bigrus

(Some) 2nd Round playoff football games from Wichita area high schools

Harry November 9, 2024

WICHITA, Kan. (Catch it Kansas) – You think it, so we’ll come out and say it.

Pitch and playing conditions ahead of the Friday monsoon Some teams that could have benefited from playing on Thursday appear to have continued their games as planned to increase their chances of securing a place in the Friday Five.

That’s the only explanation, isn’t it? Several Friday Five spots opened after games were moved to Thursday, including Dodge City-East, Kapaun Mount Carmel-Wellington, Maize South-Goddard Eisenhower and Logan/Palco-Medicine Lodge. Is that what Derby was thinking as they resumed play on Friday? We can’t say that, but we’ll say yes for sure. What else makes sense?

Before we accidentally release the Friday Five: Bootleg Edition games for Round 2 of the playoffs, let’s get started.

Junction City at Derby (5-4), Class 6A (9-0)

Being the best team in the state has its drawbacks. Derby should feature in the Friday Five much more often, but with the Panthers barely ever being challenged and most or all of their plays looking like mismatches on paper, it’s hard to single out a game that would likely result in a blowout.

By probably we mean almost guaranteed: Derby have never won a game by less than 33 points this season and Junction City are unlikely to get any closer to that. Junction City has three shutouts this season, four if you count a 52-0 midseason loss to Manhattan. We don’t mean to pile on, we just want to put this game into perspective – it won’t be close. But that’s what you get when your Friday Five is ruined by the weather.

As Junction City’s season comes to an end on Friday night, let’s take a look back at some of the highlights of Junction City football. Remember when he finished 10-1 in 2015? That’s when their unbeaten run was halted by Derby in the play-offs. Or how about 2020 when Junction City were 8-1 before losing to Derby in the play-offs?

Okay, okay. This is not very nice. Junction City led the Derby in 2007 and 2008, the last coming in a 13-0, Class 6A championship season. And, of course, Junction City has consistently been one of the state’s strongest programs for the better part of a half-century. Maybe even longer.

Derby will move on and it will likely rest largely on the shoulders of a great defense, the offensive talent of Arieus Finley and the excellence of tight end Da’saahn Brame. See you next week, Panthers. Same time, same place.

Cheney (8-1) at Wichita Collegiate (8-1), Class 3A

Here’s this week’s only continuing Original Friday Five. Even though Collegiate surprised everyone by winning the regular season matchup 31-7, you can’t argue with its inclusion. This halted Cheney’s 20-game hitting streak and cast doubt on whether the Cardinals could repeat as 3A champions.

Even if the previous game was not competitive, the reality is that these teams should not be playing in Round 2 of the playoffs. This is a 3A west semifinal matchup at worst, and if Andale wasn’t on the same side, we’d call this the de facto final. Andale is another one of those teams that deserves more Friday Five love but doesn’t play enough competitive games.

But enough about Kansas’ perennially flawed playoff system. It is a great pleasure that we will see this game for the second time, whenever that may be. I wish it was on Thursday and we couldn’t be here talking about it. This is a sacred space and the last two months have proven that.

Collegiate has been on a tear since losing 47-6 to Andale on Sept. 27. The Spartans have scored 19 points in five games since then, including three shutouts. They have a combined margin of victory of 170-7 in their last four games.

We wonder how much this will overshadow Collegiate’s easy win over Cheney three weeks ago. But if anyone can put flawed circumstances behind them, it’s the Cardinals. Remember last year’s two comeback wins against Andale? Speaking of which, the winner of this game will face Andale next week.

Hesston (8-1) at Scott City (8-1), Class 3A

The fact that a game between two 8-1 teams wasn’t originally scheduled for Friday Five says a lot about the quality of this week’s matchups. However, there is a caveat to this; We’re not quite sure where Hesston stands after losing 60-14 to Andale two weeks ago.

As seen in Collegiate, losing to Andale won’t ruin your season. But Hesston hasn’t had a real signature win in its 8-0 start, and we’re not sure if last week’s 43-34 victory over Goodland will be enough. But we are not sure that it is not so. After all, Hesston eliminated the state’s best player, Goodland tight end Linkon Cure, with a middling pun here last week.

Scott City, the alma mater of Friend of the Friday Five Ron Baker — no, seriously, he texts us sometimes — is undefeated against Kansas teams this year. And if we look at common opponents, the Beavers beat Goodland 48-9 three weeks ago. Scott City is also 3-0 against ‘H’ teams this year with wins over Hoisington, Hugoton and Holcomb.

Since Hesston and Scott City have never played before, we have to look at common rivals. As always. This seems impossible, but it’s true. You can usually check it yourself from the reliable ones, I guess, kansasfootballhistory.com.

The Hesston upset will have to be fueled by Mr. Do-It-All Karter Gonzalez, who is still waiting for his name change papers to be approved. Karter Do Anything has a nice ring to it, and he fits it because he leads the Swathers in rushing yards, touchdowns and tackles.

Halstead (4-5) at Beloit (7-2), Class 2A

Hey, did you think this game would be coming out on Friday Five this week, or any week? We didn’t either, but when life gives you raindrops, you make rain salad. Or water chestnut maybe? Something that isn’t appetizing but can still serve a purpose. This is this game.

Halstead caught our attention last week with a 6-2 win over Lakin for a 36-6 victory. The weekend got even better for the school as Halstead’s volleyball team won its first state championship. Halstead – now we’re back to football – lost at least his toughest games in the regular season, but the Dragons’ four wins were by a combined margin of 140 points. This must mean something.

Since Halstead hasn’t been in this area all season, let’s talk about some of his players. Between running back Joey Millspaugh’s 92 rushing yards, Reese Carmichael’s nearly 10 tackles per game, and quarterback Braxton Creed’s dual-threat talents, the Dragons actually have some pretty good quarterbacks. They definitely showed up in all of those big wins.

Do you know the last time Halstead won two playoff games in the same season? So are we, but stay tuned while we investigate. OK, here it is. That happened in 2015, when Halstead started 12-0 and lost 21-0 to Collegiate. The Dragons had gone very far in the play-offs the year before. Thanks again, Kansas Football History dot com.

Beloit’s best player is running back Joel Rexroat. He had multiple 200-yard rushing games for the Trojans – as it says here – and will be a liability for Halstead to stop. The Dragons will probably want to use this guy in all of these contests.

Halstead captures 3A volleyball title

Hutchinson Trinity (4-5) at Medicine Lodge (6-2), Class 1A

Hutchinson Trinity is a team that wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for their Thursday games. Maybe. Let’s discuss this. Last week Trinity defeated previously undefeated Moundridge 20-14 and we haven’t talked about the Celtics yet this year. So it’s possible they got in secretly.

But we need to talk about this name. Celtics. It’s a nice name, but then why are the team colors red and white? If you’re the Celtics, you have to be green, right? A quick Google search for “Celtic colors” gave us information about the Celtic Colors Festival in Nova Scotia. This is a quest we quickly abandoned because we couldn’t spell “colors.”

And you won’t believe it. Hutch Trinity’s leading rusher and offensive lineman, Matthew McCounnaughy, has taken time away from reprising his starring role in The Sea of Trees to become a solid but understandably unspectacular high school football player. You know we’re going to get another McConaughey reference before this is over.

So do you know who scored the most goals at Trinity? Kaid McElgunn. All these Irish names make us question why the Celtics aren’t green. Is there a petition we can sign? Something needs to change.

This was, and actually still is, a pretty big week for Reno County football, with Hutchinson, Haven, Buhler, Hutchinson Trinity and Hutchinson Central Christian all in the playoffs. And you know what? They are already 3-0 with wins over Buhler, Hutchinson and Central Christian on Thursday. When asked how they were feeling, each coach answered “Okay” for three “totally”. It was wild.