Both Osborne High School coach Steve Tiernan and Hodgeman County coach Matt Housman agree with the basic matchup of Saturday’s Eight-Man, Division I championship game at Newton’s Fischer Field. Start time is 11 a.m.
It’s a battle between Hodgeman County’s size and defense that has allowed just 158 points and ranked No. 1 in the classification for most of the year. Osborne counters with Kansas’ top offense at 704 points and a speedy, smaller group.
However, Hodgeman County, with six players above 189 pounds and four over 219 pounds, does have plenty of offensive threats, especially senior quarterback Alex Kreger.
“Offensively, that’s what they hang their hat on,” Housman said. “They are talented offensively, no doubt they have got a lot of weapons. We have a good defense. I think we have got a good offense also, it’s not a high-scoring offense, but It’s a ball control offense I think for sure. I think we are dangerous offensively, too.”
He passed for 640 yards and seven TDs and rushed 1,783 yards and 32 scores. Junior Kolt Washburn has 109 carries for 641 yards and 10 scores.
“They are big, but they have got some speed, too. They have got their backs. Their quarterback can run. He is fast, he reminds me a lot of that Clifton-Clyde guy,” Tiernan said, referring to Caleb Gelino. “You don’t ever get a good shot on him. He makes people miss, and if sees any opening at all, he is fast enough to hurt you and he will hit the gap and he is gone. Their size is concerning, because they got the speed to go with it.”
Both teams, especially Hodgeman County, have surprised based on preseason expectations and historical trends. The Longhorns weren’t ranked in the preseason and didn’t enter the rankings until this week.
“We have been underranked all year,” Housman, 34-8 in his fourth year with the Longhorns and 40-11 in five seasons as head coach, said. “I thought we were going to have a good team this year. Everybody says that we are a surprising team, but we have been close the past couple of years. We will take the underdog role, that’s fine. That way we won’t be complacent or anything like that. It doesn’t bother us at all.”
Housman played under legendary Hanston coach Jerry Slaton, who won six state crowns with the Elks. Housman has taken the power-running style to Hodgeman County, a consolidation of Jetmore and Hanston, The Longhorns run a Wing-T offense and a 5-1 defense. Assistant coach Oliver Salmans played at Hanston and took over for Slaton.
“I had all of these ideas, I think it’s going to be easy,” Housman said of coaching. “Think you are going to be able to do this and do that, and I found the more basic that I am, the more success that I have. Not how much you run, but how well you run it. That is the Coach Slaton philosophy for sure. Even though I knew his philosophy when I first came out, I found myself going back to that, old keep it simple, stupid stuff.”
In the preseason, Osborne was ranked No. 5 after it went 6-3 and missed the playoffs last fall. Now, the Bulldogs, with no starter above 200 pounds, is trying to become the first eight-man squad since 2000 Midway-Denton to win a state title after it missed the playoffs the previous year. Osborne has just one football crown in school annals, a 3A crown in 1983. The Bulldogs have started just nine players, but none of the nine players have missed a game.
“We are just not very deep,” Tiernan said. “If the wrong guys would get hurt, just one of them, we are scrambling then.”
Osborne has went through what Tiernan labeled a “Murderer’s Row” in the playoffs of Madison, MDCV and Clifton-Clyde. Each game has been within 16 points.
“It’s helped us more than it’s hurt us,” Tiernan said.
Sophomore Jake Tiernan, the coach’s son, has completed 93 of 120 passes for 1,461 yards with 24 TDs and five interceptions. Senior Kenton Ubelaker has 2,396 all-purpose yards and senior Maverick Lerock has 1,510 all-purpose yards. Ubelaker has scored 36 TDs, Lerock 26. Ubelaker has come up with several big plays, including a key forced fumble against Madison and an interception last week.
“Speed in the eight-man football is probably the key, and he has got that,” Tiernan said. “Not only does he have that, he has just got football smarts. Just a heady football player.”
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