By Dean Backes
MaxPreps.com
In early June, Jeff Hennick threw for 200 yards and three touchdowns to lead the West team to a 42-24 win over a group of eastern Kansas all-stars in an 8-Man Division II All-Star football game at Trojan Field in Beloit.
The Sharon Springs quarterback threw for the fourth highest yardage total in that games history.
On the same field, that same night, former Kensington middle linebacker Ethan Kuhlman led the east team to a 28-18 win over the west team in the 8-Man Division 1 battle.
Kuhlman was credited with 10 total tackles, including six solo stops, in the game.
On Saturday, Hennick and Kuhlman joined forces with a select group of Sunflower State all-stars and went north of the border to tackle their counterparts from Nebraska.
With Hennick and Kuhlman leading the way on their respective sides of the ball, the Kansas team ran away from Nebraska 31-14 at Doane College in Crete.
Hennick, who had 134 all-purpose yards, was named Kansas’ Offensive Player of the Game after kicking a 42-yard field goal and throwing a pair of touchdown passes. Kuhlman received Defensive MVP honors, for Kansas, after making 16 tackles, nine of which were solo stops.
“This win here tonight was just about as good as the state championship,” Hennick told the Hays Daily News in reference to the 8-Man Division II state football championship he and his Wildcat teammates won last fall with a 48-0 blanking of South Haven. “We hear about Nebraska football all the time and how they are all football. It was nice to come up and get a win. It was pretty fun.”
Nebraska looked to be the better team in the game’s opening 12 minutes, leading 14-8 after a quarter of play. But Kansas’ defense would eventually step up when it had to and shut Big Red down over the final three quarters of the game.
Wauneta-Palisade standout Taylor Dixon, a Nebraska walk-on, got the Husker State on the board first when he dashed over the goal line from 13 yards out, giving his team a 7-0 advantage.
Following a six-yard touchdown run by former Hope running back Lucas Hicks, that gave Kansas an 8-7 lead, Dixon broke loose again for a 42-yard scoring scamper that gave Nebraska its final lead of the game at 14-8.
The Bronco running back finished the night with 124 yards on 27 carries and two touchdowns to earn Nebraska’s Offensive MVP honors.
The well soon went dry for Nebraska, however, when the Kansas defense started to find its way. Meanwhile, the Kansas offense started to click, scoring 15 unanswered points in the second quarter and 23 straight to finish the game.
“We couldn’t really finish all that well,” Dixon told the Lincoln Journal Star. “Kansas, you’ve got to give it to them. Even their big guys were pretty fast. They had a lot of speed, a lot more than we anticipated.”
Kuhlman offered this explanation on the turn of events. “They got off the line slow,” the Nebraska-Kearney recruit told the Hays Daily News. “They were a lot bigger than us, but coach put in a good defense.”
Hennick had a hand in all three second quarter Kansas scores.
Jetmore’s Aaron Ward knotted the score when he latched on to a 4-yard scoring pass from Hennick, who rolled right after taking the snap out of the shotgun.
Earlier in the go ahead drive, a 16-play, 76-yard drive that took 5-minutes, 37-seconds off of the clock, Hennick threw over the Nebraska defense and found Jetmore’s Daniel Balmann for a 38-yard gain.
He then connected with Greensburg’s Eric White for a 15-yard score to put Kansas up for good 20-14.
Following a blocked punt off of the hands of Madison’s Kaleb Schankie, Hennick booted a 42-yard field goal with 11-seconds left in the half to give Kansas a nine-point advantage at intermission.
Hanover’s Kellan Tegtmeier scored the only second half points, for either team, when he intercepted a fourth quarter Nebraska pass and raced 29-yards for the final points of the game.
Nebraska did reach Kansas territory on three occasions in the second half, but were turned away.
On the first occasion, Schankie and Kensington’s Randall Irving ganged up and stuffed Dixon for a 3-yard loss from the 27-yard line.
Then Claflin linebacker Layton Hickel stopped Bancroft-Rosalie running back Kyle Novak for no gain after Nebraska reached the Kansas 6-yard line.
Kuhlman ended the final threat when he hit Winside quarterback Jordan Brummels for no gain from the Kansas 46-yard line.