Record crowd packs Riverfront Stadium for Carroll-Kapaun high school football game
A record-setting crowd was in attendance for the first high school football game played at Riverfront Stadium, as Bishop Carroll prevailed with a 26-21 win over Kapaun Mt. Carmel on Friday.
A total of 8,066 fans came out to watch the Catholic rivalry game in Wichita’s new downtown baseball stadium, which was transformed into a football field by the groundskeeping crew of the Wichita Wind Surge.
The crowd topped the previous record that was set earlier this summer when 7,709 fans witnessed the first no-hitter in Wind Surge history on Aug. 20, 2022 and the 7,509 fans who came for the stadium’s debut for a Wichita State baseball game on April 10, 2021.
“That was an awesome experience that I think the kids on both teams are going to talk about for the rest of their lives,” Carroll coach Dusty Trail said. “Shoot, that was something special for me and I’ve been coaching high school football (for three-plus decades). It was a pretty cool night.”
Making use of Riverfront Stadium before and after baseball season has long been the vision for the Wind Surge front office of CEO Jordan Kobritz and general manager Bob Moullette. The ballpark hosted the Jayhawk Conference football championship game last fall, so head groundskeeper Ben Hartman had experience preparing for a football game.
The experience showed in Friday’s presentation, which impressed both high school fan bases.
“They did an amazing job with the camera angles and showing replays and graphics on the big screen,” Carroll athletic director Tyler Fraizer said. “It made for a great environment and I think everyone absolutely loved the experience.
“You kind of had questions about if a football game down at that stadium would be a good setup or not, but that was a top-notch experience hands down.”
There were challenges fitting a crowd around a football field with the dimensions of a baseball stadium, but Trail said he was pleasantly surprised by how lively the atmosphere was down on the field.
“I was surprised by how loud it was down on the field,” Trail said. “We’ve played at Cessna Stadium, but you don’t get the same feeling there because the stadium is so big. It feels empty. Tonight definitely didn’t feel empty. There were people everywhere and it really gave you that college football, big-stadium feel.”
The game itself also delivered on the hype, as yet another Holy War rivalry game came down to the final minute only for Carroll (4-2) to pull it out in the end for the 24th straight year.
After Carroll shot out to a 10-0 lead, Kapaun took the lead with two straight touchdowns. Tate Blasi (130 receiving yards) put the Golden Eagles back in front with a 78-yard touchdown catch on a pass from Jackson King.
Carroll took a 26-14 lead, then Kapaun quarterback Dylan Hamilton threw his second scoring pass to trim the deficit to five points with one minute remaining in the third quarter. Kapaun had a handful of opportunities to threaten in the fourth quarter, but never found the go-ahead score to drop to 3-3 this season.
Omari Elias led the way for Kapaun with 166 rushing yards and a score, while Derek Breese, King and Thomas Gorges combined for 224 rushing yards for Carroll.
This story was originally published October 8, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
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