Our Kpreps contributors have handed out helmet stickers to a team or individual each week that delivered an important performance of the week in their opinion. This is our final set of helmet stickers for the 2017 season!
Helmet sticker: Garden City (Chet Kuplen – Sports In Kansas)
In the seven wins for Garden City (7-2) this season, the Buff defense has only allowed 46 points. If you take out the 27 points allowed in a one-point win over Liberal, the defense has been outstanding in the wins. The Buffs allowed 56 in their two losses (36 to Wichita Northwest, 20 to Great Bend).
The Garden City defense proved to be solid in round one of playoffs as they picked up a 7-0 shutout against Washburn Rural. They will face perhaps the best offense they’ve seen this season in the task of trying to stop Ky Thomas and Topeka High this Friday.
Ethan Krone and Ryan Jarmer lead Garden City in tackles with 79 and 74 respectively. Jasper Partin also has 10 sacks, while all-state defensive lineman DeMarcus Elliott has 58 stops with 14.5 TFL’s. The defense also has 14 interceptions led by sophomore Carlos Acosta with five.
Helmet sticker: Kingman (John Baetz – Kansas Pregame)
Kingman knocked the defending 4A-II state champion Pratt Greenbacks out of the state playoffs with Friday’s 39-25 upset. The Eagles, under seventh-year head coach Curtis Albin, got a powerhouse performance from their offensive line who paved the way for nearly 450 yards rushing. Senior Will Milford had a breakout game, rushing for 286 yards and four touchdowns on just 15 carries.
A Logan Waldschmidt interception of Greenback quarterback Landen Studer with 1:18 left in the game, and a 68-yard touchdown by Milford with less than a minute to go, sealed the upset for the Eagles. The Kingman defense held prolific junior running back Travis Theis to just 66 yards on 15 carries in the game. Theis entered the contest with over 1,600 yards rushing and 24 TDs.
Helmet sticker: Otis-Bison (Conor Nicholl – Kpreps)
On Thursday, Otis-Bison defeated Hodgeman County, 58-26, at home to clinch the Eight-Man, Division II, District 6 title and emerge as the clear favorite on the west side of the classification.
The Cougars ran 49 times for 524 yards and seven scores. Otis-Bison completed one pass, a 34-yard touchdown, in the final seconds of the first half that opened the score to 30-14.
Senior Blake Bahr, who got banged up didn’t play much of the second half, had 15 rushes for 246 yards and three scores. Junior 6-foot, 190-pound quarterback Anton Foust again posed problems with his size and finished with 24 carries for 189 yards and three TDs. Senior Daniel Scott had the TD catch and nine carries for 84 yards with a score.
Otis-Bison’s game-by-game logs are readily available since 2010 and this marked one of the best outputs under 13th-year coach Travis Starr (80-48 in his career). Otis-Bison won its first district crown since 2012, an achievement Starr first noted after the contest. Otis-Bison has five district titles in Starr’s tenure.
Since ’10, a year the Cougars finished state runner-up, Thursday’s win ranked 14th in single game team carries. However, the rushing yards stood first by a big margin. Second place came in Week 7 when Otis-Bison beat Dighton, 54-8, and had 426 rushing yards. The 558 total yards trailed only Sept. 26, 2014 when Otis-Bison rolled up 594 against Kinsley in a 104-70 victory, at the time the highest scoring game in state history.
On an extremely cold, windy night, Otis-Bison fumbled the opening kickoff and Hodgeman County recovered at the Cougar 15-yard line, a play that even surprised Longhorn coach Matt Housman. Then, Otis-Bison’s defense held and took over on its own 10-yard line.
On the second play from scrimmage, Bahr – whom Housman called one of the state’s fastest players – received a pitch and went straight down the sideline for a 69-yard score. The sweep play worked several times in game, especially with blocking from 6-foot-4, 185-pound end Maitland Wiltse.
Up front, Otis-Bison has significant size with senior center Landon Hoopingarner (5-9, 285) and junior guard Luke Higgason (6-1, 225), a pair of three-year starters on the line. Sophomore guard Hunter Mitchell (5-9, 200) has played well in his first season as a starter.
Wiltse had several passes defended. One came on Hodgeman County’s second possession when he swatted down a fourth-down pass in the end zone. Otis-Bison followed with a 10-play, 72-yard drive that ended with a Foust score.
Starr has had several excellent quarterbacks, most notably Kevin Wissman, Trevor Keller and Kade Urban, a four-year starter. Foust took over for Urban and now has the top passing efficiency (132.2) of any Cougar quarterback since ’10.
Otis-Bison has now improved its yards per carry five straight years from 5.4 to 7.0 to 7.5 to 7.9 to 10.0 this season, easily the best in the last eight years.
The Cougars have a total 444-114 margin against the No. 9 SOS in the classification, according to Prep Power Index. Last year, Otis-Bison had a 412-212 margin in a 6-3 non-playoff qualifying year with the fifth-highest SOS.
Helmet sticker: Pleasanton (Matt Gilmore – Kpreps)
Congratulations to Pleasanton on qualifying for the state playoffs for the first time since 2008 with a 54-0 shutout victory over rival Colony-Crest. The Blu-Jays ended an eight-year playoff drought only bested by Northern Valley (8M-II) and fellow Linn County school Prairie View (4A-II) which each ended 11-year droughts by qualifying for the playoffs this season.
Friday’s victory was the third consecutive for the Blu-Jays since consecutive road losses at Wichita Homeschool and Waverly. Pleasanton has posted shutouts in its past three games in defeating Chetopa, Altoona-Midway, and Crest by a combined 182-0.
Pleasanton’s playoff appearance is their first since reaching the Class 2-1A postseason in 2008 under coach Chris Brindle. Brindle, who is now the head coach at Kansas City Piper, guided the Blu-Jays to an 8-3 record in 2008 and a 28-7 second-round loss to eventual state runner-up Olpe. Brindle has since coached KC Piper to six consecutive playoff appearances in Class 4A-I before the Pirates missed the playoffs this season.
Dustin Johnson took over the Pleasanton program in 2015 and has led a steady improvement in the Blu-Jay win-loss record from 1-8, to 4-5, and now 6-3 this season. Pleasanton was just 19-53 since that 2008 season before posting six wins this fall. The Blu-Jay offense averages nearly 46 points per game led by the steady play of senior quarterback Kaden McKee. Senior running back Nate Miller is a quick, shifty, and explosive runner that can be difficult to tackle out of the backfield and in the return game. Pleasanton will have a difficult challenge this week in slowing down the state’s top scoring offense in Hutchinson Central Christian. The Cougars enter averaging nearly 71 points per game.
Helmet Stickers (2017 Season)
Week 1 – Burrton, Pittsburg, St. James Academy, Thomas More Prep, Wetmore
Week 2 – Ellsworth, Goddard, Hays, Maize South
Week 3 – Altoona-Midway, Lakin, St. Mary’s Colgan, Southern Cloud, Wellington
Week 4 – Colby, Concordia, Manhattan, Riley County
Week 5 – Bennington, Labette County, Osage City, Osborne
Week 6 – Dighton, Galena, Satanta, Victoria
Week 7 – Haysville Campus, Liberal, Mission Valley, Shawnee Mission Northwest
Week 8 – KC Schlagle, Macksville, Marion, Ness City
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