St. Francis coach Rodney Yates was correct on two predictions. Last season, the Indians defeated Osborne, 68-22, at home in Week 7. Yates recognized the Bulldogs’ talent and knew Osborne had virtually the entire squad returning from an eventual 4-5 team.
“I had made the comment to our coaching staff last year that that team will probably be the best team out of the east next year,” Yates said.
The coaches discussed Osborne throughout the summer and again during the fall. As well, Yates believed the west side’s sub-state championship game would come between St. Francis and defending champion Spearville, the squads ranked first and second in Division I in some form all year.
Yates tracked Spearville from Week 1 and tried to follow the Lancers throughout the fall. Spearville’s single-wing offense proved unsolvable again for defenses. The Lancers carried a 24-game winning streak into last Friday’s contest. Yates and his coaching staff watched Lancer film from 2016 and ‘15 throughout the year and even periodically showed the team some looks in practice.
“If you start studying them the week of, you are in trouble, and so I knew this showdown was going to happen, and I knew that we needed to have our guys ready,” Yates said.
Still, Yates was unsure of Spearville’s keys and whether the Indians’ defense would work. Last Wednesday, two days before the game, Yates figured out the keys and made minor tweaks in the defense.
St. Francis won a classic, 36-30, in a game that came down to the final play. Spearville had three scores called back because of penalties, including the potential game-tying score in the final seconds after the Lancers recovered an onside kick. It marked the fewest points for Spearville since Week 1 of the 2014 season. Spearville entered the game averaging 57 points a game. In the last three years, the Lancers are 34-2.
“We found some keys that certain guys did that led us to believe whether they were cutting or whether they were leaving the end free and going across the formation, whether they were blocking down or kicking out,” Yates said.
St. Francis moved to 11-0 in Yates’ second season and bumped in the Division I championship game, the first state title appearance in school annals. On the east, Osborne rolled over Burlingame, 62-16, and improved to 12-0.
Osborne won the 2013 crown, its first state appearance since ’83. The two teams will match up Saturday at Newton’s Fischer Field. Game time is 3:30 p.m.
Osborne has outscored teams 726-206 and ranks No. 1 in Kansas in scoring offense. The Bulldogs are 34 points away from their eight-man scoring record set in ’13.
St. Francis has a total score of 541-74 and is best in scoring defense. Just two teams since ’06 have won an eight-man title and permitted under 100 points in a season. St. Francis has averaged 10.4 yards per play, Osborne is at 9.3.
Their overall team speed, not just a couple of guys, is tremendous,” Osborne coach Cullen Riner said. “Spearville, at times, they were able to break some tackles, but a lot of times the first guy there was hanging on and just like that, the next two or three guys were right there, so they gang tackle well, and just play very aggressive. Very, very good defensively.”
Both senior-dominated, veteran teams are known for their quickness, especially Osborne with senior running back Cullen Grabast and junior running back Denton Schurr (1,701 rushing yards). Grabast (1,412 rushing) has played quarterback in the last month for senior Justin Burch (high ankle sprain), who could return Saturday.
Both Schurr and Grabast have rushed for 30 scores. Grabast has passed for six scores with no interceptions. As well, they’ve combined for eight receiving TDs and a pair of pick-sixes. With Grabast at quarterback, freshman Darrien Holloway has stepped up and has 615 rushing yards and 17 scores.
“To step in and do some of the things that he has done as a freshman is remarkable,” Riner said.
Yates said Osborne is the fastest team the Indians have seen. St. Francis has excellent depth, along with size and speed at every position.
“They are only not big, but they are big and athletic,” Riner said. “We might have the two fastest guys on the field on our team in Schurr and Grabast, but if we do, it’s not by much, and then they probably have the next five. … If you are a football coach, that’s the kind of stuff that you dream of.”
The coaches have helped the programs rise to the elite. St. Francis was a longtime 2-1A power under former coach Tim Lambert, now at Smoky Valley, and then dipped following a semifinal showing in 2008. Yates came from the Colorado Springs area and inherited a program that went 5-4 in its first year of eight-man football in 2014. St. Francis is now 21-1 the last two years.
“People have started to believe again that St. Francis football is back,” Yates said.
Yates was unfamiliar with Kansas’ eight-man scheduling that plays Week 9 on Thursday, the first playoff game Tuesday and then the next contest Saturday. Last year, St. Francis lost 34-26 at Solomon in the second round, a one-way drive of approximately 285 miles. Yates said the quick turnaround “wasn’t enough notice” to formulate a strong game plan.
This year, Yates intensified conditioning toward the middle part of the year to prepare his team for the three-game stretch. As well, the staff looked to provide more recovery time and focused on the team’s off-the-field habits, too, such as intake of proper food and rest. Yates tried to look at teams as much as possible.
“I wanted to be better prepared for opponents,” Yates said. “I wanted to see them throughout the year, and try to identify whether or not they were going to change or whether or not they just were who they are, and that’s really helped us.”
Senior quarterback Quinton Cravens has accounted for 1,687 passing, 795 rushing and 36 offensive scores, while senior running back Taylor Rogers has 1,047 rushing yards for the second straight year for a team that has seven seniors on a 28-player roster. Senior Brock Waters is the team leader in receptions (33 for 613 yards). Rogers has a team-high nine interceptions.
However, the top two tacklers are non-senior linebackers: sophomore Jordan Raby (80 stops) and junior Dalton Straub (76 tackles).
Yates said the pair “put way too much pressure on themselves” early, and the coaches removed them from the starting lineup.
SF eventually switched Straub from defensive end to middle linebacker. Raby was at cornerback. Then, senior Joel Hill, playing a hybrid position, went down with a season-ending knee injury and played in just five contests. Raby moved to Hill’s position. Junior Luin Norris has stepped in and played well for Straub at defensive end.
“They process keys very, very fast,” Yates said.
On the offensive line, senior Ryan Grover, junior Trayton Doyle and senior Jerry Nietzel have started at left guard, center, and right guard, respectively, all year. The 6-foot-3, 230-pound Doyle mans nose guard, too.
“He is the anchor to the defense,” Yates said. “Most coaches put probably their least-best blocker at center, and most coaches generally put someone at nose tackle that has the same comparison defensively where they are not as good as maybe the defensive end or someone else.”
“My philosophy is completely different,” he added. “I believe that in order for you to be strong up the middle, you’ve got to put your best guy up the middle on offense and you’ve got to put your best guy up the middle on defense. His ability to chase down quarterbacks and free up our linebackers and allow them to come make plays is crucial to our defensive success.”
Riner was the head coach for Osborne when it struggled at 11-man and then led the eight-man transition in 2010. That season, the Bulldogs finished 10-2. Then, Steve Tiernan took over as head coach and Riner became an assistant.
Osborne finished 10-2, 6-3, 13-0 and 10-2 in four years. Riner, who works outside the school at Midway Co-op, took a year off last season and focused on his new job. He rejoined the team again this fall after John Scarbrough led the team to a 4-5 mark in ‘15. Scarbrough is still on staff as an assistant.
“I have tried to accept the role that allows our boys to be the most successful in all this,” Riner said. “At the end of the day, it’s not about the coach.”
Osborne has underwent significant line changes, and it paid off with a great defensive performance against a Burlingame offense that had averaged 56 points a game. Riner said junior nose guard Byron Roenne, who led the team with nine tackles in the semifinals, has come a “tremendously long way.” Senior Derek Naegele had played some nose before Osborne felt comfortable with Roenne.
Then, Naegele (team-high 84 tackles) returned to linebacker, the position he played last season. Senior Quentin Morris has switched from defensive back to defensive end opposite senior Landon Lackey. Riner said the defense has become more disciplined on the edge.
“It’s usually teams that continue to improve as the year goes on,” Riner said of squads that reach the state title. “They don’t top out Week 5, they just continue to take steps, and we have done that.”
Sophomore Kade Miller has eight interceptions for a defense that has forced 34 turnovers, 16 more than last fall. Osborne permitted 37.6 points a game last season and 17.2 this year.
Offensively, Lackey had played both guard positions but has settled in at left guard and really improved. Naegele has been the right guard, with junior Roxton Brown at center.
Dighton and Osborne this season and Osborne in 2013 are the lone eight-man teams since Midway-Denton in 2000 to reach a state title the year after not making the playoffs. The season yielded a key early win with a 34-32 last-minute home win versus Pike Valley in Week 4.
“You could just see the confidence in the kids change a little bit from ‘I think we can do this,’ to ‘We can get this done,’ and that is such a huge thing, and I think people underestimate that,” Riner said.
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