Semifinal football preview: History and a trip to the state title game on the line
There are only seven left.
Seven teams from the Wichita area remain across all classifications of the 2019 Kansas high school football playoffs, and the semifinal round has some outstanding storylines.
Here is a preview of the sub-state round, including the Varsity Kansas Game of the Week:
Cheney at Andale
Previous meeting: Andale 29, Cheney 22 (Week 8, 2019)
Preview: Week 8 featured one of the most unique case studies in Wichita area high school football of the past five years.
Andale has the sixth-best winning percentage of any team in Kansas since claiming its most recent state championship in 2014. Only Spearville, Central Plains, Phillipsburg, Derby and Bishop Miege have been better.
Since that 2014 season, Andale has played just nine one-score games. The Indians are 5-4 in those games, and none of them were against schools as small as Cheney.
In Week 8 this season, Cheney went to Andale and fought to a 29-22 finish. It was the first one-score regular-season home game that Andale fans had seen since 2014.
Andale has become revered even by some of the biggest programs in the Wichita area. Derby and Wichita Northwest have scheduled sub-varsity games against the Indians.
Cheney is the first Wichita team of its size to prove it can hang with Andale in the past decade.
And now they meet again.
Cheney is making its first state semifinal appearance in school history coming off an impressive 38-7 road win over Scott City. Andale is back to the sub-state round for the fifth time in six years.
A Cardinals win would be one of the biggest upsets in recent Wichita-area high school football history. The best news for Cheney is that it has proven it’s possible.
Prediction: Andale 28, Cheney 24
Maize at Wichita Northwest
Previous meeting: Wichita Northwest 67, Maize 60 (Sub-state, 2018)
Preview: What a difference a year makes or maybe not.
Maize and Wichita Northwest meet in the Class 5A semifinals for the second straight season. Last year, Northwest earned its second straight win while allowing at least 60 points.
That almost certainly won’t happen again this week.
Withdrawing Maize and Northwest’s worst defensive performances of the year (a 55-7 loss at Derby for Maize and a 35-18 win over Carroll for Northwest), these two teams have allowed just 131 points this season. That’s an average of 6.55 points per game.
The teams combined for 127 in last year’s semifinal.
After Maize beat crosstown rival Maize South 28-0 in its quarterfinal, senior running back Caden Cox called his team’s defense, “the real cutthroat defense.”
When Northwest coach Steve Martin hired former Eisenhower coach Marc Marinelli to take over his defense, Marinelli called his group, “The Misfits” — a group that plays with a chip on its shoulder.
Prediction: Wichita Northwest 21, Maize 18
Andover Central at McPherson
Previous meeting: McPherson 26, Andover Central 14 (Week 3, 2011)
Preview
McPherson’s redemption tour comes to a head against Andover Central. Andover Central’s seniors, meanwhile, are looking to leave the program as they found it.
Last year, McPherson lost to Goddard 15-14 in the state semifinals on a last-second interception in the end zone. The Bullpups are back, looking to reach their first state championship game in school history.
Andover Central’s seniors entered the program in 2016 on the heels of the Jaguars’ first and only state championship game appearance. Since then, their goal has been to get back and win it all. And they are in position to do that now.
McPherson enters the semifinal round allowing just 8.36 points per game. The Bullpups’ opponents have a combined average of 3.18 wins.
Andover Central has scored fewer than 20 only twice this season after putting up more than 20 just once last year. The Jaguars’ opponents haven’t been overly strong, either, with an average of 4.72 wins.
Prediction: Andover Central 21, McPherson 17
Topeka at Derby
Previous meeting: Derby 38, Topeka 7 (Sectional, 2018)
Preview: Topeka hasn’t scored fewer than 27 points this season, and Derby hasn’t given up that many at home in the past two years.
The difference: Derby is 5-0 in its past five state semifinals — 2012 was the most recent time the Panthers bowed out in this round, back when Hutchinson was on a run of 10 title-game appearances in 12 years.
Derby has taken over as the premier program in Kansas since then. The Panthers are seeking their fourth state championship in the past half-decade.
Derby handled Topeka 38-7 in last year’s state quarterfinals. Most signs point to that happening again, but the Panthers will have to solve Minnesota running back pledge Ky Thomas, who has climbed to the No. 2 spot on Kansas’ all-time rushing list.
Thomas had 291 yards on 33 carries in Topeka’s 35-21 win last week over Junction City. He now has 7,337 career yards and trails only Collegiate’s DeAngelo Evans, who had 8,472.
Prediction: Derby 38, Topeka 18