Steve Tiernan had never used a quick kick in his 19 highly successful years as a head football coach. However, Tiernan heard about the cold temperatures and high winds before his Osborne team faced Axtell in the Eight-Man, Division II state championship Thanksgiving weekend at Newton’s Fischer Field.
The report was confirmed on the drive to the game. Wind consistently exceeded 20 miles per hour.
“When I saw how bad - the weatherman was right with the wind,” Tiernan said.
Tiernan quickly installed the quick kick in case it was needed with the conditions. Early in the fourth quarter, Osborne faced a 3rd-and-17 from its own six-yard line. The Bulldogs, in an extremely rare move in Kansas high school football, especially at the eight-man level, elected to quick kick punt on third down. Osborne delivered a 23-yard punt, and Axtell took over at the Bulldog 29-yard line.
As well, early in the regular season, Osborne put in a two-man front defense to combat possible passing offenses in the playoffs. Tiernan said it was probably the first time he’d incorporated the defense and didn’t know when he might use it.
Osborne didn’t show the two-man front until the state title game against Axtell. It helped the Bulldogs come up with several big defensive plays. After the third-down punt, Axtell drove to the Osborne 11-yard line.
Then, the Bulldogs picked off Axtell four-year starting quarterback Quinn Buessing at the Osborne 3-yard line. It marked Buessing’s third interception all year.
“For the most part, we just concentrated on that,” Tiernan said of the two-man. “Thank goodness for this wind.”
Following the interception, Osborne embarked on a 14-play, 69-yard drive. Senior quarterback Steele Wolters then ran an excellent fake bootleg for a two-yard touchdown run. All 14 plays came on the ground. Wolters’ score yielded the final points of the game for a 34-26 victory. Osborne then picked off Buessing at the Bulldog 39-yard line to seal the win.
In addition to the third-down punt and new defense, Osborne delivered another historical oddity. The Bulldogs won an eight-man state championship without a completed pass, according to the Axtell box score. Osborne was 0 of 1 passing and rushed 58 times for 359 yards.
It marked the 12th time in state history an eight-man squad in a championship finished with zero or negative passing yards, according to the 2019 book “Under the Lights: 50 Years of the KSHSAA Football Playoffs.” However, it was the first time an eight-man squad had won a state finale without passing yards since Little River and Rolla in 1996.
“Osborne is just Osborne,” Axtell coach Eric Detweiler said. “They ran the ball extremely well. At times, we had a hard time slowing them down, and it showed. They just ground the clock out it seemed like.”
Osborne (13-0) became the first eight-man titlist to win a pair of one-possession playoff games since the Bulldogs also accomplished the feat in ’13. Before then, the previous eight-man squad that accomplished this was Quinter in 2010. Osborne allowed 20.6 points a game in ’18, and dropped to 13.4 allowed this fall.
Osborne’s third-down punt, new defense, running game and defensive improvement encapsulated the 2019 football season.
The 2018 season was marked by elite, dominant teams like Derby, St. Thomas Aquinas, Bishop Miege, Sabetha, Phillipsburg, Smith Center, Central Plains and Hanover. All eight champions in ’18 were ranked first or second in the preseason. In all, 32 teams finished with double-digit victories and six undefeated state champions.
In 2019, Derby (6A) and Bishop Miege (4A) were the only squads that opened No. 1 and finished as the state champions. Derby, Andale (3A), Canton-Galva (Eight-Man, Division I) and Osborne were the lone undefeated teams this year.
This past fall, Derby and Andale were the only state titlists that faced limited resistance. Andale was the only preseason No. 2 squad that won a title. Derby won every game by at least 21 points, and Andale had one close contest.
Canton-Galva was 13-0 and ranked first all year in Eight-Man, Division I.
However, Canton-Galva trailed in the second half in its quarterfinal and finals wins versus South Central and St. Francis, respectively. The Eagles were down 36-0 late in the first half and won 66-36 versus St. Francis, the biggest comeback Kansas state title annals.
2019: Most parity in recent seasons?
While this past season generally lacked in elite squads, it possibly enjoyed the most parity of any year in recent Kansas history.
The 2019 season, with 323 KSHSAA teams competing, featured 37 teams that had at least 10 victories. That marked the most since 2010, which also had 37 teams with double-digit victories. However, 2010 had 339 KSHSAA squads, according to Prep Power Index archives.
Part of the parity came from excellent defenses. In ’19, Every classification scored fewer points compared to 2018. Overall, the 11-man teams combined for 1,664 fewer points relative to ’18. The two eight-man classes had 2,023 fewer points.
Notably, Class 5A, known for strong defenses with champion Mill Valley, runner-up Wichita Northwest and 10-1 Maize South, scored 529 points fewer than ’18.
The class had six double-digit winning squads, double from 2018. It marked the first time 5A had more than three 10-win teams since four in ’09.
Classes 6A and 3A consistently had weekly ranking changes. Eleven teams were in the 3A top-5 last fall. Olathe North and Perry-Lecompton finished as runners-up in 6A and 3A, respectively. Olathe North was preseason fourth, and Perry-Lecompton was unranked.
Of the 16 teams that reached a 2019 state final, 12 had a better scoring defense than last year. Just nine of the 16 improved its offense. Seven of those squads had a defensive improvement of at least seven points a contest.
Osborne was ranked third in preseason and spent the majority of the season behind Hanover and Axtell. Tiernan, in the first year in his second stint with the Bulldogs, said he had several people tell him that 7-3 or 8-2 were the expectations for Osborne in ’19.
Osborne’s defense, though, received a team-high 142 tackles from senior Evan Garman, who didn’t play football in ‘18. Wolters enjoyed a huge year with 131 stops and five interceptions. Tiernan was especially pleased with the improvement of freshman Conner Schurr.
Against Axtell, Schurr recorded five tackles, and a pair of sacks – his only sacks on the season. Tiernan noted Osborne had its traditional speed, but added physicality, a combination the Bulldogs generally hadn’t shown in the past.
“They were good to start with, they really were,” Tiernan said. “I mean speed is one thing that you can’t coach, makes the coach looks pretty smart when you have it. And we do have a lot of speed, so I mean they used that, and they were physical. … These guys were fast, and liked to make contact, so it was good.”
Class 2A yields biggest surprises; big changes from Nemaha Central
In Class 2A, Nemaha Central defeated Norton, 19-0, in the finals. Nemaha Central had its first trip to the finals in school history, Norton its first in 30 years. Neither squad was ranked in the preseason.
The squads finished a collective 9-9 in 2018. This past fall, Nemaha Central went 11-2. Norton finished 9-4. Phillipsburg, ranked first in the preseason, had an injury-plagued year and dropped to 3-6.
Like Tiernan, ninth-year Nemaha Central coach Warren Seitz delivered big changes. In the offseason, Seitz changed the defense to a three-front.
After a Week 1 loss to Sabetha, Nemaha Central switched the offense to primarily three-receiver sets and basically removed the tight end from the offense. Seitz said it was the first time he’d done either of the changes in his career.
Nemaha Central went 11-1 after Week 1. In addition, other state champions Mill Valley (5A), Centralia (1A) and runner-up Norton all lost its season openers. Mill Valley was 1-3 and Norton opened 0-2. Mill Valley finished with nine straight victories, while Centralia won 12 in a row.
Norton lowered its defense by 11.9 points per game from ’18. Nemaha Central improved its defense by 7.3 points a contest.
Norton’s 10-8 state semifinal victory against then-undefeated Hoisington was one of the signature moments of the year. The Bluejays had lost, 38-7, to Hoisington in district playt. Norton limited Hoisington to a season-low 278 total yards in the sub-state semifinal victory.
Bluejay defensive lineman Judson Wiltfong signed to play at Fort Hays State, and will join his brother, Hayden, on the Tiger roster. Wiltfong had 156 tackles, fourth-most in Kansas, according to the MaxPreps statewide list.
Osage City junior Dane Whalen was second among Kansas’ 11-man defensive linemen with 108 tackles. Whalen was first with 30.5 tackles for loss, and Wiltfong was third at 26.
“They just did a little bit better job up front defensively than what we did the first time around offensive line-wise, and it was just tough for us to get movement,” Hoisington coach Zach Baird said. “We bust one earlier in the game, and they have got good enough athletes that they are able to run us down, so they just made us work, and just made us snap it again. Just hats off to those guys.”
Overall, the 16 state qualifying teams collectively allowed 14 points per contest. In 2018, those squads permitted 17.9 points per game. It’s a difference of 3.9 points a game and 404 total points.
Offensively, the state teams were virtually identical in offense from ’18 to ’19 and improved by just 0.25 points per game – 41.778 to 42.029.
Big defensive improvements in eight-man; Vincent with 13 INTs
In addition to Osborne, the other three eight-man finalists also enjoyed a big defensive change from 2018. In Division I, Canton-Galva, led by head coach Shelby Hoppes and coordinator Tyler O’Connor, improved its defense by 14.7 points per game from ’18.
After ’18, Canton-Galva worked on correcting techniques and discipline issues gleaned from film study.
“This is the result of it,” Hoppes said. “We have one of the top defenses in the state, and they are fun to coach, and they are fun to watch, and they fly around and are physical all game long, and that's fun football.”
St. Francis’ defense improved 3.6 points per contest. Axtell dropped by 7.9 points per game.
Eight-Man, Division II had the biggest defensive improvement. The four squads that reached the semifinals, Osborne, Axtell, Hanover and Hutchinson Central Christian, all scored fewer points than 2018. Collectively, they tallied 328 fewer points in ’19 than ’18.
Elsewhere in Eight-Man, Division II, Wheatland-Grinnell enjoyed a huge turnaround to produce the best season in school history. While the Thunderhawks finished 1-8 and allowed 421 points in 2018, they improved to 8-2 this past fall, including a pair of forfeits, and won a district title.
Discounting the forfeits, Wheatland-Grinnell was 6-2 and allowed just 202 points. Freshman Jett Vincent intercepted 13 passes, including four against Sharon Springs-Wallace County. His 13 INTs tied for the nation high among eight-man players, according to MaxPreps statewide lists.
Six-man teams with significant defensive improvements
While six-man football is still not KSHSAA affiliated, the classification continues to grow and put together another strong season. Moscow and Cheylin were a combined 8-8 in 2018. Each team entered the Wild West Bowl state title game undefeated. Moscow won, 52-6, and finished 10-0, while the Cougars finished 9-1.
In ’18, Cheylin permitted 55 points per game, and Moscow was at 33.8. This year, Cheylin dropped down to 23.1 points per contest, and Moscow led six-man at 21.8.
In addition, Natoma improved its record from 3-4 to 5-3. The Tigers permitted 49.6 points a game in ’18, and just 34.5 this fall. Golden Plains, 8-2 and 7-4 the last two falls, had a slight defensive improvement from 34.4 points allowed in ’18 to 33.2 this year.
After 2018, Cheylin changed two assistant coaches and revamped its practice schedule to focus significantly more time on defense. The Cougars consistently devoted two practice days to defense. In ’18, Moscow played six-man football for the first time. In ’19, the coaches were more familiar with six-man and relied on its running game and defense.
Remarkable seasons for Great Bend’s Dalton Miller, Maranatha’s Brock West, KC Piper’s Branden Martin
Three players from teams that generally didn’t factor into the playoff picture enjoyed terrific seasons – and continued/completed stellar careers.
Great Bend finished 5-5 and was outscored by 34 points this year. Senior Dalton Miller earned Class 5A first team all-state honors for a second consecutive season. Last year, Miller was a Kpreps all-state 5A DB and earned Western Athletic Conference MVP honors.
This past fall, Miller also needed to play quarterback and delivered a statistical season rarely seen at the large classes. A four-year defensive starter, Miller had 1,300 passing and 1,397 rushing yards. He finished seventh in Kansas in total yards.
As well, Miller led Great Bend with 106 tackles. The all-time tackle leader in Panther football history, the 5-foot-11, 185-pound Miller recorded 428 career stops.
Maranatha Christian Academy’s Brock West scored at least seven touchdowns passing, rushing and receiving for the 7-3 Eagles. Primarily known in his career as a receiver, West caught 55 passes for 954 yards and 16 scores this past fall. He also added 67 rushes for 421 yards and eight TDs. West completed 25 of 46 passes for 377 yards with a 7/2 TD/INT ratio. West recorded 58 receiving touchdowns in his final three seasons.
KC Piper junior linebacker Branden Martin recorded 169 tackles and led the state in stops for the second straight year. He also delivered 19 tackles for loss, five sacks and four fumble recoveries. Martin recorded 159 tackles, 20 TFLs as a sophomore, and 346 total tackles in his career.
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