Back to Kpreps this fall, our contributors will hand out helmet stickers to a team or individual that delivered the most important performance of the week in their opinion. Check back each week to see the most recent helmet stickers, and follow @Kpreps on Twitter and Facebook to watch as the Kpreps helmet fills up with stickers as the season goes on.
Helmet sticker: Blue Valley Northwest (Matt Gilmore – Kpreps)
Blue Valley Northwest won at Harrisonville (Mo.) 34-28 in overtime last Friday night.
For Northwest, it was a good win against a traditionally strong program. It was also significant because it ended the Huskies’ 13-game losing streak.
What stood out to me was the resolve and the fight that the Huskies showed which tells me quite a bit about the culture that Clint Rider is instilling with the Blue Valley Northwest football program.
You see, the Huskies trailed this game 28-14 late in the fourth quarter.
Sure, there was still a pulse, but when Harrisonville stopped Northwest’s 4th-and-goal attempt at the 1-yard line with 4:30 left in the game, it would have been easy for a team mired in a 13-game losing streak to cash it in.
Instead, the Huskies kept fighting.
Next challenge - get the ball back and score.
Blue Valley Northwest forced a short Harrisonville punt out of the end zone, and took over with great field position at the Wildcat 25. The Huskies scored on an 8-yard touchdown pass from Mikey Pauley to Evan Ranallo with 2:14 remaining, but the PAT was blocked to keep the deficit at 28-20.
Next challenge – the onside kick.
Northwest got the onside kick along its sideline and took over at the Harrisonville 48-yard line with 2:12 remaining. A few plays later, Edward Thomas scored from 3 yards out with 1:06 left in the game to pull within 28-26.
Next challenge – the two-point conversion.
The Huskies then tied the game with a successful two-point conversion on a reverse pass to force overtime.
Next challenge – stop the Wildcats.
Harrisonville’s Jace Reynolds put up an incredible Homecoming performance for the Wildcats. The sophomore back reportedly rushed 53 times for 346 yards and four touchdowns on the night.
But in overtime, Blue Valley Northwest limited Reynolds and the Wildcats to gain just 1-yard to the 24-yard line on four downs.
It was now the Huskies’ possession.
Next challenge – score.
Beginning at the 25-yard line, Pauley tossed an 11-yard gain to Markell Hood.
On the next play, Pauley hit Ranallo on the game-winning 14-yard touchdown pass in the right corner of the end zone.
Final score: Blue Valley Northwest 34, Harrisonville 28 (OT).
What seemed improbable just a few minutes prior had become a reality. The Huskies successfully met each late-game challenge in a pressure-packed scenario, and ended their 13-game losing streak by showing extraordinary resolve.
Helmet sticker: Cheney (Alex Hammeke -- Kpreps)
My sticker goes to the Cheney Cardinals for their upset victory over the Conway Springs Cardinals last Friday night.
Cheney posted just a 2-7 season last fall, but had a tough schedule featuring Andale, Garden Plain, Conway Springs, and Chaparral.
Last year, Conway Springs posted their second straight undefeated regular season, falling to eventual state champion Phillipsburg in the quarterfinals. The Cardinals opened the 2019 season ranked No. 3 in Class 2A behind Phillipsburg and Hoisington. Conway also returned arguably the best backfield duo in the Central Plains League in Collin Koester and Peyton Winter.
Last week, Conway Springs made the 30-minute drive to Cheney looking for their 18th consecutive regular season victory. They left empty-handed, as Cheney snagged a 49-19 victory in the battle of the birds.
Cheney’s Riley Petz scored six total touchdowns in the victory. Petz rushed for three scores, caught a pair of touchdown passes, and returned an interception 95 yards for another score.
For Cheney, it was their first victory against Conway Springs since 2015.
Helmet sticker: La Crosse (Conor Nicholl – Kpreps)
At the tail end of the second week of fall camp, La Crosse senior lineman Kalen Thielenhaus, the team’s biggest player at 6-foot-2, 238 pounds, suffered a torn ACL/MCL in practice and will miss the season.
Thielenhaus had started since his sophomore season and was a vocal presence. Coach Jon Webster was highly pleased with Thielenhaus’ fall camp, and he was one of many veterans for the Leopards, in their final year of 11-man football.
La Crosse, a 3-6 program last fall and Kpreps’ Class 1A potential breakout team in the ’19 preseason, has opened 2-0 despite Thielenhaus’ absence. The Leopards beat Ellinwood, 63-19, in likely the final 11-man Central Prairie League contest, and then earned a solid 14-12 victory versus Russell last Friday.
In ’18, La Crosse defeated Ellinwood, 48-0, and then lost to Russell, 50-12. A longtime power from ’06-14, La Crosse had posted 3-6, 5-6, 6-4 and 3-6 marks the last four seasons.
Webster, in his first year as principal at his alma mater, is 80-31 in his 11th year as head coach. Longtime assistant Chris Delimont is again on staff, along with Jack Garcia and James Courtney. Garcia, a three-year starting quarterback for the Leopards, played collegiately at Ottawa and is in his first season back home.
Senior quarterback Hunter Morgan, a three-year starter under center and four-year starter on defense, completed 12 of 19 passes for 329 yards with three touchdowns against one interception in the season opener versus Ellinwood.
That marked the most yards passing in a game for La Crosse since at least ’07, according to MaxPreps archives. The second-most was 275 yards in a 44-34 loss to Ellis on Sept. 21, 2018, and the third-highest was 274 in a 34-18 win against Hoisington on Sept. 13, 2013.
Sophomore running back Colby Stull has averaged 11.3 yards per carry with 23 rushes for 261 yards and six touchdowns. The receiving corps struggled with injuries in ’18. La Crosse could only dress 13 healthy players the last two weeks of last fall.
This season, senior Blake Herrman has 10 catches for 126 yards, and senior Kaden Depperschmidt has delivered four catches for 176 yards and a pair of scores, including a 78-yard reception. Defensively, senior Michael Showalter leads with 16 tackles, four for loss.
La Crosse is one of just 12 undefeated squads left in the 31-team classification. In District 6, La Crosse, Oakley and second-ranked Plainville are perfect.
Against Russell, the Leopards trailed 6-0 before Stull scored with 2:03 remaining in the first half, and La Crosse took an 8-6 lead at the break. La Crosse led 14-6 after three with Stull had a three-yard run to cap off a long drive. Russell scored inside the contest’s final four minutes but couldn’t get the conversion.
Then, the Broncos picked off La Crosse, but the Leopards’ defense held. Russell slightly outgained La Crosse, 237-229, according to Russell radio.
This week, La Crosse is at Republic County, on a 12-game losing streak, though has taken a pair of competitive losses under new coach Faron Kraft. Webster and the well-traveled Kraft have matched up before. In 2009, La Crosse defeated Ness City-Dighton, 30-6, when Kraft coached the co-operative agreement before the schools reformed their own teams. In 2012, La Crosse beat Medicine Lodge, 56-8, when Kraft was the Indians’ coach.
Helmet sticker: Northeast-Arma, Deerfield, Shawnee Mission West (Matt Gilmore -- Kpreps)
We wanted to be sure and mention a few schools that ended long losing streaks last Friday night.
Technically, Northeast-Arma’s last victory came via a forfeit during the non-bracket game in Week 9 of the 2018 season. In the cross-district matchup, the Vikings were paired up against winless Oskaloosa, but the Bears forfeited the game due to a lack of healthy players. Prior to that, Northeast’s last on-field victory came on October 9, 2015 in a 34-24 decision over Southeast-Cherokee.
Last Friday, the Vikings blanked a short-handed Yates Center team, 36-0, to pick up their first on-field victory in 30 games and the first win at the school for new coach David Pitts.
The Deerfield Spartans also snapped a long on-field losing streak. Deerfield’s 27-game losing streak ended with Friday’s 39-24 victory over Cunningham in 6-Man football.
Deerfield’s last official victory came by virtue of a forfeit by Fowler on October 16, 2015; however, the Spartans last on-field win came a couple of weeks earlier when they defeated Rolla, 76-40, on October 2, 2015.
Finally, Shawnee Mission West defeated rival Shawnee Mission South, 21-7 on Friday to snap a 20-game losing streak that dated back to the 2016 season. Viking quarterback C.J. Callaghan passed for 164 yards and two touchdowns in the win. Callaghan threw touchdowns passes to Wesley Clark and Mike Williamson.
ACA Sportsmanship Award (Week 2): Plainville Student Council (Coach Grant Stephenson & administrators)
Kpreps is excited to announce a new award for the 2019 season – the weekly Sportsmanship Award. We have teamed up with 'A Class Athlete' (ACA) to recognize those individuals or groups that demonstrate sportsmanship and high character during the heat of action. This award is open to students or student-athletes who goes above and beyond to demonstrate an act of kindness or sportsmanship.
We are pleased to announce that this week’s winner is the Student Council and administrators of Plainville High School.
Last Friday, the Plainville student council, head football coach Grant Stephenson and Cardinal administration set up and held a sno cone fundraiser for an 11-year-old Phillipsburg girl who has recently ended up in a coma because of a brain aneurism. Plainville, which defeated Phillipsburg, 21-14, had great support for the fundraiser at the Cardinal football complex.
Stephenson has used the sno cone machine in the past. After talking with Plainville athletic director Chris Drees, the Cardinals elected to again incorporate the machine and give all donations to the family. The student council opened the sno cone machine at 6 p.m. Student Council vice president Elizabeth Brown was pleased with the customers, and said she “did not think it was going to be this big.”
Student Council president Bre Mesecher, who performed with the cheer squad during the contest, helped spread the word on social media. The public address announced the fundraiser several times during the game. Phillipsburg coach J.B. Covington labeled Plainville “a great community” for the support.
“Just the thought of them doing that for her and her family is tremendous,” Covington said. “…It’s been tough at our school, a lot of kids know her.”
Each week during the season, we will choose an individual or group as recipient of this award. Winners will receive the Sportsmanship Excellence Award Certificate, and the unique ACA helmet sticker as part of our Kpreps Helmet Stickers feature. At the end of the season, we will choose one overall winner, for the annual Kpreps-ACA Sportsmanship Award.
Please help us by emailing your nomination stories, pictures, or videos to matt@kpreps.com and ACA@kpreps.com. You can also send to Kpreps via social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc). Please include the name of the person(s) involved and a description of the act or event that you are nominating. Nominations for the award will be accepted through Tuesday of each week, with the winners announced thereafter. We will list the weekly winners here, at kpreps.com, and also on aclassathlete.com. The overall winner will be announced after the State Championship games.
ABOUT A Class Athlete:
A Class Athlete was started in 2016 to encourage young athletes in all sports, to play hard, play to win, but also to play with class and dignity. Originally targeting youth sports, ACA quickly expanded to include middle school and high school sports, and beyond (coaches, cheerleaders, fans – everyone!). In recent years, participation in youth sports has continued to decline, and the #1 reason according to the kids: 'It's not fun anymore.' ACA is determined to bring the fun and the kids back!
Participating in sports is very beneficial in many areas. It helps build confidence and self-esteem, teaches respect, teamwork, and leadership skills, and improves communication and cooperation – all qualities needed to be successful in life. It is said that participation in sports reveals a persons’ character. But ACA believes, when sportsmanship is emphasized, it is a very important aspect in building a young person's character and integrity.
For more information, please visit www.aclassathlete.com.
Helmet Stickers (2019 Season)
Week 1 – Great Bend, Hutchinson Central Christian, KC Harmon, Larned, Ottawa
Week 2 – Blue Valley Northwest, Cheney, Deerfield, La Crosse, Northeast-Arma, Shawnee Mission West
A Class Athlete Sportsmanship Award (2019 Season)
Week 1 – Landon O’Hare, Lincoln High School
Week 2 – Plainville High School & Student Council
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