'Purple Swarm' silences Staley in Missouri

Aided by a swarming, opportunistic and rather obnoxious defense, Kearney quarterback Shane Hartzler triggered the Bulldogs to a pair of first-half touchdowns before finishing off Staley (Kansas City North) 21-3 Friday.

With that 18-point win, over its rival of three years, the defending Class 4 champion Bulldogs find themselves resting firmly in the latest Missouri top 10 football rankings for the first time this season.

Kearney moves into the No. 7 slot based on the strength of Staley's 27-16 win over a Darrian Miller-less Blue Springs squad that is ranked fourth in this week's Class 6 rankings, and the Bulldogs' decisive win Friday.

"Staley has always been a big rivalry ever since they came in a couple of years ago. It's always a dogfight," Hartzler said of the school that opened its doors in the fall of 2008. Their moving up (to Class 5) and us staying down (Class 4) makes getting this win mean a lot. We know we can hang with them all now and we just got to come out and do our thing and not stop ourselves."

Kearney swept the Falcons in 2008 before the two rivals split games a year ago. The Falcons knocked off the Bulldogs 21-7 during regular season action, before being ousted from the 2009 Class 4 Sectionals 28-0 by the Bulldogs.

In getting the win Friday, Greg Jones' "Purple Swarm" defense held Staley to 33 points less than its season average, and created four first half turnovers in building the 14-0 halftime advantage.

Hartzler and the Bulldog offense were recipients of great field position in the first half via a greedy defense. Twice the Bulldogs scored following Staley miscues and twice Kearney halted Falcon scoring threats with takeaways in the opening half.

Sam Gregory started the game’s scoring by hauling in a 15-yard Hartzler strike after Tanner Wendel intercepted a Michael Rich pass, putting the Bulldogs up 7-0. Then in the second quarter, a Bulldog fumble recovery gave the Kearney offense possession at the Staley 39-yard line.

Hartzler and Gregory responded with a 24-yard hookup to make the score 14-0 and put the win away.

"They have a fast defense, a fast offense and they’re hard hitting," Hartzler said in describing the Falcons. "But the same thing can be said for us. We're hard-hitting and fast too. I mean it's just a great match up across the board."

Staley finally got on the board in the third quarter when Michael Brinkmeyer booted a 24-yard field goal. Brandon Jackson concluded the game's scoring for Kearney when he found paydirt from five yards out.

With the win Kearney solidifies its spot atop the Class 4 rankings. Staley, meanwhile, drops a spot to third in the Class 5 rankings and falls to No. 9 in the top 10.

LAST-SECOND COMEBACK
Shortly after watching his team fall behind 36-35 with 24 seconds remaining in the game, Fort Zumwalt East (St. Peters) quarterback Marvin Byrd III completed a miraculous comeback by engineering a three-play drive that concluded with Byrd's 43-yard scoring strike to Mike Mahoney, securing a 43-36 triumph over Union.

Byrd finished the game with 184 yards rushing on 20 carries. Union quarterback Chris Savage completed 26 of 40 passes for 361 yards and three touchdowns.

BIEDSCHEID COMMITS TO IRISH
After averaging 18.6 points, 7.4 rebounds and 2.4 steals a game a year ago as a sophomore, Cardinal Ritter (St. Louis) junior Cameron Biedscheid has decided he will play college basketball at Notre Dame.

The 6-foot-6 small forward led Cardinal Ritter to a 27-4 record and helped the Lions knock off Hogan Prep 93-69 for the Class 3 state championship. Biedscheid scored 16 points in the title game.

"It's the perfect program for me," Biedscheid told the South Bend Tribune. "You could tell Coach (Mike) Brey and Coach (Martin) Ingelsby were real sincere. They told me a lot of great things that I agree with. They look for me to be a face of the Notre Dame program."

Biedscheid chose the Irish over Butler, Duke, Georgetown, Missouri, St. Louis, Indiana, Miami (Fla.), Illinois and Kansas.

MISSOURI'S TOP PERFORMERS
RUSHING
Matthew Shoop of Marceline rushed for 330 yards and five touchdowns on 34 carries in a 56-13 win over Paris… Princeton's Vance Purdun ran for 319 yards and five scores on 31 carries in a 55-20 win over King City… Gavin Talmadge of Maryville rushed for 286 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 22 carries in a 54-3 win over St. Joseph Bishop LeBlond… Versailles' Eddie Stevenson rushed for 272 yards and five touchdowns on 20 carries in a 54-20 win over Warsaw… Shawn Bertrand of South Shelby (Shelbina) rushed for 259 yards and three touchdowns on 26 carries in a 33-0 blanking of Monroe City… Wright City's Trent Davis ran for 254 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 20 carries in a 56-8 win over Van Far… Nykalis Farris of Cole Camp ran for 251 yards and four scores on 15 carries in a 36-21 win over Slater… Stewartsville's Dominic Fleeks rushed for 251 yards on just eight carries in a 72-12 loss to St. Joseph Christian.

PASSING
Chris Savage of Union completed 27 of 43 passes for 353 yards and three touchdowns in a 43-36 loss to Fort Zumwalt East… Drew Hare of Fort Zumwalt West (O'Fallon) completed 33 of 45 aerials for 329 yards and three touchdowns in a 48-17 win over Holt… Aaron Frost of Joplin completed 13 of 22 passes for 328 yards and five touchdowns in a 53-21 win over Waynesville… Cameron Coffman of Raymore-Peculiar (Peculiar) completed 25 of 42 passes for 322 yards and two touchdowns in a 38-28 loss to Blue Springs South… Garrett Wilson of McDonald County (Anderson) completed 12 of 24 passes for 304 yards and two touchdowns in a 41-22 loss to Springfield Catholic… Chip Miller of Howell Central (St. Charles) connected on 6 of 14 aerials for 253 yards in a 41-37 win over Timberland… Thomas Sorg of Central (Springfield) completed 12 of 18 passes for 246 yards and three touchdowns in a 41-22 win over McDonald County… King City's Dalton Workman completed 17 of 33 passes for 245 yards and three touchdowns in a 55-20 loss to Princeton.

RECEIVING
Sam Sealer of Lee's Summit caught 17 passes for 272 yards and four touchdowns in a 69-42 loss to Blue Springs… Joplin's Dayton Whitehead caught seven aerials for 170 yards and three scores in a 53-21 win over Waynesville… Kolby Reagan of DeKalb caught five aerials for 150 yards and three touchdowns in a 60-14 win over South Nodaway… Joplin's Keegan Tinney caught five passes for 143 yards and two scores in a 53-21 win over Waynesville… Adam Schremp of Lindbergh (St. Louis) caught three aerials for 142 yards and a score in a 35-21 loss to Marquette… King City’s Keaton Ebersold caught seven passes for 138 yards and a pair of touchdowns in a 55-20 loss to Princeton… Trevor Vogelsmeier of Raymore-Peculiar caught eight passes for 122 yards in a 38-28 loss to Blue Springs South… Staley's Chris Witcig caught six passes for 116 yards in a 21-3 loss to Kearney.

Note: Statistics for use in the Missouri Top Performers section were borrowed from the St. Joseph News-Press, St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Springfield News-Leader, as well as MaxPreps. Any top performances posted on MaxPreps after Monday were not included this week.


MISSOURI FOOTBALL RANKINGS
(Team, record, points scored, points allowed, last week's ranking)
TOP 10
1. Rockhurst (Kansas City) (5-0) 141 72 1
2. Webster Groves (4-0) 175 49 2
3. Hazelwood Central (Florissant) (5-0) 123 98 3
4. Blue Springs South (4-1) 179 83 5
5. Blue Springs (3-2) 183 76 6
6. Chaminade (St. Louis) (4-0) 147 54 –
7. Kearney (4-0) 171 17 –
8. Christian Brothers (St. Louis) (4-1) 170 119 –
9. Staley (4-1) 147 60 7
10. Webb City (5-0) 222 40 –

CLASS 6
1. Rockhurst (5-0) 141 72 1
2. Hazelwood Central (5-0) 123 98 2
3. Blue Springs South (4-1) 179 83 4
4. Blue Springs (3-2) 183 76 5
5. Christian Brothers (4-1) 170 119 –
6. Howell (St. Charles) (4-1) 212 134 3
7. Rock Bridge (Columbia) (3-2) 147 131 7
8. Raymore-Peculiar (3-2) 178 150 6
9. Jefferson City (3-2) 174 116 8
10. Eureka (5-0) 180 57 10

CLASS 5
1. Webster Groves (4-0) 175 49 1
2. Chaminade (4-0) 147 54 3
3. Staley (4-1) 147 60 2
4. Parkway North (St. Louis) (4-1) 182 93 4
5. Lebanon (5-0) 128 44 5
6. Lee's Summit West (4-1) 119 60 7
7. Fort Zumwalt East (St. Peters) (5-0) 211 114 –
8. Lee’s Summit (3-2) 182 167 6
9. Raytown South (3-2) 113 111 –
10. Parkway Central (Chesterfield) (4-1) 218 108 –

CLASS 4
1. Kearney (4-0) 171 17 1
2. Webb City (5-0) 222 40 2
3. Carthage (5-0) 226 49 3
4. Bolivar (5-0) 272 31 4
5. Ladue Horton Watkins (St. Louis) (4-1) 139 110 5
6. Harrisonville (4-1) 137 38 7
7. Sikeston (5-0) 219 64 8
8. Savannah (5-0) 191 36 9
9. Miller Career Academy (St. Louis) (4-0) 137 41 –
10. Helias (Jefferson City) (2-3) 120 125 6

CLASS 3
1. Cassville (5-0) 179 34 1
2. Maryville (4-1) 160 48 2
3. Bowling Green (4-1) 170 33 4
4. Springfield Catholic (5-0) 176 66 5
5. Aurora (4-1) 119 77 6
6. Logan-Rogersville (Rogersville) (4-1) 132 65 7
7. Burroughs (St. Louis) (5-0) 217 59 9
8. Richmond (5-0) 161 35 10
9. Oak Grove (5-0) 151 75 –
10. Chillicothe (3-2) 115 92 3

CLASS 2
1. Penney (Hamilton) (5-0) 243 60 1
2. Maplewood-Richmond Heights (Maplewood) (5-0) 170 53 2
3. Lawson (5-0) 142 55 3
4. Centralia (5-0) 160 56 4
5. Macon (5-0) 208 41 5
6. Hogan Prep Charter (Kansas City) (4-1) 148 93 6
7. Brookfield (5-0) 176 13 7
8. Liberty (Mountain View) (4-1) 184 58 8
9. Caruthersville (5-0) 173 38 9
10. Blair Oaks (Jefferson City) (4-1) 123 96 –

CLASS 1
1. Valle Catholic (Ste. Genevieve) (5-0) 255 12 1
2. Wellington-Napoleon (Wellington) (5-0) 210 40 2
3. Tipton (5-0) 203 26 3
4. Concordia (5-0) 236 18 4
5. Westran (Huntsville) (5-0) 243 24 5
6. Pierce City (5-0) 231 19 10
7. South Shelby (4-1) 118 60 6
8. Miller (4-1) 226 45 7
9. South Harrison (Bethany) (4-1) 131 53 8
10. Orrick (4-1) 182 111 9