NORTH CENTRAL KANSAS WEEK 2 PICK SIX
BLUE VALLEY (1-0) AT WASHBURN RURAL (1-0)
Washburn Rural scored 20 straight points in the first half to get a step ahead of Shawnee Heights in last week’s season opener, but didn’t secure the victory until Nate Selm took an onside kick back 47 yards for a touchdown in the final 20 seconds. That gave Rural a wild 51-41 shootout win over the T-Birds as the two teams combined for more than 800 yards of total offense.
Selm was one of three Junior Blues to score two touchdowns in the opener, also catching a 31-yard touchdown pass from John Hoytal, who threw for 201 yards and two touchdowns. TJ Minikwu and Jayden Baum each ran for a pair of scores, combining for 161 rushing yards.
Blue Valley got past Eastern Kansas League rival Blue Valley Southwest 28-21 in its opener, but got a strong showing from its defense, which only yielded one touchdown to the Timberwolves. But the Tigers’ special teams were burned as Southwest’s Blake Thomas returned two kickoffs for scores to keep the Timberwolves in the game.
Rural yielded 369 passing yards to Shawnee Heights quarterback Aiden Scott and will face another strong passing attack from the Tigers, who saw first-year starting quarterback Dan Sogard throw for 298 yards and 4 touchdowns in his debut, two going to Parker Cowell, who had 137 yards on 6 catches.
Blue Valley blew out Rural 34-7 in last year’s meeting, sending the Junior Blues on a three-game losing streak.
WAMEGO (1-0) AT ROCK CREEK (1-0)
A high-powered Rock Creek offense more than met its match a year ago when the Mustangs – who scored at least 21 points in every other game – was shut out by a staunch Red Raider defense in a 20-0 Wamego victory. The two teams wound up sharing the North Central Kansas League title last year with the Mustangs earning theirs in their first year in the league.
This year’s league title very well could hang in the balance of the outcome of this year’s meeting.
Wamego opened this season with a 40-6 romp past Concordia. Logan Fulton picked right up where he left off a year ago, throwing for 332 yards and 5 touchdowns. After losing his leading receiver from a year ago, he’s already found a favorite target as Dominic Falco was on the other end of four of his touchdown tosses and finished with 213 yards receiving.
Rock Creek showed off some defense of its own in its opener, shutting out Bishop Ward 51-0. The Mustangs limited Ward to minus-2 yards of total offense, including minus-58 on the ground.
On the flip side, Zion Bell energized Rock Creek’s rushing game, turning his 18 carries into 161 yards and 4 TDs in a career-best game. Gavin Rosa also threw a pair of touchdown passes.
CLAY CENTER (1-0) AT SOUTHEAST OF SALINE (1-0)
Though members of different leagues and classifications, this game has become a nice little rivalry over the past three seasons, even with Southeast of Saline winning all three matchups. The last two meetings have come down to the final play with Southeast pulling out a 22-17 win in 2023 that was Clay Center’s only regular season loss and the Trojans escaping last year with a 22-20 win on its way to an undefeated Class 2A state championship.
Clay Center has a somewhat different look to its offense this season with three-year starting quarterback Cole Pladson graduating. Instead, the offense in the opener revolved around senior back Eisaac Girton, who ran for 145 yards and a touchdown to lead the Tigers to a 14-7 win over Abilene in a defensive battle.
Southeast, meanwhile, is almost the exact same team that won last year’s state championship as the Trojans lost only a handful of seniors off that squad. The Trojans hit the ground running in a 60-21 rout of Minneapolis, leading 52-6 at halftime.
Gannon Jacobson threw touchdown passes to three different receivers in the first quarter on his way to a 267-yard, 5-TD night. Grady Gebhardt caught two of the TD pass and also ran for two scores, racking up a combined 191 rushing and receiving yards.
Southeast has now won 40 consecutive regular-season games.
ROSSVILLE (1-0) AT ST. MARYS (1-0)
After taking its rival five miles to its east in the opener, Rossville travels less than 10 miles to the west for a showdown with district rival St. Marys.
Unlike a year ago, Rossville goes into the game on the winning side of an overtime thriller with arch rival Silver Lake. Despite getting severely out-gained in the game, Rossville used a defensive score and punt return touchdown to stay in the game and get to overtime where an extra-point kick proved to be the difference as the Bulldawgs’ blocked Silver Lake’s attempt before Austin Dohrman booted home Rossville’s for the 28-27 OT win.
Cameron Miller scored two of Rossville’s three touchdowns, catching a TD pass from Canann Mitchell and returning the punt 40 yards for a score that put the Bulldawgs up 21-14 in the fourth quarter before Silver Lake tied the game at the end of regulation.
The win reversed last year’s opener where Silver lake rallied and beat the Bulldawgs in overtime. Rossville will look to flip the script again this week after falling 24-19 to St. Marys.
The Bears opened this season with a 28-0 shutout of Perry-Lecompton as Korleone Holz ran for 173 yards and two touchdowns and Lane Smith completed 7 of 8 passes for 103 yards and a score.
BURLINGAME (1-0) AT WAVERLY (1-0)
Coming off a 10-1 season, Burlingame had some big holes to fill, particularly at quarterback where JD Tyson enjoyed a record-setting season for the Bearcats a year ago, throwing for 41 touchdowns and rushing for 17 in accounting for more than 2,400 yards of total offense.
The task of filling those shoes has fallen to Danny Cain, who did a pretty good impression of his predecessor in the Bearcats’ 52-12 win over Northern Heights. In his debut, Cain threw for 182 yards and 5 touchdowns and also ran for 120 yards and a score. Returning all-league receiver Drake Skirvin was his favorite target with 9 catches for 115 yards and 3 touchdowns while Brock Moon hauled in the other two TD tosses.
Burlingame rolled 60-12 over Waverly a year ago, and may need to put up that many points again this year to get past a Bulldog team that nearly hit the century mark in a 90-44 shootout win over Wichita Life Prep in its opener.
Dustin Foster had a monster game for the Bulldogs, rushing for a career-high 385 yards and 8 touchdowns, having six scoring runs of 34 yards or longer. Alex Stice added three TD runs and threw a touchdown pass and also threw six two-point conversion passes.
HANOVER (1-0) AT CLIFTON-CLYDE (1-0)
It’s hard to say which Twin Valley League team got a bigger boost to the start of its season a week ago.
Was it Hanover, which thoroughly dominated the final three quarters of its showdown with Eight-Player Division I No. 4 Ell-Saline in a battle of ranked teams. The Wildcats, No. 3 in Division II, outscored Ell-Saline 32-0 after falling behind 8-0 early in the first quarter.
Known more as Hanover’s running quarterback a year ago, Kadrick Cohorst showed off his arm against the Cardinals, completing 8 of 11 passes for 188 yards and three touchdowns. Two of those TD tosses went to Braylon Meyn, who also saw time at quarterback a year ago. Cohorst also ran for a touchdown.
But it was the Hanover defense that came up big, holding Ell-Saline to just 107 total yards and no points after Kas Kramer’s early TD run.
Clifton-Clyde, meanwhile, also knocked off a ranked team in its opener, but its win over Division II No. 4 Frankfort was almost an improbable one.
The Eagles trailed 20-0 at halftime and fell down 28-0 early in the third quarter after Wes Anderson’s 16-yard TD run to start the period. But from there, it was all Clifton-Clyde and in particular Joseph Fahey.
Taking over for do-everything quarterback Jack Skocny, Fahey settled in in the second half and took over the game. He got Clifton-Clyde’s comeback started with a 30-yard touchdown pass to Kyzler Damman and then scored on touchdown runs of 2, 2 and 4 yards, the latter sending the game to overtime. Fahey then scored on a 10-yard run in overtime and Clifton-Clyde’s defense held, giving the Eagles the wild 34-28 comeback victory.
Fahey ran for 132 yards and 4 touchdowns and threw for 173 yards and a score. Luke Nobert had 101 yards receiving.
Hanover won last year’s game 50-0.