Five Wichita-area games you need to read about from Week 2 high school football
With Week 1 of the Kansas high school football season officially in the books, The Wichita Eagle picked out five key games to highlight.
You can find a list of Wichita-area game scores from Friday at Kansas.com.
1. Northwest exacts some revenge on East
For nearly a decade straight, Northwest could make the claim as the top public school in the City League.
But last year, East wrestled away that title by beating Northwest in the regular season and then ending the Grizzlies’ season in the Class 6A playoffs.
In a highly anticipated rematch between two ranked 6A teams, Northwest prevailed 14-0 over East in a defensive slugfest.
“Our guys just got sick of a lot of people talking negative about our kids and about our west-side community and our program,” Northwest coach Steve Martin said. “I thought our guys showed a lot of guts (on Friday). They got that monkey off their back, and I was very proud of them and how they played.”
The game’s first points came in the third quarter as Northwest finally pulled in front with its running attack led by Augie Fast, who continued his breakout campaign with 154 rushing yards and a touchdown for the game.
The Grizzlies tacked on another score in the fourth quarter when Jaylen Mason found Chase Carter for a 48-yard touchdown through the air.
But it was Northwest’s defense which stole the show, as the return of defensive lineman Brady Johnson (three tackles for a loss) helped shut out a talented East offense. It was a dominant showing from the Grizzlies’ front seven, as the linebacker trio of Franklin Ekue, Ja’Mari Bland and Johnmichael Fountain were tackling machines, while Johnson, Bishop Smith (two sacks), Bryant Roberts and Emorjai Buncome were disruptive on the line.
“I think what you saw was maturity in our program,” Martin said. “Maybe two years ago we would have thrown a fit and not been able to keep our composure when things weren’t going our way in a game like that. But our kids stayed together and our coaching staff stayed positive with them and our guys did a great job. It’s only Game 2 though. Was it great to win? Absolutely. But we’re just focused on making weekly improvements and making sure we’re peaking at the right time. (Friday) was a good step.”
2. Andale outlasts Wellington in a shootout
It’s been almost a decade since the last time Andale lost to an AV-CTL Div. 4 opponent, but Wellington nearly ended that streak on Friday.
After the teams combined for eight lead changes, 14 touchdowns and nearly 1,000 yards of offense, Andale survived with a 56-48 road victory in a shootout between two vastly different styles.
While Wellington quarterback Dusty Bannister broke his school record with 480 passing yards with six total touchdowns, Andale piled up nearly 500 yards on the ground. The 48 points were the most scored against Andale since Mulvane scored 52 points in a 61-52 Andale win on Sept. 16, 2016.
“They came out and scored on a busted coverage, and I thought, ‘Oh, that won’t happen again,’” Andale coach Dylan Schmidt said. “But give a ton of credit to Bannister. He’s a really good quarterback and they have some good receivers over there and they did a great job of staying in it. It felt like we couldn’t get any stops to get over the hump.”
Wellington answered an early score by Andale with a 70-yard touchdown pass from Bannister to Carter Burnett, then following a rare Andale miscue on offense, the Crusaders took an early 14-8 lead when Bannister found Grady Norris for a 25-yard score.
Behind an offensive line of Jak Krehbiel, Curtis Dyke, Ethan Schrandt, Ben Molitor and Emery Craft, plus the blocking of Hunter Grimes, Ian Schrandt, Cale Andree, Bo Kaiser and Cooper Marx, Andale was able to grind its way to two straight scores by Sam and Landon Harp for a 24-14 lead.
Wellington paired the final score of the first half, a 36-yard touchdown by Jagger Norris, with the first score of the second half, a Bannister keeper, to take a 28-24 lead. That’s when the two teams began trading scores.
Andale went up 32-28 on a Cooper Marx score, then Wellington edged in front, 34-32, on a Brody Weir run before Andale took a 40-34 lead on a Landon Harp run. Wellington took a 41-40 lead with 10:41 remaining in the fourth quarter when Bannister scored again on the ground, but Andale answered back with a long drive capped by a Landon Harp score and two-point conversion for a 48-41 lead with 5:38 left.
That’s when Andale’s defense came up with the only defensive stop by either team in the second half, as Wellington’s fourth-down pass was broken up with 4:31 left. Sam Harp scored another rushing touchdown to extend Andale’s lead to 56-41 and despite a late score from Wellington, a Jagger Norris 33-yard strike with 1:11 remaining, Andale managed to run out the clock on the thriller.
“We needed a game like that, because the last time we were in a war, we got beat,” Schmidt said, a reference to a 28-24 loss to Cheney in last year’s Class 3A semifinals. “So to get back in a little bit of a war and to come out on top, I was proud of our kids.
“As we all know, the end of the season is what matters the most. So hopefully our kids will be able to learn from this one and we’ll learn from it as a staff and get better. That’s the mark of a champion is to get better from it and to learn.”
3. Eisenhower comes out on top of the Goddard rivalry game
Behind a potent passing game, Eisenhower built an early lead and held on for a 32-21 win over cross-town rival Goddard.
It was revenge for the Tigers, who reached the Class 5A semifinals last season, after Goddard handed them their only loss in the regular season last year.
Quarterback Derek Morgan and star receiver Carter Pabst connected for three touchdowns in the first quarter alone, while Pabst finished the game with 202 receiving yards.
“Those two spend a lot of time together,” Eisenhower coach Darrin Fisher said. “They take time in the summer to go run routes and their bond is really something special. They’ve spent so much time together that they trust each other enough where sometimes Carter will run his own play and they don’t have to say anything because they know where they’re going.”
A 70-yard strike between Morgan and Pabst put the Tigers up 20-7 at the end of the first quarter, but Goddard would prove to be resilient. The Lions scored in the third quarter to trim the deficit to one score. After Morgan scored again for Eisenhower to extend the lead, Goddard answered back one more time to cut the deficit to 26-21 with 8:35 remaining.
Morgan scored one more time, again from the 1-yard line, to clinch the victory and improve Eisenhower, ranked No. 6 in 5A, to 2-0 this season. Eisenhower’s defense received timely plays by Lucas Freeman, Makai Tagatac and Peyton Dean in securing the victory.
“We played well, and I thought our kids played composed,” Fisher said. “It helps when at any moment we can throw the ball down the field and score quickly. That’s an extreme weapon that we can utilize at any point, so if we’re struggling, we always have that in our back pocket. If we needed a first down, we could trust our quarterback to make the right reads and deliver the ball in the right spots.”
4. Andover snaps 14-game losing streak
In head coach Jamie Cruce’s first game, Andover pushed Kapaun Mt. Carmel, which played for a state title last year, to the brink.
For a team that didn’t win a game last season, that was a step in the right direction.
On Friday, the Trojans took the next step, winning 27-14 over Maize to snap a 14-game losing streak that dates back to the 2022 season. Andover’s last win was 27-25 at Eisenhower on Sept. 30, 2022.
“Last week we showed that we belonged, but we felt like we let one slip away,” Cruce said. “This week our O-line buckled down, and we were able to sustain some long drives. It was pretty special to see them go celebrate with the fans. We had an awesome crowd. It was really special seeing those guys celebrate. They’ve worked hard,and they deserve it.”
For the second straight week, Andover jumped on its opponent in the first half. The Trojans’ secondary of Zeke McCaskill, Trey Kelly and Gatlin Tilson registered three interceptions, which led to three straight touchdowns and a 21-0 lead when Quincy Jonas executed a play-action fake and connected with Will Quinn for a 66-yard touchdown.
Maize pushed back with a score right before halftime. Then a 17-yard touchdown by Bryson Hayes cut Andover’s lead to 21-14 with 9:16 remaining in the fourth quarter.
That’s when Andover leaned on its run game.. The Trojans reeled off nearly an eight-minute drive, capped by a short score from Noah Noyes, who finished with 26 carries for 132 yards and two scores, to take a 27-14 lead with 1:33 left.
Cruce also credited the toughness of two-way players Luke Farley and Tate Hutchinson for the win.
“Our senior group has a lot of good football players who are just good kids, good leaders and they work hard,” Cruce said. “We knew that if we could get these guys on board with what we were doing, then we could have some success.”
5. Conway Springs tops Garden Plain for first time since 2018
Conway Springs may have won a state championship last season, but Garden Plain owned bragging rights with five straight wins in the Central Plains League rivalry.
The Cardinals were finally able to reverse that trend on Friday with a stout defense and just enough offense in a 13-7 road victory, their 13th straight win dating back to last year’s run to a Class 1A title.
Conway Springs, 1A’s top-ranked team this season, improved to 2-0, while Garden Plain, ranked No. 10 in 2A, fell to 1-1.
“It’s a heavyweight fight every year between us,” Conway Springs coach Matt Biehler said.
It was a dominant first half from Conway Springs, which led 13-0 after touchdowns from Isaac Winter and Cade Howell. A score from Garden Plain quarterback Brady Brack tightened the game, and a fourth-down goal-line stop by Emrick Hays gave the Owls hope late in the game.
A potential game-winning drive by Garden Plain reached Conway Springs territory, but a fourth-down pass was batted down by the Cardinals to preserve the win.
Biehler gave credit to his defense for ending the losing streak to a rival, as Winter, Howell, Cooper Koster, Grant Fisher, Layne Whitney all played a role in holding the Owls to a single score.
“My coaches did an excellent job preparing them for what they were going to see (Friday),” Biehler said. “And our kids were tuned in and ready to go. It was almost like having coaches out there on the field. They were calling out tendencies and knowing where the ball was going and came up and made some big plays.”
This story was originally published September 14, 2024 at 5:29 PM.
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