Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Week Four Game Previews

Olathe South has ended SM East's seasons in the playoffs
the past two years.  PVPost.com

Game of the Week (Thursday Night Game)
Olathe South (3-0) at SM East (3-0) at SM North District Stadium

The schedule makers really came down hard on the defending 6A champs, as several Tweeters pointed out to me.  Olathe South is in the midst of a brutal three-game road stretch.  They were "rewarded" for their road victory against the second ranked Free State with another road game, this time against undefeated SM East.  They go on the road again next week to Lawrence to take on the fourth ranked LHS.  That being said, this Thursday treat should be a phenomenal game and there are plenty of storylines.

Olathe South has a nine-game winning streak going, and the Falcons, much like last year, seem destined to win every time they set step onto a football field.  They have a moxie about them which comes with winning a state title.  SM East on the other hand has really exceeded preseason expectations and looks like a team equipped to make a lengthy playoff run.  The Lancers' new starters have picked up right where their predecessors left off, and Jordan Darling's ability to distribute the ball with precision is making life painful for opponents.

There are two battles within the battle to keep an eye on.  The first is how well Olathe South's rushing attack, spearheaded by Russell White, Chase Hanson and Matt Elliott does against the SM East linebackers, led by the Stewart twins, Sam and David, Patrick Blackburn, Ryan Carter and  Kyle Ball.  I've witnessed both groups on several occasions and both are flat out nasty on the football field.  I think this matchup--how SM East's linebackers can do against Olathe South's running backs/wings--is going to determine the outcome of the game more than anything. 

The second battle within the battle to look out for is SM East's passing attack against Olathe South's secondary.  SM East is arguably the league's best passing team and Olathe South had some struggles defending the deep ball against Free State last week.  Darling will primarily distribute the ball to three players--Connor Rellihan, Chrisitan Blessen and David Sosna.  Olathe South's secondary, led at the corner positions by Elliott and Thomas McCue, will really have to buckle down to keep the Lancers from running their heralded deep fade routes, crossing patterns and bubble screens successfully.

More than anything it looks like we're going to have a great game on our hands Thursday night.  Both teams will have plenty of support from their student sections and respective fan bases and it should be a raucous atmosphere.  The winner of this game will almost certainly become the favorite to take the top seed in East Class 6A come playoff time.

SM West (2-1) at Olathe East (1-2) at ODAC

There has been a quasi-rivalry building over the past decade between these schools and this game should help to fuel the fire.  With the exception of a few defensive letdowns, SM West has looked pretty solid all-around this season.  Running back Brett Sterbach is establishing himself as one of the league's most potent players and he's going to get as many carries as he can handle this Friday.  The real big storyline, however, is that the Vikings could push Olathe East to 1-3.  That poor of a start to a season is nearly unheard of if you've followed the Hawks' successes as long as I have.  To avoid a third loss Olathe East is going to have to force SM West to pass the football.  The offensive passing game has been SM West's achilles heel this year and if it gets exposed they could be in trouble.

SM Northwest (1-2) at SM South (2-1) at SM South District Stadium

The Shawnee Mission School District is good for at least one epic inner-district game every season.  This could be it.  But several things are going to have to happen.  SM Northwest, for one, must find a way to shut down SM South's running back Gabe Guild who is averaging 198 yards rushing per game.  That's a tall order for any team.  But the Cougars did a decent job containing Olathe North's Venus Triplett in week one, and Jason Randall didn't exactly run free against them last week.  We know SM Northwest's defense is up to the task.  The Cougars must also find some success on offense.  They've only scored five touchdowns in three games and it's really held them back.  If those two things happen, we have a dogfight on our hands.

Lawrence (2-1) at SM North (0-3) at SM North District Stadium

Teams have been shredding the SM North defense all season and with them facing Brad Strauss this week I don't expect that to make a sudden movement in the opposite direction.  SM North's best chance of hanging in this game is by running the football play after play, with Henry Bell and Jesse Patterson.  Running down the clock and coming up with a few turnovers on defense is going to be their best chance at success.  Lawrence has looked great since their week one home loss to SM West.  The Chesty Lions might be able to use this game as a chance to work on things they haven't done well in preparation for their week five clash with Olathe South.  But they can't look too far ahead--anything can happen in the Sunflower League.

Olathe North (0-3) at Lawrence Free State (2-1) at Free State Athletic Stadium

Unless Free State has a total letdown after playing Olathe South, I expect the Firebirds to do quite well in this game.  SM East had a ton of success throwing the football against Olathe North in week two and I expect Free State to approach this game with a similar attack.  The Eagles have been a maligned bunch this year.  They're young, they're adjusting to a new coaching system and they're playing one of the league's toughest schedules.  That doesn't translate to success early on.  

Leavenworth (2-1) at Olathe Northwest (0-3) at CBAC

Their records don't show it but I think these two teams are about neck-and-neck in terms of quality this year.  Olathe Northwest has been punished early on by a difficult schedule but this looks like a great opportunity for them to shed the goose egg in the win column.  First, the Ravens are playing at CBAC for the fourth week in a row (bizarre scheduling idiosyncrasies this year) against an evenly matched opponent.  Their offense has also started to click.  Those two points seem like a recipe for success.  On the other side of the ball, Leavenworth may or may not realize the historic magnitude of what their season could become if they take care of these next couple games.  A win would mark just the second time in the past 15 years that the program has won three or more games in a season.  This has the makings of a competitive battle, we'll see how it plays out.

20 comments:

Slugger said...

Slugger first up with week 4 predictions.

OS @ SME - Just like last week, OS wins in a shoot out. Sets up the game of the year, OS @ LAW.

SMW @ OE - I'd like to think that OE gets things back on track, but not this week. SMW rolls.

SMNW @ SMS - Is SMS for real? Gabe runs away with this one. SMS goes to 3-1.

LAW @ SMN - It just keeps getting worse for SMN. LAW in a run away.

ON @ LFS - LFS gets back on track after a tough loss last week. Was ON ever 0-4?

LVW @ ONW - toughest game to pick. Is LVW that good? Is ONW that bad? As much as I'd like to see LVW keep rolling, I'm going with ONW. Too much offense.

The Biscuit said...

Here we go:
Lancers
Vikings
Firebirds
Chesty Lions
Raiders
Pioneers

TheImpaler said...

TheImpaler's Week 4 picks: Last week 4-2, Season 11-7

Meh. Firebirds so close. Must have been a great game. Once again this week we have two matchups between the big 6. SM's best against Olathe's best this week. Fun schedule this year.

OS (3-0) @ SME (3-0) Okay, Lancers time to put up or shut up. Conference championship game? One thing I think is for sure here is that South's offense shreds East's defense which has not seen a real offense so far this year (except maybe SMS but that was in the hurricane). The big question is, as usual, the Falcon secondary and whether big Brayden Smith and the South D line can disrupt Darling's aerial assault. I look for a high scoring game but OS cruises here. OS 42 SME 28

SMW (2-1) @ OE (1-2) Vikings getting it all together now. The Hawk’s one dimensional offense has no chance against the Vike D IMHO. Blazevic is just not capable of taking any pressure off the running game. Viking offense starting to roll but it will be tougher against the Orange D. Neither team has had a great deal of success throwing the ball this year and I don't look for a lot of balls in the air Friday (no chuckling). This will be a typical SMW-OE hat on a hat three yards and a cloud of dust matchup. Only thing is West has the speed and size to break off 42 yards and a cloud of dust runs every once in a while. Hawks beat the Vikes twice last year, a close 28-21 win early and a playoff stomping. In a series where the two teams have pretty much traded wins over the last 9 years, it's revenge time Friday night in this hotly contested series. SMW 27 OE 16

LAW (2-1) @ SMN (0-3) Finally a week off for the Lions. This one could get ugly. LAW 58 SMN 6

ON (0-3) @ LFS (2-1) Uh oh. Somebody asked if North could go 0-9 this year meaning SM North. Now it’s starting to look like the Eagles may be on track for that honor. Certainly this is going to be brutal against a pissed off Firebird team. LFS 42 ON 0

LV (2-1) @ ONW (0-3) Wow, Pioneers a chance to go to 3-1??? Who would have thought it? True against a very weak schedule. This may be their last chance to win until WYAN but they should get past the Ravens anemic offense. Pioneers have been pretty solid on defense so far this year. LV 23 ONW 10

SMNW (1-2) @ SMS (2-1) Raiders get to continue with a pretty easy early season schedule. I guess when you have all these upper division matchups someone in the bottom half has to benefit. Cougs seem to have really come down to earth with a pretty embarrassing performance against LV last week. Guild should have a big night. SMS 35 SMNW 13

Soccerlover1080 said...

SoccerLover's Week 4 picks

OS @ SME= 42-21 Olathe South

SMW @ OE= 24-21 Olathe East

SMNW @ SMS= 28-7 Shawnee Mission South

ON @ LFS= 49-0 Freestate

LVW @ ONW= 28-20 Leavenworth
LAW @ SMN= 49-7 Lawrence.

Todd Haley said...

Just like two years ago the difference in the game will be clock management. Lancers went down and scored in 2 minutes every time they had the ball but Olathe South would take up 10 minutes and punch one in. Whoever can win the turnover margin wins this game.
I got SME 31-28

footballer21 said...

OS over SME
OE over SMW
LAW over SMN
FS over ON
LEAV over ONW
SMS over SMNW

Who's Your Daddy said...

After reading the Star top ten this morning and finding SM East nowhere to be found. I realized that Coach Sherman has that on the chalk board. The lack of respect by the rest of the league will vault East to the victory tonight. Darling was deadly accurate last week vs. ONW. And South benefited from some poor decisions by Free State. SM East 38 OLathe South 28. Stay tuned tomorrow for the rest of my picks.

The Biscuit said...

Blue Valley West is in the top 10... Lol. EKL. When is the media going to realize that the EKL is SOOOOO overrated! Ask the 9-0 2001 BVN team how they did against 5-4 SME in state...

TheImpaler said...

BVW and STA probably pretty good this year. I for one am glad BVW is in 5A the beat the crap out of Washburn Rural. The real good news is that the west side usual powers all look like crap so far this year. Junction, Manhattan, Dodge, Heights, Washburn Rural, and Hutch have all lost at least one game so far. Hutch blew a 18 point 4th quarter lead against a very young and not very good Rockhurst team. I think whoever wins the East will win State in 6A easily this year.

The Biscuit said...

What about the Ta-town teams? Haven't heard much noise about any of them

SFL Football said...

OS @ SME - SME wins in an absolute thriller
SMW @ OE - SMW wins OE just doesn't look like everyone expected them to
SMNW @ SMS - As much as I DO NOT LIKE Gabe Guild because of him talking on twitter before every game I have to go with SMS
LAW @ SMN - ARe you kidding? Lawerence for sure. Over before it started.
ON @ LFS - Olathe North will be great in two years, but not now. LFS i a blowout
LVW @ ONW - I don't think LVW is good. They had an easy schedule. ONW looked decent against SME so that is why I'm picking ONW

SFL Football said...

Last year SME should've beat OS in the regular season if it wasn't for an interception with a minute left on the 15. In the playoffs OS just kept running and SME couldn't stop them. This year SME is a FAR better team then they were last year. That's why I'm going with SME.

Free State Fan said...

I think we all will watch with interest how the SME and OS match-up turns out. Should be a good one! I think Eli hit the nail on the head... can anyone stop the O-line for OS? They rode those guys (and particularly Braden Smith) to victory last week against Free State. My only week 3 prediction: Free State will rebound very nicely with a convincing win this week.

Free State Fan said...

I think we all will watch with interest how the SME and OS match-up turns out. Should be a good one! I think Eli hit the nail on the head... can anyone stop the O-line for OS? They rode those guys (and particularly Braden Smith) to victory last week against Free State. My only week 3 prediction: Free State will rebound very nicely with a convincing win this week.

Who's Your Daddy said...

SM East over Olathe South see my entry at 3:59 Thursday afternoon.

SM West over Olathe East 21-14. I overheard a west player after the sophomore game saying " man that offense was easy to figure out". That sums it up. Both teams will run run run. Frazier and the Sterminator are both good but West will pass and counter to the victory.

SMS 35- SMNW 14 Guild will Carriy South to the victory. Enough said.

Lawrence 42 SMNW 7 Lawrence has a heart otherwise they could score 70 in this one.

LFS 49 Olathe North 0. North lost their QB last week. The problem is their offensive line is garbage. Lawrence Free State just needs to coast.

Leavonworth 24 ONW 20 This may be the best game of the night. ONW still can't tackle and Leavonworth can't jinx me again.

Who's Your Daddy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Who's Your Daddy said...

That should read Lawrence 42- SMN 7

TheImpaler said...

Smw 9 oe 0 5:55 2nd.

team player said...

I have to stand up for the OE team and QB Blazevic. The reason he can not take the pressure off of the running game with passing is because the coach never calls a pass play! The last 3 years tight-ends are just linemen and not receivers. OE sends out one receiver instead of two or three and they don't go out of the shotgun at anytime. That is not the kids choice. They are playing the 1970 offense the coach knows.

team player said...

I have to stand up for the OE team and QB Blazevic. The reason he can not take the pressure off of the running game with passing is because the coach never calls a pass play! The last 3 years tight-ends are just linemen and not receivers. OE sends out one receiver instead of two or three and they don't go out of the shotgun at anytime. That is not the kids choice. They are playing the 1970 offense the coach knows.