Varsity Kansas - The Blog

Well, the first night of playoff football is over, as are the soccer quarterfinals.

In soccer: Congrats to Heights, which beat Southeast, Kapaun which won at Liberal (which had beaten Kapaun twice earlier this season) and McPherson, which is still unbeaten.

In football: Conway Springs beat Collegiate, Buhler beat Abilene, Andale handled Goodland as Garden Plain did the same to Medicine Lodge. Smith Center demolished Plainville as expected.

With Hesston’s win over Sterling, we now for sure have Saturday’s matchup between Garden Plain and Hesston, which you readers have been commenting on for several weeks. Should I give you your own thread? I think I might.

Andover Central was upset by Wellington. This was quite a game. Andover Central was hurt by not having Spencer Glenn for the first half (he had an injured elbow), but I don’t know how much it would have helped. The Jaguars made so many crucial errors on special teams, with turnovers. They nearly made a comeback, but Wellington took advantage of several key plays.

Mulvane is still perfect after beating Rose Hill for the second time this season. Huldon Tharp was the man — again. What can’t this kid do?

I was at the Andover Central game and so was Bryce Brown, watching friend Jaydan Bird (who got the boot off but still didn’t play) and several other friends from the Jaguars. One of the funniest things I’ve seen happen this season is a young kid from Andover Central was taking cell phone pics of Bryce as he talked to a group of kids. Unbelievable.

I don’t know if you are, but I’m ready for the start of the football playoffs. The only time of year that I enjoy more is the basketball postseason in March.

Before I get into my question for you, check out Bob Lutz’s story on Smith Center here. It’s an outstanding story and it shows just how amazing the team really is — hello, it lost its top two backs early in the season!

OK, onto my question: What I want to know is — what matchup are you looking forward to most?

I would bet most would agree that one of the most intriguing possible games is Hesston vs. Garden Plain in 3A. I saw this game last year and I would bet we’ll see it again. It’s a treat for any football-loving person.

McPherson and Bishop Carroll is another that sounds good. How about Hutchinson and, well, anyone that can make a game of it?

Tell me your thoughts as we head into our first night of football playoffs.

Three nights of football this week? Does it really get any better than this? (and if you’re a futbol fan, you’ve got soccer going on, too)

I’m looking for your predictions from some of these games on Tuesday night. Tell me what you think and why. By the way, for those making overall 4A predictions, remember that Topeka Hayden is in the west this year, not the east.

Here we go:

Wellington (6-3) at Andover Central (8-1)

Rose Hill (4-5) at Mulvane (9-0)

Abilene (6-3) at Buhler (6-3)

Collegiate (5-4) at Conway Springs (7-2)

Moundridge (6-3) at Minneapolis (6-3)

And for the lovers of the other football:

Southeast (13-5) at Heights (14-3-1)

Derby (12-5-1) at Washburn Rural (17-0-1)

Kapaun (15-3) at Liberal (16-1-1)

Topeka Seaman (11-4-2) at McPherson (18-0)

W. Trinity (13-5) at Independence (14-1-1)

Andover (13-3-2) at Buhler (15-3)

Alright, let’s see how smart everyone is. Check out our printable playoff brackets here and let me know who you’re picking to play in each of the championships.

Playoffs start Tuesday for the smaller classes so get your picks on now.

By the way, this is an overall prediction list — not by game. I’ll do that on Tuesday for a handful of games.

So let me know — who are your favorites?

Hey, did you know there’s state cross country meets on Saturday? (Just thought I’d get that out of the way before I made any of our avid fans get mad yet again.) Check out Saturday’s paper for a story on Trinity boys cross country.

State volleyball started today. The Wichita area got shut out in Class 6A, but Newton is in the 5A semifinals. Andover moved on to the 4A semifinals (but has to face St. James. Not good). Hutchinson Trinity and Remington are in the 3A semis. Moundridge moved into the 2A semifinals without losing a game.

Onto Football!

Goddard’s in even though Kale Pick came back from missing 7 games with a broken thumb. Pick was outstanding, but Goddard’s defense was solid and the offense controlled the clock — thanks to three plays (iso, counter, sweep). Nice win for the Lions.

Northwest beats Maize. Sophomore Demarcus Robinson is an 1,000-yard rusher this season, rushing for 214 tonight. He also returned a kickoff for a touchdown. Larry Burnshire also had a nice night with three interceptions, running one back for a touchdown that turned the game around. Has this Grizzlies’ team found its mojo?

Derby handled Southeast in fine fashion. Jake Snodgrass had 164 passing yards and two touchdowns in the first half. Yikes. In the second half, Aaron Wilson had 101 rushing yards and three touchdowns. Yes, Southeast’s Joseph Randle ran for 244 with a score. He’s a stud, too. Both are in the playoffs.

Heights had one of the most disappointing nights, losing to Manhattan and missing out on the playoffs (Emporia beat Junction City). Heights led 10-0 at the half but lost when Manhattan made a late comeback. Frustrating again.

Carroll drove all the way to Liberal and won. Need we say more? That drive to Liberal is no joke. I’ve made it, I don’t like it.

Kapaun won at Newton and gets to play host to Great Bend. Not a great draw for a district winner.

North and Campus had nothing to play for, playoffs wise. But Grail Brewster had a nice night, rushing for 104 yards on 33 carries. Coach Tom Beason told our correspondent, Brooks Sealey, that Brewster’s the future of the program.

West played in another game that meant nothing to the playoffs, but Valley Center got a nice win, holding the Pioneers to minus-1 yards of offense in the first half.

If you’re interested in the brackets for 4A through 8-Man, check out our printable brackets. Go to Kansas.com and to the scores list. Class 5A and 6A will be up on Saturday.
And now the real season starts — the playoffs.

The biggest news of the night, according to yours truly, is Rose Hill advances in the Class 4A playoffs (props to my co-worker Duane Frazier on calling this one). Rose Hill did what it needed to do with a big win over Augusta, then got some help from Andover Central, which beat Andover by 11. Not bad for a team that’s 4-5. I know I still wouldn’t want to play Rose Hill, despite the struggles the Rockets have had. Too much experience in this program with playing in the postseason.

Bryce Brown breaks the City League rushing record — which he set last year as a sophomore — by rushing for 178 yards. He didn’t play in the first quarter, for what was termed “internal issues,” and played one series of the second quarter. He had a 67-yard touchdown run to open the second half, got the record on a 19-yarder. He also threw a 48-yard touchdown pass.

Collegiate beats Independent 34-27 to advance to the playoffs.

Hesston wins big again, as does Garden Plain. Dare I even say anything about these two teams? There’s sure a lot of comments on the Garden Plain vs. Hesston post. Loving the interaction, and this game, if it happens (which it should) will be outstanding to watch.

Soccer – Kapaun beats Winfield to advance to the 5A quarterfinals, and Anthony Cantele scores twice. He’s a god. Heights advances to the 6A quarterfinals for the first time in three years. Not a bad year for first-year coach Brent Lewis. Southeast beats Northwest to advance, as well — Colin Lawter scored on a penalty kick for the win.

Alright, I want to know who YOU think will win.

Let’s start with tonight’s football games:

Andover vs. Andover Central. I’m taking Andover Central, but Andover desperately needs a win. Still, I think Andover Central wins.

Augusta vs. Rose Hill.  Rose Hill wins here, but will it get the Rockets in the playoffs? It’s a close call. (Duane’s prediction: Rose Hill not only wins, Andover Central beats Andover by enough points that Rose Hill gets in.)

East at South. You have to predict two things here — How many yard will Bryce Brown get rushing (he needs 126 to tie his City League record last year) and who wins. I’m guessing he gets at least 200 and East wins big.

Onto Friday’s games:

Manhattan at Heights. I’m taking Heights. No question.

Southeast at Derby. Oooh, this is a toughie. Southeast wins. The Buffaloes are on a roll and too tough to stop right now.

Dodge City at Goddard. I don’t care about the scenarios that could put Dodge City in the playoffs. Goddard wins.

Maize at Northwest. Northwest win. Garrett Gould still puts up big numbers passing for Maize, but Northwest’s running game is too tough.
Give me your predictions!

This is from David:

Far from perfect? You’re being mighty kind. Pathetic is a better word, but I can’t really say how I feel on these boards.

C’mon, David. I hate the system, too. If it were up to me, there would be only three classes and only the district winner would make it to the playoffs. What makes this week interesting is the fact that so many teams don’t know whether they’re in our out.

As far as the current system goes, I’d blow the whole thing up and start over. First-round playoff games are especially brutal. Nothing says playoffs like a 49-6 first-round game, right? Be prepared for quite a few of those.

But this system isn’t changing any time soon, so enjoy the highlights when you can. That’s what I’m trying to do.

Once again, working to make this blog interactive, here’s some comments from you, our faithful readers.

From Overrated, regarding Bryce Brown’s 5-star rating by Scout.com:

This is the same website that ranked notre dame’s last two recruiting classes as top 10 classes..we see how good they are. Brown is a d1 player and a good player but he’s not great. I’ve seen better backs in high school.

You say, “I’ve seen better backs in high school.” My question is where? Are you talking out of state, out of the area, where? Because in my 12 seasons of covering high school football here, he’s definitely one of the best I’ve seen. Darren Sproles is obviously one of the best backs I’ve seen in Kansas, Jake Sharp, too. Brown is up there. Does he fumble too much? Yep, but he’ll fix this. This kid has speed and he’s got great vision and is physical.

From Jack:

“State cross country is this weekend… “

You’re right. We’ll be covering all six classes. Check out Friday’s paper for a preview and Sunday’s paper for all the coverage.

From Billy BOB regarding the Can’t-miss events:

“It is Mac at Hays. Oh yeah and if it were basketball season you would have moved us up to number one after beating the number one team.”

Thanks for the correction, Billy BOB. Gentle reminder (since I’ve covered this topic before in an earlier post): Rankings are subjective, merely a talking point as they don’t affect anything such as seeding. But glad to know that they’re still a topic of conversation.

Regarding Garden Plain vs. Hesston blog: I think I need to write about these teams more often. Man, the number of hits and comments is excellent.

One point to make to Pronk, who wrote “I wont take anything away from Smith Center’s talent. Just keep it amoungst yourselves and keep playing in your small class.” From me — It was only in the past decade that Garden Plain moved up from Class 2-1A to 3A.

In an aside to the poster (Catfan 1971) talking about Houlik who redshirted. I’m pretty sure, Pronk, that he means John Houlik, who’s having an excellent season for the Wildcats. He’s Joseph’s brother.

Keep the comments coming, and remember, I’m always looking for interesting topics, so e-mail me at joanna@varsitykansas.com or comment on one of the blog posts.

Dodge City’s football team is still in the hunt for a 6A playoff spot, no matter what we say.

In Sunday’s paper, our district standings listed Hutchinson, Goddard and Garden City as all being alive in 6A-District 8. And that’s true. We also listed Dodge City (0-2 in districts with a -26 points differential) as being eliminated.

And that’s false.

Here’s how Dodge City can get in: The Red Demons must defeat Goddard by at least 13 points. Hutchinson must defeat Garden City by at least 13 points.

That would make Hutch the first District 8 qualifier at 3-0. Second place would be a three-way tie between Garden, Dodge and Goddard at 1-1. They would all have point differentials of -13.

First three-way tiebreaker is head to head among the three schools. All were 1-1 against one another.

The next tiebreaker is victories against teams in your class and higher. So in 6A, Goddard and Dodge would each have three wins over 6A teams (Goddard beat Campus, Derby and Garden City; Dodge beat Wichita South, Wichita North and Goddard under this scenario). Garden City would have beaten only two 6A teams (Derby and Dodge) and would be eliminated.

So, with only two teams remaining in the tie, the next tiebreaker becomes head-to-head meeting, and Dodge would’ve beaten Goddard and would be in the playoffs.

Whew. So it’s possible.

Give our statistical guru Gary Karr some slack, though. From the moment we put the paper to bed on Friday night, he’s working feverishly on getting district standings in the Sunday paper. For years, he had to worry only about one team reaching the playoffs from each district. With two, the final-week scenarios aren’t so clear-cut.

– Kirk Seminoff, sports editor and infrequent poster