Friday’s games (10-05)
Oct. 6, 2007 @ 12:05 a.m. by JoannaWant your Friday night football fix before you get your paper Saturday morning? Here you go. (Just a reminder — districts start next week!)
East at Heights: This was the game I was at, and it quickly became a blowout. But that was OK, because East took nearly six minutes off the clock on its first two drives. (This makes me happy because the game goes by fast!)
Heights made a great comeback in the second half, but East’s defense held twice inside the 10 on first-and-goal. Bryce Brown was fantastic. He had several amazing runs that kind of left you shaking your head, wondering how the heck he did that. When he scored on a 35-yarder in the second quarter, he got the handoff at full speed and raced through the line untouched.
After the game, I asked how he had wanted to respond to last week’s five lost fumbles in a loss to Kapaun. Here’s his response.
“I learned after that game that the only people I could depend on is my family, friends, teammates and coaches. Everyone else likes to see that kind of stuff…. I put the team on my back, I probably shouldn’t have done that. I’m only human, I’m not a robot, not a machine.”
On a note on Heights — I would guess that Chris Boyd has taken the quarterback job from Rick Holladay, who missed two games with a shoulder injury. Boyd was brilliant, passing for 163 yards, completing his first six passes, including a 77-yarder to Jeff Evan.
Goddard at Maize: If you tell me you saw this one coming, I’ll seriously suspect you’re lying. 1-4 vs. 5-0? But Maize did it, handing Goddard its first loss with an overtime win. And talk about gutsy — it’s just as gutsy as East going for it on fourth-and-inches at the Heights 10 — Maize goes for two in overtime for the win. Impressive.
Andover at Buhler: Alright, this would have been a great one to see, considering Andover scored two touchdowns in the final seconds and then won in overtime. Buhler had put in its reserves in the final minute and then fumbled. Aaaah! You know Buhler is kicking themselves and Andover is delighted to get by with a win.
McPherson at Valley Center: According to Eagle correspondent Jeremy Costello, Mac is definitely a 5A state title contender. See — we give the Pups love!
Mulvane at Augusta: Mulvane, we love you, too, regardless of what your fans think. The Wildcats get another win, but on an interesting note, they failed three straight two-point conversions. This is NOT me dogging Mulvane. Just an interesting point from the game.
By the way, love hearing from all the Mulvane people. Will you stick around longer than the Medicine Lodge fans from last season? I hope so. Keep reading!
South vs. West: West took a 10-0 lead in this game. Impressive. Uh, until the Pioneers gave up 34 straight points. Ugh.
Salina Central at Derby: Andrew Braxton had 348 rushing yards for Central and 53 receiving. Not a bad night.
North vs. Southeast: Trezz Tillman and Joseph Randle combined for four touchdowns in the game’s first three quarters and continually found holes for game-breaking runs.
October 6th, 2007 at 2:39 am
If that is true about the Buhler coaches putting the subs in being up by only two touchdowns, that is admirable that he was thinking of them, but in contrast…. I was listening to the Great Bend-Liberal game. Great Bend was up by 13 with a little more than 1 minute remaining. They could have kneeled it down, or put their subs in, but could they inadvertantly have created an opportunity for Liberal, albeit how small, to mount a comeback? No. Instead, Coach Black had his players ram home the final blow to make it an insurmountable 20 point difference. The upside for Buhler, they know they had that one in hand, and in the grand scheme of things, it makes no difference for their playoff chances, unless they just let it get them down.
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October 6th, 2007 at 8:56 am
A couple of notes on the East/Heights game.
Did Heights have five downs on that first goal-line stand? Could somebody check the film? The first down was created by a penalty, then I counted five plays (no penalities) before the ball was turned over on downs.
A key for East was a useful passing game. There weren’t that many passes (with Bryce Brown on hand, a coach would be stupid to emphasize passing), but there were several key completions, something that has not happened before in a game against a strong opponent.
Up by 13 with just over a minute to go and the ball on Heights’ 10-yard-line, Coach Byers of East called for the team to take a knee twice, rather than give the ball to Bryce to run up the score and enhance Brown’s stats. A class move.
Which City League teams do you think will advance from their districts?I think there’s a realistic chance there could be six. If so, when was the last time that happened?
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October 6th, 2007 at 9:24 am
At first, I thought you were nuts saying six could advance out of districts. But I took a look, and it might even be likely. In fact, if West somehow picks up their game, they are in such a weak district that they could make it 7.
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October 8th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
city i think ur nutz
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October 8th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
i think that it is possible 4 @least 30 city league teams 2 advance from there districts. gah u guys r illiterate
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