Class 5A
5A East: No. 5 Mill Valley (10-0) at Blue Valley (7-3)
Week after week, the Jaguars continue to prove they are for real. Mill Valley opened the season with a 26-21 victory over Class 6A’s Manhattan and have allowed opponents to score only 72 points all season.
The Mill Valley defense has recorded three shutouts and has limited opponents to eight points or fewer in seven of 10 games.
Mill Valley defeated St. Thomas Aquinas 38-6 in the first round of the playoffs. Quarterback Logan Koch ran for 113 yards and two touchdowns in the win. The Saints didn’t score a touchdown as they were limited to one field goal in the first quarter and another in the fourth.
The Tigers do not enter with the record of the Jaguars, but they do play a difficult schedule in the Eastern Kansas League. Blue Valley’s only losses are to Bishop Miege, Blue Valley Northwest and Blue Valley West. Those three losses were by a combined 13 points. Bishop Miege and Blue Valley West are still alive on the other side of the east bracket.
Blue Valley running back Chance Nelson rushed for 173 yards and three touchdowns and caught a TD pass during a 42-14 win against Shawnee Heights. Nelson now has 1,441 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns this season.
Blue Valley 24, Mill Valley 14 (Schremmer)
5A East: No. 4 Blue Valley West (7-3) at No. 2 Bishop Miege (9-1)
Blue Valley West will travel to Bishop Miege in a rematch of a classic 2012 quarterfinal game won by Miege 38-37 in double overtime.
West is on a four-game winning streak since dropping three straight games to Blue Valley Northwest, Gardner-Edgerton and Bishop Miege in the middle of the season.
Bishop Miege edged the Jaguars 21-19 in Week 6. The Stags, who were without quarterback Ryan Willis in that game, blocked Blue Valley West’s field goal attempt on the game’s final play to secure the win.
Blue Valley West defeated Topeka Seaman 42-6 in the first round of the playoffs. Ryan Ralston passed for about 130 yards and rushed for about 130 yards in the victory.
Bishop Miege’s only loss of the season came 56-51 to Gardner-Edgerton in the fourth week of the season.
The Stags have scored the third most points of all five 5A teams with 449. The Stags also have allowed the fourth fewest with 147.
Bishop Miege beat Lansing 52-12 on Friday. Willis threw for 375 yards and four touchdowns during the Stags’ final regular season game against St. Thomas Aquinas. Despite missing some time with a concussion, the junior quarterback passed for 2,289 yards and 23 touchdowns during the regular season.
Bishop Miege 28, Blue Valley West 20 (Schremmer)
5A West: No. 3 Salina South (8-2) at No. 1 Bishop Carroll (10-0)
Arguably the state championship game a couple rounds early, this is a rematch from the 5A sub-state championship game last year, a 45-21 Carroll win. Carroll went onto the state championship with a 13-0 record and carries a 23-game winning streak into the matchup.
South defeated a surprise Wichita West team, 56-15, last week. Mike Jones had another big contest with 23 carries for 249 yards and four scores. Fullback Mike Fox had 115 rushing yards and two scores for a team that delivered 545 yards of offense. Quarterback Justin Stonebraker completed 6 of 12 passes for 94 yards, including a 38-yard TD pass to Zach Nachbar.
South won its seventh straight game and now leads 5A with 464 points against the No. 2 strength of schedule.
Carroll and Mill Valley are 5A’s lone undefeated teams at 10-0. Carroll has outscored opponents 452-105 and ranks No. 2 in scoring offense and defense.
Bishop Carroll 24, Salina South 21 (Nicholl)
5A West: Kapaun Mt. Carmel (9-1) at Salina Central (5-5)
Salina Central has turned around its season with an emphatic Week 8 win against Great Bend, a big Week 9 victory against Hays High and then 416 rushing yards in a 48-12 victory against a previously undefeated Andover.
Senior Malik Veal collected 229 rushing yards and four scores against the Trojans last Friday. Central has outscored opponents 338-311 against the classification’s No. 3 schedule.
Kapaun has played the No. 11 strength of schedule and has beaten teams by a combined score of 303-174. Kapaun won a wild 55-40 game against high-octane Liberal. The Redskins delivered an onside kick after every score, their pattern all season, but Kapaun recovered all by one kickoff.
Kapaun allowed 505 total yards, including 404 passing by Britton Abbott. Kapaun had an average field position of its own 48-yard line. Alexander Norris recorded 144 rushing yards and three TDs.Quarterback Brock Monty threw for two scores and rushed for two scores.
Central is playing as well as any team in Kansas right now – and collects another victory at home.
Salina Central 35, Kapaun 31 (Nicholl)
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