***all coach & player quotes courtesy of Chet Kuplen and Kansas-Sports.com or @sportsinkansas
A new state football champion will be crowned in Class 5A as Wichita Northwest (12-0) will take on Mill Valley (9-3) on Saturday at Pittsburg State’s Carnie Smith Stadium.
Both teams will be playing in the third state football championship game in their respective school histories. Mill Valley is seeking its third state football championship after capturing back-to-back 5A titles in 2015 and 2016. Meanwhile, Wichita Northwest has a pair of state runner-up finishes in 1996 and last season.
Game time is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.
While Wichita Northwest was perhaps expected to make it back to the 5A title game, Mill Valley had to go through defending champion St. Thomas Aquinas.
The Jaguars twice rallied from down two scores in the game and got a 30-yard field goal by Chris Tennant as time expired to force overtime. Aquinas only managed a field goal on its overtime possession, while Mill Valley scored in two plays on consecutive runs by senior Tyler Green to win, 34-31.
Aquinas had defeated Mill Valley 28-21 during the regular season – one of three Jaguar losses by a single touchdown to top teams. The Jaguars also lost 28-21 to 6A quarterfinalist Blue Valley West and 42-35 to Bishop Miege who will play for its sixth consecutive 4A state championship on Saturday.
Green (5-10, 205) has been the leader of a Mill Valley offense that has averaged more than 33 points per game. The senior, who transferred from Lansing prior to last season, has rushed for 1,246 yards and 14 touchdowns, including five consecutive games of at least 120 yards on the ground.
Junior quarterback Cooper Marsh has had a solid year in his first season starting. Marsh (5-11, 180) has passed for 1,912 yards and 20 touchdowns while adding 744 rushing yards and six scores. Classmate Quin Wittenauer has added 820 yards and nine scores on the ground.
When Marsh looks to throw, he looks to a number of options that include five players with at least 200 receiving yards.
Mill Valley coach Joel Applebee has praised his teams’ receivers as a “solid group…they’re sound in everything they do.”
That group includes juniors Ty Reishus and Jacob Hartman who lead the team with 469 and 452 receiving yards, respectively. Reishus has a team-high six touchdown receptions. Sophomore Kendrick Jones, who transferred from Class 1A Yates Center over the summer, and senior Zach Mills have added 337 and 264 yards, while sophomore Jared Napoli has 219 yards on 13 catches.
The strength of the Mill Valley offense may be up front where the Jaguars feature a first-team all-league selection in junior Sam Hecht (6-3, 250), and Arkansas State commit Kyle Kelley (6-6, 255).
“Our five offensive linemen have gotten so much better throughout the year,” Applebee said. “They’ve really gelled and are starting to play their best football right now.”
It’s an offensive unit that has caught the attention of Wichita Northwest coach Steve Martin.
“Those guys do a really good job and their offensive line play is special,” Martin said. “And you throw in a couple of great backs and a good quarterback in the Marsh kid and you’ve got a well-rounded offense that our defense is going to have to worry about.”
That defense has been the story for Wichita Northwest this season. It’s a defensive unit that is statistically much improved from a season ago. Marc Marinelli, former head coach at Goddard-Eisenhower and Hesston, has come over and instilled a new attitude into a unit that allowed nearly 30 points per game last season. The Grizzlies are only allowing 10.8 points per game this season.
“Coach Marinelli and those guys have done a great job of getting our kids to be sound and in the right spots, and playing with extreme energy,” Martin said.
Linebacker Jack Weins, who came over from Andover Central for his senior season, leads the team with 93 tackles, including 14.5 for loss. Junior Toric McGee is second on the team with 81 stops and has four interceptions.
Junior Jacob Younkman has 23.5 tackles for loss, while classmate Wetu Kalomo has eight interceptions.
“They are sound in everything they do,” Applebee said. “They’re fast, they’re explosive, and they’re very well coached you can tell watching them on film.”
Those attributes also carry over to the offensive side of the ball where Northwest is its typical, high-scoring, record-setting self. The Grizzlies average more than 53 points per game and set state records for total offense (891 yards) and first downs (43) in last week’s 80-42 semifinal win over Maize.
Quarterback Reagan Jones has followed up an all-state junior season with a strong senior campaign. Jones, who transferred from Andover Central after a break-out sophomore season with the Jaguars, has passed for 1,510 yards and 18 touchdowns this season. But the dual-threat quarterback and Missouri Western commit has also rushed for 1,556 yards and 18 scores.
Northwest also features junior Julius Bolden and senior Jamar Martin in the backfield. Bolden has 1,526 rushing yards and 29 touchdowns while averaging 10 yards per carry. Martin has 993 yards on the round and 15 scores.
Senior Zion Jones leads the receiving group with 40 catches for 772 yards and ten scores.
For Northwest, offensive line play will be key going against a Mill Valley defense that is giving up less than 16 points per game against a tough Eastern Kansas League schedule.
“Defensively, they’re staying in ball games,” Martin agreed. “Have they given up some points, yeah, but when you play the schedule they have…that EKL schedule gets these guys ready for a team like us.”
Coach Applebee agrees and knows the key to his teams’ defensive success.
“On defense it starts up front and Ethan (Kremer) really leads that charge there,” Applebee said. “Really all four of those guys, and we rotate some other guys in there as well, they’ve just done a great job of playing very physical and being sound within their schemes and within their technique.”
Kremer (5-11, 245) is the leader of the Jaguar defense. He has registered 48 tackles, including 15 for loss, and has nine sacks.
Coach Martin has certainly been impressed with Kremer.
“What really stands out is a kid like Ethan Kremer, who is just a…me and Coach Marinelli call him a throwback,” he said. “He’s just a nasty offensive/defensive lineman kid that when they need some tough yards on offense, they’ll throw him in there at guard.”
Junior Kolten Jegen leads the Mill Valley defense with 88 tackles, with 9.5 for loss, while Carson Caldwell has added 82 stops with 13 for loss. Caldwell also has a team-leading three interceptions.
Both teams also feature a pair of solid junior kickers. Northwest’s Carson Arndt has connected on 73 of 77 PATs and has kicked five field goals. Tennant has made all 44 of his PAT attempts and is 12 of 15 on field goals for Mill Valley.
“We’re excited about this group,” Applebee concluded. “They’ve been so much fun to be around. They love football, they love to prepare for the games. We’re going to enjoy this week. We need to stay focused on our job and focused on our preparation.”
Martin noted the experience the Grizzlies gained with last year’s trip to Pittsburg will only help this time around.
“Last year I felt like we were just happy to get there,” he said. “Not that we didn’t want to win the football game, of course, that’s totally opposite. All of that stuff leading to the game… it was more of an event instead of a business trip.”
“(For these seniors) I know it’s going to be hard to see these guys go, but I hope we can send them out on a positive note on Saturday.”
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