Last season’s Class 6A state championship game was a classic with Manhattan outlasting Gardner-Edgerton, 21-20, in overtime. The Indians stopped the Trailblazers’ two-point conversion attempt just short of the goal line to secure the schools’ first state football championship since 1988.
Manhattan’s appearance ended a streak of ten consecutive seasons in which a member from the Ark Valley Chisholm Trail League represented the west bracket in the Class 6A title game. In eight of those ten seasons, the mainstay in Emporia playing for a state championship has been the Derby Panthers.
This season, Derby returns to the 6A title game for the ninth time in the past 11 years and will take on those same Gardner-Edgerton Trailblazers.
Kickoff is set for 1:00 P.M. at Welch Stadium on the campus of Emporia State University.
Gardner-Edgerton came in to the 2023 season as the top-ranked team in the classification, with an experience and motivated group that was one play short of the program’s first state football championship a year ago. The Blazers started the season 6-0 with impressive victories over 5A finalist Mill Valley (49-10) and 6A contender Olathe North (21-14) before dropping their lone loss of the season, a 21-7 decision to Olathe East.
The Trailblazers feature a stingy defense that has allowed only 7.9 points per contest and has posted three shutouts. That unit is led up front by defensive ends Mark Debiak (6-3, 245) and Spencer Easley (6-2, 220) and linemen Isaiah Williams (6-6, 265) and Max Nichols (6-5, 225). Debiak leads the team with 11 sacks, while Easley has 72 tackles and seven sacks.
Earlier this week, Debiak was named a finalist for the Buck Buchanan Award given to the KC Metro’s big school (Class 6A or 5A) top linebacker or offensive/defensive lineman.
Dawson Kindler, Kaleb Dewey, and Thomas Savanstan lead the linebacking group for the Blazers. Kindler was an all-state selection at running back last season rushing for 1,550 yards and 30 touchdowns before moving to linebacker for his senior season.
Chase Bojanski, Eli Porter, Daryus Williams and Randy Singleton solidify the secondary.
Offensively, the Trailblazers average 38.7 points per game and are under the direction of junior quarterback Bravin Powell. Powell has rushed for more than 750 yards and 17 touchdowns this season and passed for nearly 1,300 yards and 13 scores.
Gardner-Edgerton coach Jesse Owen notes Powell’s maturity and experience as key to leading the Blazer offense.
“I think experience is the best teacher,” Owen told PrepsKC. “He’s matured quite a bit from his sophomore season… he’s a year older, he’s seen quite a bit at this point in his career and he has a cool demeanor and approach in the huddle and I think that kind of is contagious with the other guys.”
“He’s just done a tremendous job in leading our football team.”
Dylan Butash leads the team with 825 yards rushing and 11 scores, while sophomore Syre Padillo has added 417 yards and two scores.
Randy Singleton and Colton Hawkinson have been the playmakers in the passing game. Singleton has the ability to take over any game and has more than 500 receiving yards and eight touchdown. Hawkinson has 387 receiving yards and three scores.
Derby is certainly no stranger to the 6A title game. But over the past couple of weeks, the Panthers had to work to get back to Emporia.
Last week, Grady Jesseph connected on a 25-yard field goal on the game's final play to lift Derby past Washburn Rural, 29-28. The week prior, Jesseph's 26-yard field goal with less than a minute to play proved to be the game winner knocking out defending-champion Manhattan, 23-21. Derby had lost three straight games to Manhattan going back to the beginning of the 2022 season.
The Panthers average more than 41 points per game and are led by senior quarterback Braxton Clark – the son of head coach Brandon Clark. Braxton has recently returned from a missing several weeks due to a serious injury suffered back in a Week 4 win over Hutchinson.
Last week, Braxton Clark passed for more than 320 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Panthers to a comeback, 29-28, win over top-ranked Washburn Rural. For the season, the younger Clark has completed 72 percent of his passes for 1,568 yards and 18 touchdowns in just eight games.
Senior Colton Ruedy and highly-recruited junior tight-end/receiver Da’Saahn Brame (6-6, 225) have been Clark’s primary receiving targets. Brame has 43 catches for 876 yards and 12 touchdowns, while Ruedy has 49 receptions for 872 yards and seven scores. Ruedy had 165 yards and three touchdowns in last week’s win over Washburn Rural.
Derek Hubbard leads the Panther ground attach with 1,051 yards and 13 touchdowns, while freshman Arieus Finley has 450 yards and 11 scores on the ground.
Defensively, Britton Pascual leads the Panthers with 123 tackles, including 15 for loss. It’s a deep unit with seven other Panther players having between 66 and 90 tackles. Mason Hopper has 80 tackles, including 21 for loss and 15 sacks.
On average, Derby allows a little more than 15 points per game, but has given up more than 30 points since 33-19 loss to defending champion Manhattan in the season-opener.
Since, the Panthers have won 11 straight games.
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