Monday, September 3, 2012

Week One Game Recaps & Social Media Standings

Matt Elliott.  KC Star.
Olathe South 6, Olathe East 0

We didn't learn much from this game because the conditions on the grass at ODAC were so terrible given the rainy weather.  It was pretty much a slugfest from the get-go, a chess match to see which team could hold onto the football.  The lone score came in the first half when Olathe South's Chase Hanson took a carry 76-yards for a touchdown. 

Olathe East came painstakingly close to scoring on several occasions.  They missed a field goal in the first quarter, saw running back Hayden Frazier be called down at the one-inch line on a fourth and goal play, and had a pass intercepted by Olathe South defensive back Matt Elliott in endzone.  Olathe South seemed to have played a more complete game, but Olathe East was in it until the very end.  Despite their close encounters with points, the Hawks were never able to get on the board and were shut out by the defending 6A state champs in the first week of action.

SM West 20, Lawrence 14

The story of this game turned out to be SM West's defense, which held off three Lawrence drives inside the 20-yard line in the fourth quarter.  A 26-yard pass from Brad Strauss to Erick Mayo gave LHS an early 7-0 lead in the first quarter.  SM West matched that later in the quarter when Brett Sterbach capped off a drive with a five-yard touchdown run.  Sterbach scored the next two touchdowns of the game on runs of five and six yards, the second of which gave SM West a comfortable 20-7 lead at an early point in the fourth quarter.  Strauss scored on LHS' next possession on a 20-yard touchdown run to close things to a six-point game, but LHS was never able to get it into the endzone late.

Lawrence Free State 37, Olathe Northwest 0

It's a testament to Free State's offense that they were able to hang 37 points on an opponent, given the fact that they were playing in the rain on grass at CBAC.  The first quarter was marked by a 22-yard field goal from Antonio Schnoneich and two touchdown runs by Joe Dineen of 20 and six yards.  Free State added touchdown runs of 24 and 35 yards from Kyle McFarland in the second quarter to go up 30-0 at halftime.  In the third quarter TJ Cobbs added a 28-yard touchdown run to help Free State reach the 37-point mark.

SM East 23, SM South 0

It wasn't a glorious debut for either of these teams as we weren't able to see SM East quarterback Jordan Darling in his fully glory, what with all the rain, and SM South had a bevy of mistakes that rendered their evening a poor one.  SM East scored first when SM South was forced to punt and snapped the ball through the back of the endzone, resulting in a safety.  SM East added their first offensive points shortly thereafter when Darling took in a touchdown run of one yard in the first quarter.  At the half SM East led 9-0.  In the third quarter SM East's Patrick Blackburn added a five-yard touchdown run, then Troy Wilkins added a score from 36-yards out to give the Lancers a comfortable 23-0 lead, and subsequent victory.  SM South fumbled four times, losing two of those in redzone situations.

SM Northwest 25, Olathe North 14

A 50-yard touchdown run by Olathe North sophomore Venus Triplett in the first quarter of Friday's game brought back a shower of memories from the glory days of Gene Wier's previous tenure at the school.  After that, the glory days seemed like more of a distant memory.  SM Northwest responded to the score with touchdown runs from Jake Horner and Kelby Quin, and field goals of  27 and 22 yards from Alex Allen.  SM Northwest led 19-7 through the third quarter, before Olathe North added an eight-yard touchdown pass from Cole Murphy to Jake Reed to make things 19-14.  The game was sealed, however, on Olathe North's next possession when Khalil Hattley picked off a Murphy pass and took it 51-yards for a touchdown.

Leavenworth 41, SM North 16 (Thursday Night Game)
The first offensive play of Leavenworth's 2012 season was a 50-yard touchdown run from Jason Randall.  That's typically a good omen for things to come.  Quarterback Judson Cole thew four touchdowns passes, two to Jeff George and two to Eli Keppler, and Randall added another touchdown run for the Pioneers who came away with a 25-point victory to open the season.  SM North made things interesting towards the end of the first half when they compiled two scoring drives--centered around carries from Henry Bell, Jesse Patterson and Mario Lewis--and on both occasions scored two-point conversions.  They never threatened in the second half however, and Leavenworth left with the victory.

Social Media Standings

Follow me @eliunderwood.  I will follow you back.  Teams that have the most interaction during the week (follows, Retweets, Tweets @eliunderwood, Favorites, comments, etc.) earn the most cred on the social media standings.

The most interactive Tweeters from each school get their username's listed below their school and I would strongly encourage you to follow these users because of their high volume of interactivity.

Right now Olathe South has a lengthy lead on every other team in the Sunflower League. 

I'm really only getting solid interaction from seven schools (OS, SMW, OE, SME, LHS, LEAV, SMS) so it would be nice to see the other programs throw their hats into the ring.  I'm looking forward to this week's interaction!

1. Olathe South Falcons
@BigDaddyBax
@tyler_smith93
@D_Nelly31
@FreshKicKin18

Olathe South's 94 Retweets in favor of their beloved Falcons as the winner of the Olathe South vs. Olathe East game this past Friday keeps them atop the list.  They've been extremely interactive as a fanbase/program in terms of following, Tweeting at me, Retweeting, Favoriting, etc., and that's what I like to see.  Keep it up!

2. SM West Vikings
@spills22
@chambersSMASH
@kbooger

I'm expecting a strong push from the Vikings these next few days as their game against Free State is clearly the game of the week in week two.  They've been active, but the Nordic Nasties (the true and original nickname for the SM West student body that was, wrongly, through some form of bureaucratic decision unbeknownst to the student body, done away with in the early 2000s) can take their Tweeting game to a new level this week and I'm confident they will.

3. Olathe East Hawks
@jimthejam

The Hawks put up 26 Favorites for Olathe East in the Game of the Week Tweet this week, which is not an easy thing to do given the fact that Favorites don't disseminate as quickly as Retweets.  I was impressed, and I know the Hawk faithful will continue to bring it strong all season.

4. SM East Lancers
@big_chiefD
@alowe22
@WShort53
@teamdsos80
@SMEFootball2012

I had Tweets coming in for SM East from all directions.  Players, fans, alumni, etc. and that's cool to get such a broad cohort of Tweets.  I know the Lancers have a ton of potential in the Twitter world and I'm looking forward to seeing it in coming weeks (I'm looking at you, Harbinger).

Non-Affiliated: @kcnickmccabe, @hovpen, @sportsinkansas, @smontemayor, @joeviviano1

6 comments:

Unknown said...

The ON/SMNW game was a complete mess for Olathe North. 4 INT from your sophomore QB, which one of them was returned for a TD, and 4 fumbles which 2 of them were lost for turnovers. Also your starting sophomore running back had a total of 5 fumbles, 3 of them were lost for turnovers. And then a blocked punt for a total of 9 turnovers to SMNW 0 turnovers. People are blaming the weather for the way Olathe North played. But why did SMNW not have 1 turnover and ON having 9 of them? Gene Weir has his work cut out for him this season. He has a lot of under classmen in his starting line up.

The Biscuit said...

Lancers first points came on the safety... Then on their 2nd drive scored on the TD. NBD though.

The Biscuit said...

Also out of pure curiosity have the lancers ever beaten ON? I'm thinking it's a strong possibility of no, even early on.

Eli Underwood said...

Thanks for the correction.

Eli Underwood said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
The Biscuit said...

Thanks to my buddy and fellow Lancer alum Kevin Booker of Booker T Sports turns out SME has beaten ON... Exactly 1 time.