Each Thursday throughout the regular season, The Pick List will feature a few of the best match-ups across the state, and make our predictions on a handful of other games.
Feature Games of the Week:
6A No. 1 Manhattan (1-0) at 6A No. 5 Lawrence Free State (1-0)
The premier matchup in Class 6A this week features top-ranked Manhattan traveling to No. 5 Lawrence Free State.
Manhattan was in complete control in a 43-13 win over Garden City in the season opener. The Indians scored twice in each of the first three quarters in building a 43-0 lead.
The Indians rushed for 287 yards on the night led by Kha’Mario Davis’ 128 yards and a touchdown. Davis also caught a long touchdown pass. Manhattan used two quarterbacks with senior Finn Moore passing for 133 yards and a touchdown while adding a rushing score. Sophomore Mclain Aslin rushed for 100 yards and two touchdowns and added 42 yards through the air.
Sophomore Lian Nider led the defense with 12 tackles. The Indians played without Kansas-commit J.J. Dunnigan who sat out as a precaution while recovering from injury.
Manhattan moved up a couple of spots in this week’s Class 6A rankings thanks, in part, to Free State’s 35-34 win over two-time defending 6A champion Gardner-Edgerton. The Firebirds’ Ethan Prescott stopped a two-point conversion late in the game to preserve a 35-34 win over the Blazers.
The Free State offense also got it done on the ground in the opener rushing for 291 yards. Quarterback Finn Moore rushed for 188 yards and three touchdowns, but it was his 75-yard scoring pass to Jonas Lonard with 1:40 remaining that gave the Firebirds a 35-28 lead.
Maddon Brittingham added 106 yards and a touchdown on the ground on 16 attempts.
Manhattan has had the upper hand in this series of late, winning four straight, including last year’s 38-28 decision. Free State last defeated the Indians in consecutive years during the 2014 and 2015 seasons.
Our Pick: Manhattan 31, Free State 24 (Gilmore)
5A No. 1 St. Thomas Aquinas (1-0) at 5A No. 5 St. James Academy (1-0)
Two of the top teams in the Eastern Kansas League and on the eastern half of Class 5A will square off as St. Thomas Aquinas visits St. James Academy.
St. James Academy opened their new home facility with a 24-0 shutout of rival Bishop Miege. Prior to Friday night, the Thunder had hosted most home games at Bishop Miege's stadium. Senior Jake House rushed 15 times for 105 yards and a touchdown to lead the Thunder. Junior John Hornback added 72 yards and a touchdown on only three carries.
Returning quarterback Frankie Menghini went down with an injury and the Thunder brought in Hornback who promptly tossed a long touchdown pass to Cory Kirchner.
The Thunder defense was outstanding in holding the Stags scoreless. It marked the first time Bishop Miege was shut out since a 2007 playoff loss to Blue Valley West.
Marian Stadium will host its second top-ranked team this week when St. Thomas Aquinas takes on the Thunder. Aquinas, the defending Class 5A champions, opened the season with a 21-0 shutout of Blue Valley West. The Saints held a slim 7-0 lead until the fourth quarter when they added two more touchdowns.
Senior all-state running back Cal Arndt rushed for 235 yards and scored all three Saints touchdowns.
This will be the 14th meeting between the two schools since 2015. Aquinas is 13-1 with St. James’ only win coming 24-20 in the 2022 regular season.
Last season Aquinas won the regular-season matchup 28-7. The two would meet again in the 5A state semifinals. St. James jumped out to a 10-0 lead in that contest before Aquinas evened things at halftime and went on to a 24-17 win before beating Hays for the state title a week later.
Our Pick: Aquinas 21, St. James 14, (Gilmore)
Frontenac (1-0) at St. Mary’s Colgan (1-0)
Longtime rivals Frontenac and St. Mary’s Colgan will meet for the 72nd time on the football field. The two schools are separated by approximately 3.5 miles. Colgan leads the overall series 45-26.
The Panthers won 14 straight in the series from 1998 to 2011. Since then, the schools have split the last 12 meetings.
Frontenac opened the season with a dominant 49-6 home win over Galena. The Raiders have a lot of good skill players including Brogan Smith and Payton Armstrong at quarterback, Jacob Murphy, Luke Sneed, Kane Mjelde in the backfield.
Sneed scored multiple touchdowns in last week’s win and the Raiders got a special teams score as Kaden Merando returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown after a Galena score.
Colgan blanked Girard, 28-0. The Panthers rushed for more than 250 yards on the night. Carston Simmons led the offense with 113 yards on the ground and two touchdowns. Backs Lane Stultz and Klayton Adamson combined for 127 more yards with Adamson scoring twice.
Last year, Colgan had 6.8 yards per play, which ranked in the top-third of Class 1A, per the SunflowerSportsSolutions.com database. The Panthers rushed for 5.7 yards a carry and 9.8 yards per pass attempt. Colgan ran the ball on 71 percent of snaps. The Panthers finished seventh in 1A in scoring offense with 37 points per game. Colgan was fifth in scoring defense at 14.4 points allowed a game.
Frontenac, a 9-1 team last year, finished third in 3A in scoring defense with 10 points allowed per contest. The Raiders scored 38 points per game, eighth-best in the classification.
Only once in the last five meetings has a team exceeded 30 points in the back-and-forth rivalry. Colgan posted 5.1 yards per play in the season-opening win against Girard.
Last season, Frontenac physically controlled the line of scrimmage and ran past Colgan, 26-0. The Panthers had just 60 yards of offense versus Frontenac, while the Raiders rushed for 303 yards.
This should be another close, low-scoring game in the series. It likely comes down to can Colgan move the ball enough against Frontenac's defense.
Our Pick: Colgan 21, Frontenac 14 (Nicholl)
8M-II No. 2 Victoria (1-0) at 8M-I No. 3 Central Plains (1-0)
The Central Prairie League rivals again match up as two ranked foes. Last year, Victoria was Eight-Man, Division II runner-up, while Central Plains made a surprise run in the postseason and finished as Eight-Man, Division I runner-up. Victoria is the clear western favorite in Division II, while Central Plains is considered the top contender in a crowded Division I Eastern field.
Victoria has won six straight in the series, all but one by blowout margin, dating back to 2018. The lone close game in that stretch was a 28-14 victory in 2020. Before then, they had split the previous eight meetings, including a couple of highly memorable games. Victoria last won state titles in ’14-15 in Division II, while Central Plains won state Division I crowns in ’14 and ’18.
There is significant experience on both sides, notably with Victoria’s large senior class and Central Plains junior quarterback Brodie Crites. However, the best player – and one of the state’s very best linemen and players for all classes – is Victoria senior lineman Kyle Huser. He earned CPL Offensive Player of the Year last fall. It’s a highly rare achievement for any lineman to win such an award for any conference.
The key question is: Can the Oilers match up with Victoria and Huser up front?
Victoria opened with a 50-0 win at struggling Ness City. Central Plains rolled over Macksville, 46-0.
Huser’s Ness City film encapsulates much of his last three-plus years. On multiple plays, Huser pancaked a Ness City defender. On one snap, he drove a Ness City player more than 10 yards out of the back of the end zone and then pancakes him. Huser is generally considered the best lineman of the 20-year Doug Oberle era.
Victoria averaged 8.3 yards per play and 7.8 yards per rush attempt last season, per the SunflowerSportsSolutions.com database. The Knights ran the ball on 80 percent of snaps. Overall, the Knights rushed for 227 yards a contest, though were efficient in the passing game, too. Victoria posted 945 passing yards and 10.3 yards per pass attempt. Since-graduated quarterback Wyatt Griffin earned first team all-state honors.
Central Plains delivered 6.5 yards per play and 6.2 yards per rush. The Oilers ran the ball on 71 percent of snaps. Central Plains finished 10-3 and won playoff games by two points in overtime, six points, six points and two points before a 46-0 loss to Hoxie at state. Crites passed 85 of 154 for 1,119 yards with 15 scores against eight interceptions. No running back returns who cleared 240 yards and only 15 of the 96 receptions return. Senior Peyton Dody paced Central Plains in tackles and is a top player, along with junior Broc Kilma.
Victoria returned junior fullback Weston Scherrer, who along with Huser, was a first team all-state selection. Plus, senior twins Wyatt Schmidtberger (QB) and Cody Schmidtberger (OL/DL) are key players. Last year, Will Schmeidler returned the opening kickoff against Central Plains, which ignited the 62-12 blowout victory and set the stage for the run to the state game.
This season should be one of the closer games in the series but Victoria continues the win streak against their rivals behind its running game.
Our Pick: Victoria 50, Central Plains 22 (Nicholl)
The Pick List:
6A No. 4 Blue Valley Northwest (1-0) at Shawnee Mission Northwest (1-0) – BV Northwest
5A No. 3 Great Bend (1-0) at Olathe South (1-0) – Great Bend
Shawnee Mission East (1-0) at Topeka Seaman (0-1) – SM East
Blue Valley (1-0) at Washburn Rural (1-0) – Blue Valley
Wichita East (1-0) at 6A No. 3 Wichita Northwest (1-0) – Wichita Northwest
Hutchinson (1-0) at Valley Center (1-0) – Hutchinson
Tonganoxie (1-0) at Spring Hill (1-0) – Spring Hill
Hugoton (1-0) at Ulysses (1-0) – Hugoton
Wellington (1-0) at 3A No. 1 Andale (1-0) – Andale
4A No. 4 Wamego (1-0) at 3A No. 5 Rock Creek (1-0) – Wamego
Hoisington (1-0) at Hesston (1-0) – Hoisington
Santa Fe Trail (1-0) at Prairie View (1-0) – Prairie View
2A No. 5 Garden Plain (1-0) at 1A No. 1 Conway Springs (1-0) – Conway Springs
Silver Lake (0-1) at 2A No. 2 Nemaha Central (1-0) – Nemaha Central
Smith Center (1-0) at Phillipsburg (1-0) – Phillipsburg
1A No. 5 Sterling (1-0) at Moundridge (1-0) -- Moundridge
Ell-Saline (0-1) at 8M-II No. 5 Osborne (1-0) – Osborne
Frankfort (0-1) at 8M-I No. 5 Lyndon (1-0) – Lyndon
8M-II No. 3 Hanover (1-0) at Clifton-Clyde (1-0) – Hanover
8M-I No. 4 Little River (1-0) at Rural Vista (1-0) – Little River
8M-II No. 4 Burlingame (1-0) at Waverly (1-0) – Burlingame
6M No. 3 Golden Plains (1-0) at Ingalls (1-0) – Golden Plains
South Barber (0-1) at 6M No. 5 Otis-Bison (1-0) – Otis-Bison
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