0 win.
It was the Eagles’ first win over Maize South in school history.
“Every year you hope to get a little bit better, and you hope you learn,” Maize coach Gary Guzman said. “I’m still learning, and hopefully I’ll always feel that way, and I’m sure I will. I’m blessed to be here.
“I’m blessed to be at this place.”
Arkansas City made it two straight wins for the first time since 2013 with a 28-6 regional championship over Coffeyville.
The Bulldogs never trailed.
Sectional Round
After a thriller in Week 1, Carroll-Northwest was expected to produce much of the same in the round of 16.
It did.
Northwest beat Carroll 84-67 on a frigid night that saw more than 1,700 yards of offense and 22 touchdowns. It was the most points scored in a losing effort in Kansas high school football history.
“I told coach, ‘Give me the ball and put it on my back,’ ” Northwest running back Breece Hall said. “He gave me the ball almost every carry in the fourth quarter. I took it upon myself to get my team the win.”
In the other 5A quarterfinal, Maize quarterback Caleb Grill turned it up with a 28-21 win over Great Bend.
He threw for a pair of scores in about 10 minutes to give Maize the lead, and the Eagles’ defense came through to close as it had all season.
Sub-State Round
Northwest allowed 127 points in two weeks and still won twice.
The Grizzlies beat Maize 67-60 thanks to a 28-yard touchdown from junior quarterback Reagan Jones to receiver Zion Jones with 30.7 seconds to go.
The win sent Northwest to its second state championship game in school history.
“This run started two years ago,” coach Martin 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.”
After thumping its way through the regular season and the first three rounds of the playoffs, Derby punched its ticket to its fourth straight state championship game with a 24-6 win over Manhattan.
The win came on the heels of some controversial comments from Manhattan coach Joe Schartz that Derby “taught” antics of intimidation on its opponents.
“(The comments) calmed us down actually,” coach 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.”
Wichita’s third victor came an hour away as Goddard topped undefeated McPherson 15-14 thanks to a last-minute interception in the end zone from Lion defensive back Gentry Cole.
“It’s kind of an example of who we are, what kind of team we are,” coach Beason said. “They could have very easily rolled over and closed up shop.”
Championship Saturday
Three Wichita teams entered, but the one that showed the most well-rounded consistency came out a champion.
Derby won the Class 6A title with a 24-16 win over Blue Valley North, holding Wisconsin verbal commit Graham Mertz and Michigan verbal commit Amauri Pesek-Hickson in check.
Derby running back Tre Washington felt he let last year’s seniors down in 2017 when the Panthers lost their first title game since 2002.
He came through in 2018 with three touchdowns and more than 200 rushing yards.
“We dreamed of this every night, thought about the loss and wanted to be undefeated no matter what,” senior linebacker Jackson Syring said. “We wanted to leave here without a broken heart like last year, and we did it.”
This story was originally published November 26, 2018 at 6:37 PM.