Thunder Ridge coach Joel Struckhoff is aware of the prevailing sentiment around the Eight-Man, Division II state championship between his Longhorns and top-ranked Axtell.
Axtell has won 25 straight contests, including a 46-0 road victory against Thunder Ridge in the Division II East semifinals last season. Additionally, Axtell defeated Thunder Ridge, 42-40, in a 2020 Week 9 bracket contest. The Eagles scored 22 points in the final 2 minutes, 53 seconds for the comeback.
This season, Thunder Ridge (11-1) will face Axtell (12-0) at Newton’s Fischer Field. Start time is 11 a.m. on Saturday. Axtell returned all eight starters from last season, including senior quarterback Isaac Detweiler, the reigning classification Offensive Player of the Year.
“I think a lot of people in the state have probably wrote us off for this game, that we are not capable of playing with these guys, because of what happened there last year,” Struckhoff said Monday afternoon.
However, context is required. Axtell scored on its first two plays from scrimmage on runs from 56 and 35 yards by all-purpose back Brandon Schmelzle. Thunder Ridge ran 20 more plays than Axtell. The Longhorns had several drives in Axtell territory that didn’t produce points. Quarterback Dylan Bice eventually suffered injury. Axtell ended the game with 7 minutes, 27 seconds left in the third quarter. While Axtell was certainly better, the game was not a typical 46-0 blowout.
“And I look at the stats, and I see that we moved it up and down the football field at times, just could never convert when we needed to convert,” Struckhoff said. “Defensively, we definitely didn’t play assignment-proof football. They really exposed that, and they are a very good football team.”
When KSHSAA re-classified teams for 2022, Thunder Ridge moved to the West. Since the summer, Struckhoff had a goal to qualify Thunder Ridge to state and face either Axtell or Canton-Galva. Last week, Axtell held off Canton-Galva, 36-32.
“Good football teams are going to expose you when you do things that you are not doing the right way, and they did that to us last year, but I feel like I trust my guys,” Struckhoff said. “They are a lot better than that result last year. Some injuries there, too, we won’t make excuses, but we feel like we were a lot closer than what we were on that scoreboard from last year.”
Both teams return significant players from the 2020 and ’21 games. Detweiler is Kansas’ all-time leader in touchdowns responsible for: passing, rushing, and receiving. A four-year starter, Detweiler has helped Axtell outscored opponents, 710-124. Axtell has an outside chance to break eight-man’s all-time scoring record of 764 points.
This year, Detweiler has 110 carries for 794 yards for 19 scores. He has completed 120 of 164 passes for 1,867 yards with 38 scores against one interception.
Schmelzle has 42 catches for 702 yards and 12 scores, along with 45 carries for 489 yards and 16 touchdowns.
“Schmelzle kid is just so quick and just makes good cuts all the time, and he’s just a smooth runner,” Struckhoff said.
Struckhoff said a big difference from Axtell 2020 to the Eagles’ teams the last two years is Schmelzle. As a freshman at state track last spring, Schmelzle was sixth in the 200-meter dash, sixth in the long jump and sixth in the triple jump. He also qualified in the 400 relay.
“No disrespect to their running back at that time, but he just didn’t have the speed that Schmelzle had,” Struckhoff said. “Ran hard but the speed aspect is what kills people in eight-man football, and they have got that right now, and they have got a lot of it, so it’s really hard to cover just extremely fast athletes in any manner, whether you have got an amazing defense or an average defense, it’s really hard when you have got athletes of that caliber – and two of them.”
Sophomore Eli Broxterman has 16 offensive touchdowns on 68 touches. Grady and Evan Buessing have combined for 17 receiving scores on 43 catches.
Broxterman leads the defense with 62 tackles, 10.5 for loss. Detweiler has 10 pass breakups. Senior Owen Strathman has forced four fumbles and recovered six. Detweiler, Schmelzle, Broxterman and Strathman were first team all-state picks last year.
Axtell has forced 25 turnovers and is plus-19 in turnover margin. The Eagles have 69 plays of more than 20 yards and average 10 yards per play.
“It’s kind of an attitude adjustment where two years ago we kind of had younger kids out on the field and now we have kind of got bigger, stronger kids,” Axtell coach Eric Detweiler told Kpreps earlier this fall. “It’s probably the same kids honestly, but I think they have just kind of matured and grown.”
Thunder Ridge’s seniors and size have helped the Longhorns turn around the program under Struckhoff, eight-man’s all-time rushing leader. Thunder Ridge won state in 2011 when Struckhoff was a senior and finished second the following year.
Thunder Ridge won three combined games from ’15-17 before Struckhoff took over as head coach. He is 41-12 in five years.
In Week 3, the Longhorns lost, 48-22, to Hill City, an eventual Division I state semifinalist. However, the game was closer than the final score. Hill City tacked on a relatively meaningless touchdown in the final seconds. Thunder Ridge ran 65 plays, 26 more than Hill City.
While Axtell is built on speed, Thunder Ridge achieved success behind its size. Struckhoff preached the weight room, listening to the coaches and doing things correctly, both on and off the field.
“Just hitting the weights,” Struckhoff said. “That’s one of the things we really pride ourselves in here is that maybe sometimes we don’t have the speed that you do, but we are going to hope we have the strength that you do – or more than you do, and then just playing really disciplined football.”
Per MaxPreps, Thunder Ridge has played a slightly harder schedule than the Eagles. In the last two weeks, the Longhorns have won at Victoria, 62-46, and beaten Dighton, 58-12, at home. Both teams were undefeated.
For Thunder Ridge, Dylan Bice, a four-year player and three-year starter at quarterback, has passed for 1,278 yards with 10 scores against three interceptions. He has 214 carries for 1,841 yards with 33 touchdowns. Bice has cleared 4,000 rushing and passing yards and is the Longhorns’ all-time leader in total offense.
Thunder Ridge has forced 26 turnovers and is plus 21 in turnover margin. Junior Mason Baker shifted the semifinal win against Dighton when he returned an interception for a touchdown just after halftime. Last year, Thunder Ridge forced just 14 turnovers.
“If you can win the turnover battle, you are putting yourself in a very good opportunity to win ball games whether the team is equal to you or less than you or whatever they are compared to you,” Struckhoff said.
Thunder Ridge will again have a size advantage. Dylan Bice is 6-foot-2, 200. Twin Dalton Bice is 6-foot, 205. Junior Josh Ferguson stands 6-2, 210. Senior Kaleb Wagenblast is 6-1, 230. Dylan Bice and Wagenblast both have KCAC offers.
Ferguson has 162 tackles, 10 for loss. Dylan Bice has 141 stops, while Dalton Bice, who missed time early with injury, has returned with a team-high 16 tackles for loss.
Senior center Brian Shaw is 6-3, 300. Senior guard Hunter Gitchel stands 6-2, 247. Wagenblast was ejected, and Gitchel injured the playoffs, though both will play for state. Sophomore Brayden Burge (5-11, 220) is a key backup lineman.
In his career, Wagenblast, like many of the other key seniors, has played all four years. He has 337 tackles, 25.5 sacks, 24 for loss.
“I think Kaleb has got to have a really good ball game this Saturday,” Struckhoff said. “I think a lot lies on his shoulders to produce like what he is supposed to be, and throughout the playoffs, Kaleb has definitely produced to that level when he has been playing. But that’s just something that we need of him Saturday, to play disciplined football and just playing physical and using his God-given abilities, making sure he gives 100 percent at all times, I think he’s a guy that can really help us out even in the pass game.”
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