Brooks Barta deflected the question with his usual even tempered manner, but you know it had to be on his mind. Did this state championship for Holton mean more because he was able to share it with his recently retired father, legendary Smith Center coach Roger Barta, who was waiting for Brooks with the team in the locker room?
"He's been here before and I've watched him before, I'm happier when he's watching me, but I get the feeling he'll be around some more watching his grandson play and the rest of his grandkids around the state," the younger Barta said.
With the win, the two Bartas now share 11 state championships as coaches and have combined for nearly 500 coaching wins, but Barta would emphasize this one was about the players, who felt the need to make a statement after playing poorly in a first round playoff loss to eventual champion Rose Hill just a year ago.
And make a statement they did. With relentless defense and the three yard and a cloud of dust offense that is synonymous with a style of football nicknamed "Barta Ball", the Holton players delivered a 21-0 victory for the Wildcats on a windy afternoon at Salina Stadium.
Eudora's defense appeared poised to make a game of it early holding Holton's offense to only 80 yards and one score in the first half, but the Wildcat defense played even tougher in limiting Eudora to less than 60 yards of first half offense.
After playing to a scoreless first quarter tie, Holton would get on the board first with a 9-yard Chase Wilson run capping a 50-yard drive with 2:16 left in the first half. It gave the Wildcats momentum, and the 7-0 lead, going into the locker room at halftime.
Holton would take control of the game early in the third quarter after kicking off to the Cardinals and recording one of their more than a dozen tackles for loss on the Cardinals first third down of the second half. It forced Eudora to punt into the wind and gave the Wildcats great field position at the Cardinal 39.
Two plays later quarterback Jaxon Wright would take the option keep 36 yards for the touchdown and extend the lead to 14-0 with 9:42 left to play in the third quarter.
The Wildcat defense would continue to dominate behind their physical defensive line and the play of Trent Tanking and Lane Lassiter, who harassed Cardinal quarterback Andrew Ballock and never allowed big fullback Gabe Cleveland to get going on the ground.
Lassiter, the fullback in Holton's Wishbone offense would deliver the knockout punch with a 35-yard touchdown run with 10:41 left in the fourth quarter.
Holton would ride their defense the rest of the way in winning the third state title in Barta's 16 years as the Wildcat head coach.
It was a disappointing loss for Eudora and coach Gregg Webb, making their second consecutive appearance in the state title game, and losing by an identical 21-0 mark.
But coach Brooks Barta gave plenty of credit to the Cardinal defense and their coaching staff who made it tough for the Wildcat Wishbone to get going for most of the first half.
Eudora continued to battle to the bitter end, driving deep into Holton territory on the final drive of the game before giving the ball back to the Wildcats on downs. Holton would eat up the rest of the clock to secure the win.
"Eudora plays so hard and they're so well coached. They're an overachieving team and we recognize that because we've had those kind of teams, so we really have to commend them on how well they played defensively," Barta said.
For Holton, the Wildcats say goodbye to 16 seniors who were part of a state runner-up team in 2010 and brought home Barta's third championship this season.
Eudora bids farewell to 14 seniors who are the most successful in program history posting back-to-back state runner-up seasons in 2011 and 2012.
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