‘It’s fairy-tale stuff’: Kapaun’s improbable comeback tops Northwest to reach 5A semi
Surrounded in a sea of blue belting the Kapaun Mt. Carmel fight song in unison, Will Anciaux was still trying to grasp how exactly this scene came to be.
Erasing an 18-point, second-half deficit to advance in the Kansas high school football playoffs to the Class 5A semifinals has the tendency to muddle the brain.
All that was left was to join the raucous celebration with the sectional championship plaque hoisted overhead, proof of Kapaun’s inconceivable 38-35 win over Wichita Northwest on Friday night.
“Growing up when you imagine playing in a big playoff game, this is exactly what you picture,” said Anciaux, who caught a 16-yard touchdown pass during Kapaun’s furious comeback. “It’s like a dream come true, but at the same time it’s fairy-tale stuff. I can’t believe this.”
After 32 years of bliss coaching at West and Northwest, Weston Schartz decided to give that up to take the Kapaun job because he believed a night like Friday was possible. The coach has made a career turning around programs, but nothing can top what Schartz has done in two years at Kapaun.
For the first time since 2013, Kapaun (10-1) is back in the state semifinals and will play Maize (10-1) next Friday at Wichita Heights. For the first time in more than three decades, the Crusaders believe they are built the last as a state power.
“Back in the 70’s and 80’s, we were winning in the quarterfinals every year,” said Kapaun senior Isaac Schmitz, who had 110 receiving yards and kicked a 44-yard field goal. “We want to get back to that. We’re bringing the old Kapaun back and instilling that same mentality that the old Kapaun had.”
Restoring Kapaun to the past glory days of the Ed Kriwiel era, when the Crusaders won nine state championships between 1970 and 1987, has always been the mission for Schartz, which is why it meant so much to him that Kriwiel’s daughters were in attendance for Friday’s game.
“It was emotional for me,” Schartz said. “Emotional, but very satisfying.”
The night ending in a Kapaun celebration seemed unlikely when Northwest quarterback Geremiah Moore found Michael Lopez Jr. for a 54-yard touchdown, Moore’s fifth score of the game, to go up 35-17 with 2:46 remaining in the third quarter.
Since moving down to Class 5A in 2018, no western team has beaten Northwest in the playoffs — the Grizzlies have played in the state title game each season. Even through a rocky 1-2 start, including a 34-17 loss to Kapaun on Sept. 17, Northwest was playing with the swagger of a team that was used to winning big games.
“The coaches have instilled in us this never-give-up attitude since June,” Schmitz said. “We never quit in the weight room, never quit on the practice field. No matter what, we never quit.”
A team never knows how it will react to a dire situation with its season on the line until it finds itself trailing by 18 with less than 15 minutes left to play. When adversity hit, the resiliency and character developed this summer came through for Kapaun.
“We have this incredible belief in each other,” Anciaux said. “We believe we can do anything together, no matter what the score is. We believe we can overcome any deficit.”
“We have held each other accountable since the summer,” Kapaun senior Henry Thengvall said. “Everybody shows up on time and works hard. It’s clear everyone has bought into coach Schartz’s program and what he wants us to do. He forces us to get better every day.”
“Our practices are pretty intense,” Schartz said. “We go hard and we go fast. We practice very intense and we work out very intense. I never had to worry about if they were going to practice hard or work hard or lift hard. It’s something that I haven’t really seen before in my coaching career.”
Kapaun has won this season because of its smash-mouth style on offense, but sophomore quarterback Dylan Hamilton picked the right time to play perhaps the best game of his young career. He finished with 211 passing yards on just 10 completions, including a handful of key throws during the comeback.
Hamilton restored hope on the Kapaun sideline by leading a quick scoring drive that was capped by a 16-yard scoring throw to Anciaux to trim Northwest’s lead to 35-24 before the end of the third quarter.
Following a defensive stop by Kapaun, Hamilton once again came through in the clutch by floating in a deep throw to Schmitz perfectly for a 37-yard gain. A play later, Omari Elias plunged in for a touchdown to trim Northwest’s lead to 35-30 with more than eight minutes to play.
Elias, a 5-foot-10, 190-pound sophomore, has been a battering ram for Kapaun all season. After carrying 36 times for 198 yards and three touchdowns on Friday, he has 2,140 rushing yards in 11 games. He seemingly runs harder as the game wears on, delivering more punishment than he takes.
“Every carry I feel like I’m going to score a touchdown,” Elias said. “And if I can’t do that, then I’m looking to hit somebody. I just go straight downhill.”
That’s exactly what it looked like when Elias took his 32nd of the night, designed to run over the right tackle. But when no room presented itself, Elias cut back outside and streaked down the left sideline with Hamilton sprinting in front of him to provide the block that ultimately sprung Elias for the 54-yard, go-ahead touchdown with 4:23 remaining. A two-point conversion by Anciaux pushed Kapaun’s lead to 38-35.
“We knew (Northwest) was going to come out strong, so we had to wear them down,” Elias said. “We stayed stronger longer. That’s what we’ve done all season. We out-last guys and we end up being the tougher team in the end.”
Scoring 21 straight points to take the lead late in the fourth quarter is an exhilarating feeling for a coach. Realizing you now have to find a way to stop Moore, who finished with 244 rushing yards and 108 passing yards, brings you back down to Earth real quick.
“I was scared to death,” said Schartz, who coached Moore as a freshman at West. “Anytime (Moore) has the ball in his hands, something is going to happen.”
Sure enough, Moore moved Northwest into striking distance for one last desperation heave from 40 yards out with 2.2 seconds left. As the final horn sounded, Moore rolled out of the pocket, planted and launched from the 50-yard line. The pass sailed high and dropped just past the goal line into a crowd gathered in the end zone, deflecting and hitting off the hands of Northwest receiver Randell Bell, who nearly corralled what would have been a Hail Mary for the ages.
Instead, the second deflection bounced right into the hands of Kapaun defensive back Austin Ruda.
“If it’s going to be a Hail Mary, we’re going to get that break every time,” Schartz joked.
“It was very close to being a touchdown,” Ruda admitted. “But it fell out and I grabbed it. Game over. It was an incredible feeling. We’re just trying to go until we hit that Thanksgiving practice, baby.”
As Kapaun seeks the thrill of the Thanksgiving practice, Northwest had to come to terms that it will not be practicing the final week of the season for the first time in four years.
It was a devastating result for the Grizzlies, which tried but ultimately could not overcome mounting injuries and 11 penalties on Friday.
“You’ve got to be able to rise above adversity,” Northwest coach Steve Martin said. “These guys showed their valor tonight. We started out 1-2 and they could’ve packed it in, but our seniors responded and started leading. But the offseason knows what you did and we probably weren’t as sharp as we should have been and it caught up to us.
“We’re going up to 6A now, so we’ve got to get ready for another step up.”
Kapaun Mt. Carmel 38, Wichita Northwest 35
Northwest (8-3) 7; 14; 14; 0 — 35
Kapaun (10-1) 0; 10; 14; 14 — 38
NW—Moore 1 run (Souter kick)
KMC—Schmitz 44 field goal
NW—Moore 40 run (Souter kick)
KMC—Hamilton 2 run (Schmitz kick)
NW—Moore 3 run (Souter kick)
NW—Moore 4 run (Souter kick)
KMC—Elias 28 run (Schmitz kick)
NW—Lopez Jr. 54 pass from Moore (Souter kick)
KMC—Anciaux 16 pass from Hamilton (Schmitz kick)
KMC—Elias 1 run (pass failed)
KMC—Elias 54 run (Anciaux pass from Hamilton)
Individual statistics
Rushing—Northwest, Moore 25-244, Thompson 17-100, Phillips 1-19; Kapaun, Elias 36-198, Doolittle 8-22, Ruda 1-5, Hamilton 2-4.
Passing—Northwest, Moore 7-13-2-108; Kapaun, Hamilton 10-18-0-211.
Receiving—Northwest, Lopez Jr. 4-77, Bell 1-16, Powell 2-15; Kapaun, Schmitz 4-110, Anciaux 4-67, W. Thengvall 1-24, Doolittle 1-10.
This story was originally published November 13, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
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