Friday, July 29, 2011

Top Sunflower League Games in 2011

Week 1
Last season Olathe East manhand-
led Olathe North, 25-0, in the regu-
lar season game between the two
teams.  Olathe North avenged the
loss with a 13-6 Sub-State victory.
Olathe North at Olathe East

The first week of the season starts off with a bang as the top two teams in my Power Rankings face off at CBAC.  This is a heated rivalry and Treshawn Root's transfer to North from East just adds more fuel to the fire.  More importantly, I think we'll get a good handle on how much talent both of these squads have compared to their team's of 2010.

Week 2
Lawrence at Olathe South

Will Olathe South’s returning defensive starters make up for their losses on the offensive side of the ball? Can Brad Strauss take his game and Lawrence High’s to the next level?

Week 3
Olathe North at SM West

Last season Olathe North embarrassed SM West in week one scoring the first 29 points of the game. From then on SM West was good, but they never seemed to have the confidence of a team that was going to do anything in the playoffs. This time around SM West would love nothing more than to sneak up on the Eagles and claim a victory.

Week 4
SM Northwest at Lawrence Free State

I put this game on here because both these teams employ exciting offenses and this game could feature offensive fireworks if both teams’ new starters at the skill positions are comfortable by this point in the season.  It would have been fun seeing a game between these two with Stephen Mangelsdorf and Dylan Perry battling it out at their respective quarterback positions.  Maybe the new starters will be just as exciting?

Week 5
SM East at Lawrence

I have a feeling this could be a fun game to watch.  Both teams feature great talent at the skill positions (Strauss, Anthony Buffalomeat, Elliot Faerber, Adam Lowe, etc.), and Lawrence offensive coordinator Mack Brown will be facing his dad Sam Brown’s (SM East’s athletic director) ballclub.

Week 6
Olathe South at Olathe North

This will be the final tune-up week before district play begins.  Olathe North has won the last four games in the rivalry including a 17-0 shutout of Olathe South in Sectional play in 2010.  Neither team will want to start districts coming off a loss.

Week 7
SM North at SM Northwest

The “Hula Bowl” is conveniently placed at the start of district play for both of these teams. I say that because the other two teams in the district are Leavenworth and Wyandotte, and both SM North and SM Northwest will probably be favorites to win both of those games. This early matchup could be for the district title.

Week 8
SM West at SM East

Last year SM East beat SM West for the first time in over a decade. You think the Vikings want their beloved Nut Cup Trophy back?  This game will also probably feature the top two teams from the Shawnee Mission School District and so there are also bragging rights associated with that.

Lawrence High and Lawrence Free State
have battled it out for bragging rights
since their initial meeting in the fall of
1997 (shown above).

Week 9
Lawrence at Lawrence Free State

This annual Lawrence High vs. Free State game is probably the league’s most heated rivalry. Had Free State not been built in the late 1990s, Lawrence High would probably still be one of, if not the league’s top dog—and this idea has resonated with the LHS faithful since the split.

Also, since this is the last game of district play a shot at the playoffs could also be on the line for one or both of the teams.

Photos courtesy the Kansas City Star and the Lawrence Journal World.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Father always knows best, Sam Brown's Lancers will prevail over Mack Brown and the Lions

Anonymous said...

Sam Brown is the greatest man alive. The new A.D. at East. The student section is going to be bumpin

Anonymous said...

Sam Brown is the greatest man alive. The new A.D. at East. The student section is going to be bumpin

Anonymous said...

Sam Brown is the gift that keeps on giving.

Purple Mooney said...

Sam Brown is like Butch Cassidy and Mack Brown is like Mozart. If you mess with Mozart, you get a bullet in your head courtesy of Butch Cassidy.

BU_Wildcat said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
BU_Wildcat said...

A little late on this but is this the Mack Brown from Baker University? Wasn't he coaching at William Jewel this last season? Wonder why the switch to LHS.

Eli Underwood said...

Yes, that's the same Mack Brown. It's my understanding that at Jewel he was more of a graduate assistant, and at Lawrence he's taking the reigns as offensive coordinator.