Kansas football championship parade begins

Despite holding a 32-6 lead in the first half, Madison-Hamilton (Madison, Kan.) defenders were called on to make a play late in the fourth quarter to preserve the school's first state football title since 1984.

With 42 seconds remaining in the 8-Man 1 championship, in Newton, Bulldog defenders put the skids on a Hill City (Hill City, Kan.) rally when they stopped Ringneck junior quarterback Reggie Jordan for no gain on fourth down. The Bulldogs then ran out the clock for the 52-44 win.

"We wanted to keep penetration and not let him get up the middle," Madison-Hamilton defender Bubba Smith told the Wichita Eagle. "We knew making one play was all we needed."

Madison-Hamilton scored on Collin Kile runs of 1 and 11 yards before Jordan closed out the first quarter with a 1-yard run to pull Hill City to within 12-6. But the Bulldogs scored three straight touchdowns on runs of 1 and 45 yards by Kile and a 50-yard romp by Kole Schankie to build the 32-6 advantage.

Jordan then sandwiched touchdown runs of 43, 1 and 13 yards around Kole Schankie's 36-yard romp to pull the Ringnecks within 38-28 entering the fourth quarter. The Ringnecks outscored the Bulldogs 16-14 in the final quarter.

Kole Schankie led the ground game for the champions with 255 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 27 carries. Kile added 100 yards and four touchdowns on 11 carries. Hill City countered with Jordan's game high rushing total of 280 yards and six touchdowns on 42 carries.

The Bulldogs rushed for 382 yards as a team on 43 carries, while Hill City produced 358 yards on the ground on 61 attempts.

B & B (Baileyville) 50, Otis-Bison (Otis) 34

Although he would have preferred to run some time off of the clock, B & B football coach Steve Tiernan wasn't about to gripe about his quick-strike offense during Saturday's 50-34 8-Man 2 championship win over previously unbeaten and third-ranked Otis-Bison.

The Falcons never trailed in the contest and always had an answer when Otis-Bison tightened the screws.

"Sometimes we answered too quickly," Tiernan told the Topeka Capital Journal. "I'd say, ‘Let's just go on a drive here and go down and score,' and bam, we'd score like that. I'm not going to complain about that, though."

Once the Falcons surged out to a 22-6 advantage following a Mitch Engelken 49-yard run, Otis-Bison cut the deficit to eight points three times. The Falcons responded each time with touchdowns, once on a 4-yard run by Dylan Buessing and then on Engelken's 69-yard kickoff return in the third quarter and a 75-yard strike from Eric Huerter to Cody Heiman on the first play of the fourth quarter, to bring the score to 44-28.

Huerter gave the Falcons the biggest lead of the contest at 50-28 when he scored from 3-yards out.

Engelken led all rushers in the game with 156 yards and a couple of touchdowns on 16 carries, while Otis-Bison was led by Patrick Piper's 100 yards on 24 carries.

Both teams were productive through the air. Huerter completed 4 of 10 aerials for 154 yards and a touchdown. His favorite target, Heiman, latched onto a pair of passes for 121 yards and a score. Otis-Bison quarterback Trevor Keller, meanwhile, threw for 201 yards and four scores on 18 of 26 passing. Dylan Wissman caught six aerials for 142 yards and all four touchdowns.

REVERSAL OF FORTUNE

Of the four semifinal football games contested in Kansas' two largest classifications last weekend, three of them featured rematches from the regular season. All three outcomes this time were reversed.

Defending Class 6A champion North (Olathe, Kan.) paved it's way to a second straight title game by battling past cross-town rival East (Olathe, Kan.) 13-6. The Hawks surprised North in week three action by shutting the Eagles out 25-0. Not this time.

Olathe North struck first on Kansas recruit Adonis Saunders' 59-yard run. Brandon Willingham answered for Olathe East on the Hawk's next possession when he rambled over the goal line from 19-yards out, but the PAT kick was blocked and East still trailed, 7-6.

Daniel Gutierrez capped the sub-state championship win by booting a pair of 27-yard field goals in the second and fourth quarters.

While a Hutchinson versus Gardner-Edgerton matchup was anticipated following last weekend's action, Blue Valley (Stilwell, Kan.) and Carroll (Wichita, Kan.) had other ideas despite suffering regular season losses to Class 5A's top two teams to that point.

After committing seven turnovers against No. 5 Bishop Carroll in week 9, Hutchinson still squeezed out a 21-14 triumph. This time around the Golden Eagles posted a 21-0 shutout of the Salt Hawks.

Bishop Carroll scored the game's first points just before halftime when Brandon Weber rambled over the goal line from 4-yards out on the play following Golden Eagle quarterback Tyler Nance's 27-yard hookup with Shane Brittain.

Bishop Carroll added a 10-yard strike from backup signal caller Zeke Palmer to Dan McMillan on a fake field goal in the third quarter. Moments later Nance made his way into the end zone on a 21-yard scramble for the 21-0 win, handing Hutchinson its first playoff loss since a 28-13 set back to Olathe North in the 2003 Class 6A title game.

On the other side of the bracket, Blue Valley out scored Bubba Starling and top-ranked Gardner-Edgerton 45-42 after falling to the Trailblazers in the first match 42-21. In that game, the Tigers proved they could play with Gardner-Edgerton for a half. This time the Tigers finished the deal.

Blue Valley jumped out to a 38-21 advantage on Jacob McDermott's fourth of five touchdown catches from Tiger signal caller Kyle Zimmerman with 8:38 left in the third quarter. Starling, however, brought the Trailblazers back to within 38-35 with touchdown runs of 21 and 1 yards.

McDermott reeled in a 49-yard scoring catch from Zimmerman and Ryan Goetzmann latched onto a 20-yard strike from Trailblazer backup quarterback Tanner Webb to round out the game's scoring.

FALCONS GET ON A ROLL

Top-ranked Heights (Wichita, Kan.) earned a berth in the Class 6A final opposite North (Olathe, Kan.) after knocking off fifth-ranked Dodge City 42-38. The prospects of making a second straight trip to the Kansas big school final looked rather grim in the early going, however.

The Demons bolted to a 28-0 first quarter lead on a 46-yard run by Dodge City quarterback Jared Helfrich, TD passes of 33 and 23 yards to Rico Hogan and Trey Hallman and an 80-yard run by Parker Davis.

But Daniel Deshazer scored on a 4-yard run in the first quarter and reeled in a 45-yard pass from Falcon running back Dreamius Smith on a flea flicker to cut the deficit in half. Davis answered with a 1-yard scoring run before halftime helping Dodge City to a 35-14 lead at intermission.

Heights knotted the score at 35 at the end of the third quarter following scoring runs of 54-, 1- and 11-yards by Matt Reed, Smith and Marquel Moore, respectively. Dillon Burkhard gave Dodge City the lead one more time when he booted a 25-yard field goal with 10:35 left in the contest.

Heights defensive back Evan Wessel, who plays sparingly on offense, rallied the Falcons one more time when he dove for and caught a 16-yard pass from Reed in the back of the end zone with 24 seconds left in the game for the win.

CLASS 4A

A week after Buhler shut out top-ranked Topeka Hayden 21-0; Holton upended the third-ranked Crusaders 42-7 in one of two Class 4A semifinals. The Wildcats relied on a swarm of running backs to get by the third-ranked Crusaders.

Three Holton backs rushed for 45 yards or more and quarterbacks Bryce Barnett and Jaxon Wright scored a touchdown each. The Wildcats ran for 369 yards on 59 carries. Holton held 2,000-yard rusher Tanner Fisher and the Crusaders to just 84 yards on 25 carries.

The Wildcats jumped to a 21-0 halftime advantage following touchdown runs by Barnett, Jay Morris and Rob Riederer. Gunnar McKenna added a 43-yard romp to put the Wildcats up 28-0 before JP Lohrentz finally got Buhler on the board by latching onto a 57-yard throw from quarterback Chandler Shantz.

Second-ranked Louisburg joins eighth-ranked Holton in the final after knocking off Paola for the second time this season, 28-7. The Wildcats jumped on top 21-0 with touchdown runs of 2- and 37-yards by Garrett Griffin and a 2-yard run by Alex Gentges.

Griffin added a 5-yard score in the second quarter before Dustin Matz scored the only points of the second half, corralling a 23-yard strike from Seth Kern for the Panthers.

CLASS 3A

Top-ranked Conway Springs ran its way into this weekend's title game with a 59-22 win over Beloit. Led by Cory Misak's 195 yards rushing, and Brian Doffing's 146, the Cardinals rushed for 495 yards on 51 carries as a team and nine touchdowns.

Fifth-ranked Silver Lake will counter Conway Springs' rushing attack with a balanced offense. The Eagles rushed for 240 yards and three touchdowns in a 38-0 win over Rossville and totaled 408 yards of offense. The Eagles held the Bulldogs to 137 total yards.

CLASS 2-1A

For the second time this season third-ranked Olpe jumped out to a lead over top-ranked St. Mary's-Colgan (Pittsburg) only to see its advantage evaporate into a Panther win.

In late October, Pittsburg-Colgan recovered from a 14-0 deficit to win 28-21. Last weekend, the top-ranked Panthers overcame Olpe's 24-7 advantage in the third quarter and won 35-24.

No. 4 Meade joins Colgan in the final following a 44-26 win over sixth-ranked Stanton County. The Buffaloes out gained Stanton County 332-98 on the ground. Kellen Hernandez rushed for 149 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 22 carries to lead the way.

RECORD BREAKERS AND MILESTONES

Despite falling to Blue Valley, Gardner-Edgerton quarterback Bubba Starling ran 31 times for a school-record 396 yards and five touchdowns. The Nebraska recruit started the game with a 79-yard scoring run on the first play from scrimmage.

* Blue Valley quarterback Kyle Zimmerman completed 18 of 31 aerials for 331 yards and six touchdowns in leading his team to the Class 5A title game. McDermott caught seven passes for 191 yards and six touchdowns in the contest, while PJ DeBey added eight catches for 99 yards.

* Hutchinson fullback Ben Heeney became the first Salt Hawk running back to run for more than 2,000 yards in a single season.

Kansas football brackets