EMPORIA -- It was a fitting end to the best season in Shawnee Mission East history.
It’s that simple.
There’s no way the Hollywood screenwriters could have scripted it any better.
The Lancers had rolled over nearly every team they played in 2014, so it’s fitting that the Lancers sprinted past Hutchinson 33-14 in the Kansas Class 6A state championship game in Emporia Saturday afternoon.
On a perfect afternoon with sunny skies and temperatures in the 60s, the Lancers completed a perfect season and captured the school’s first-ever football state title.
“This is amazing. We’re just ecstatic,” East head coach Dustin Delaney said.
A year after coming so painfully close to a state title, the Lancers reached the pinnacle in impressive fashion.
“We wanted to walk off the field winning the game and going 13-0,” Delaney said.
“This is such a great feeling.”
It’s a feeling that man of the Lancers really weren’t able to truly wrap their heads around.
“I can’t explain it,” East senior Charley White said, searching for the right words that really never came. “It’s just awesome. I can’t believe it.”
White came up big for the Lancers on Saturday, recovering two fumbles for East and catching two touchdown passes from quarterback Gunnar England. His first fumble recovery came in the opening moments of the game and truly set the tone. The Lancers turned the turnover into their first touchdown of the day.
In a game that went back in forth in the first half, it was the Lancers who controlled the second half on their way to the convincing win.
After recovering an onsides kick by Hutch to start the second half, Wyatt Edmisten scored on a six-yard run to put East up 26-14.
The Lancers defense took over from there.
In what may have been the play of the game, White recovered a fumble deep in the Lancers’ own end on the Salt Hawks ensuing drive. They had marched down to the Lancer 17-yard line before Turner Wintz fumbled the ball at the 17. That would prove to be the Salt Hawks final real threat. They then turned the ball over on back-to-back fourth down plays in drives later in the third and into the fourth — one on a fake punt — and never were close to the Lancers.
“We were just trying to out-Hutch Hutch and be more physical than they were,” Delaney said. “We wanted to wear them and down and I thought that’s what it would take to win.”
Edmisten’s third touchdown put them up 26-14, but it was White’s second touchdown, on a picture-perfect fade route from England to the left corner of the end zone that capped the scoring and sent the Lancers faithful into early celebration mode.
“We called fade to me, Gunnar did all the work. I was just at the right place at the right time,” White said.
“Gunnar played outstanding,” Delaney said. “He threw two unbelievable fades to Charley White.
East got on the board first after Hutchinson put the ball on the ground. Hutch was putting a nice drive together off the opening kickoff until Middleton fumbled on a third-and-1 play as White jumped on the ball for East. The Lancers took over at their own 48 and marched down the field to take a 7-0 lead on a one-yard run by Edmisten. The Lancers ate up 5:34 of the first quarter clock, going 52 yards on 14 plays.
After the two teams traded punts, the Salt Hawks finally got on the board less than a minute into the second quarter when Blaik Middleton broke free on a 39-yard touchdown run to tie the game. Both the Middleton run and a 50-yard scamper by Hutch quarterback Wintz came when they broke back against the grain, grabbing big yardage with the defense heading the other way.
“We just had to do a better job of sitting in our lanes,” Delaney said. “The defense made plays when they had to and didn’t allow them to score in the second half.”
East then put together their most impressive drive of the first half to answer the Salt Hawks. Edmisten scored his second touchdown of the day, capping an eight-play, 80-yard drive to put East up 13-7 after a missed extra point.
Hutch then took their first lead of the game just four minutes later when Wintz hooked up with Ryan Stocklein on fourth-down from 13 yards out. Wintz was rolling to his right and with two East defenders in his face, threaded the needle to Stocklein between two Lancer defenders for the score. The extra point put Hutch up 14-13.
East the reclaimed the lead with just a minute left in the half when England found White on a fly route down the left sideline for a 36-yard touchdown. The Lancers came up short on a two-point conversion and were up 19-14 at the half.
Edmisten had 92 yards on 17 first half carries and Middleton had 122 on 16 carries. Wintz added 102 on six carries.
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