Monday, October 24, 2011

Week Eight Review

Olathe East's Kendall Kelly scored four touchdowns
on Friday,  helping Olathe East to their seventh straight
 victory.  Photo courtesy the Kansas City Star.


Three Up

SM West
The Vikings are finally showing some semblance of a being a good football team.  Their victory over SM East was their third straight, and in doing so SM West clinched a playoff berth and a district championship.

Lawrence Free State
As we've grown accustomed to with Bob Lisher's teams, the Firebirds have continued to develop as a team at an incredible rate.  Let's be honest, after Free State struggled to beat Leavenworth 23-12 in week two, did anyone think they would be capable of beating Olathe North 19-14 just six weeks later?

Olathe East
The Hawks used a smashmouth attack to claim their seventh straight victory, this one coming over BV Northwest.  They face Olathe South on Friday and a win will earn the Hawks a share of the Sunflower League Championship, and guarantee a district championship.

Three Down

Olathe North
No one is really sure what's wrong with Olathe North right now, but they don't look good.  By way of a miracle, the Eagles still haven't been eliminated from the playoffs and they have a chance to sneak in with a big win Friday against Olathe Northwest.

Lawrence
Quarterback Brad Strauss went down with an injury and the Chesty Lions proceeded to put up a mere three total points in the game.  Simply put, without Strauss Lawrence is a completely different team.  There is no official word on the severity of his injury.

SM East
The Lancers didn't help their chances when they decided to go on a turnover spree against SM West.  With the loss, the Lancers are now 4-4 and in a must-win situation against SM South if they want to make the playoffs.

Week Eight Players of the Week

Mason Perez, SM North: Perez played one his best games of the season on Friday, making sure his Indian's would stay in contention for a playoff berth.  Perez caught six passes for 113 yards and four touchdowns, in addition to returning a punt 28 yards for a score.  He scored the first five touchdowns of the game for SM North.

Elliot Faerber, SM East: Faerber has had some tough breaks on the season.  A few injuries, combined with rotating starting quarterbacks hasn't helped the cause, but Friday night he finally looked to be back in his normal form.  His team lost, but Faerber wasn't to blame as he caught 16 passes for 241 yards.  A healthy Faerber, with a healthy Dakota Collins to throw to him could make for a dangerous late-season combo if the Lancers can make the playoffs.

Week Nine Power Rankings

1. Olathe East (7-1): Stop the Hawks three-headed rushing attack and you have a chance at a win; the problem is, only one team (Olathe North) has been able to do that, and that was in early September.

2. Olathe South (7-1): The Falcons can make everyone forget about their loss to BV Northwest, win the Sunflower League title outright, and roll into the playoffs with good momentum with a win Friday against Olathe East.

3. Lawrence Free State (6-2): Who would have thought the Firebirds would already have more regular season wins that they had in all of 2010?  Due to a uber-quick maturity of some new starters that's where Free State is at, and they're looking good.

4. Lawrence (5-3): Lawrence was decimated by injuries in 2010, and if Strauss' injury is as bad as it looked, 2011 could be a repeat.  Losing running back Charles Jackson was tough, but they were able to overcome it.  Not having Strauss against Free State could be a killer.

5. Olathe North (5-3): The Eagles have slipped fast, but their playoff hopes are still alive if Free State beats Lawrence, and they take care of business against Olathe Northwest, and have the point totals work in their favor.

6. SM West (5-3): After a nice victory against SM East, the Vikings have a very solid chance at finishing the season with a better-than-expected record of 6-3.  Perhaps, if the prognostications turn out as expected, the Vikes would be able to return some much needed revenge to an EKL foe come playoff time.

7. SM East (4-4): SM East has certainly painted themselves as being a better team than SM South, but as we arrive at week nine that disparity doesn't look too great.  The Lancers are still the favorite, but another off week and they're out of the playoffs with a 4-5 record.

8. Olathe Northwest (4-4): Sure the Ravens benefited from not facing a Strauss-led Lawrence team for an entire game, but you could also point out that they very well could have beat Free State with a healthy Dalton Rook the previous week.  A win against Olathe North would be colossal for the program.

9. SM Northwest (3-5): SM Northwest can be very thankful for their district.  After barely beating SM North and Leavenworth the past two weeks, they take on a pitiful Wyandotte team, and we can all but book a 4-5 regular season for the Cougars.

10. SM North (2-6): The 63-point victory was nice, and now it's time for the Indians to play well in a meaningful game.  They were in this same position last season... we'll see if it translates to this year.

11. SM South (2-6): The Raiders control their own destiny at this point in time which is always good heading into the final week of district play.  There's been some bad blood between SM South and SM East in recent years and this game, which will determine who gets the district's final playoff berth, will be a good one.

12. Leavenworth (1-7): The Pioneers surely remember how painful it was losing to SM North and not qualifying for the playoffs last season.  This time around they can reverse that feeling.  We'll see if they have the horses to do it.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Good work as always, Eli. Here's the link to my latest football post:

http://joe-renaissanceman.blogspot.com/2011/10/top-football-plays.html

-Joe

NoOne said...

ON is losing because they has no secondary players...once playing against a passing team ON is OUT!

MahValley said...

Do not count on SMNW to beat Wyandotte. If there is a way to keep Wyandotte in this game the SMNW staff will find it.

TheImpaler said...

Deep thoughts by TheImpaler:

Coach of the year nominees:

Coach Lisher at Free State. Another great job getting his kids to peak at the right time. The guy does more with less big name talent than any other coach in the league year after year.

Coach Meyers at O East. Coach, your fans may be ugly but your program is a thing of beauty. Like that ugliest of men used to say, “Just win, baby”. I hope we get another shot at you this year.

Coach Callaghan at SM West. Good job by Coach C this year taking an extremely young team that looked to be bordering on bad early in the year and turning it into a contender. Need to nix those penalties before the playoffs and have the long snapper hike the ball to Whitrock about 2,000 times this week.

Least in the East:

Only three teams on the east side of the state have clinched playoff spots heading into week 9: SMW, SMNW and OE. Also only three have been eliminated, none from the Sunflower League (BVN, BVW, WYAN).

Most in the West:

6 teams have clinched playoffs in the West. Derby, Heights, Dodge, Garden, WNW and WS all are 2-0 in their district and will play each other to determine district champs this week. Seven teams have been eliminated

4=5:

District 5 is almost identical to our incredibly screwed up district 4 except the points are a little more spread out. Manhattan is in the same situation as LFS, Washburn Rural = ONW, Junction City = Lawrence. The only difference is, because of their horrible point total Topeka High IS eliminated and Olathe North is not quite.

Week 9 (Not so fast! As Corso would say):

A lot on the line this week. OE-OS seems like a no brainer. I mean OE blew out BVNW and BVNW blew out OS so the Hawks win easily right? I’m not so sure. OE has without a doubt the best pass defense in the league but they have not done as well against quality run games. ON beat them easily in week 1 and SMW played them within 7 points. OS has the best overall running game in the league and should be able to put up some points against East. On the other hand, South’s defense seems shaky at best so East should be able to score too. I’ll have to flip a coin to pick this one.

Also Lawrence should be a heavy favorite over Free State but the Lions do not seem able to win without both Strauss and Buffalomeat on the field. Does anyone know Strauss’ status for the game this week? If he’s out, I’ll have to pick Free State I think.

Sunflower league down? EKL downer.

Sorry Govannon, but after the Vikes pound the Mustangs this week, your EKL will finish 1-6 aginst the SL in district games. No contest.