Monday, September 16, 2013

Sunflower League Week Two Review

The SM East defense has smothered their two opponents,
only allowing three points. Photo LJWorld.
Three Up

SM South
The Raiders collected their first victory against Olathe North since 1993, and in doing so sent a message to the rest of the league to watch out for the Green & Gold the rest of the year.

Leavenworth
After practically not showing up in week one, the Pioneers got back on track with a 33-0 against SM North. Sure, the Indians are considered the worst team in the league, but you've got to take care of the games you're supposed to take care of.

SM East

The Lancers looked great for the second week in a row. They match up well with their old coach and Olathe Northwest this Friday, and a 3-0 start to the season would be impressive -- and make 4-0 seem that much more probable.

Three Down

Lawrence
The Chesty Lions have struggled to put together complete efforts for four quarters in each of their first two games. A visit to SM West this week doesn't exactly help their cause in that regard.

SM North
The Indians have been outscored 77-7 through two weeks of play. That basically tells its own tale. The positives remain in the fact that 15 of their 22 starts are non-seniors.

SM Northwest
The Cougars really don't have anything to hang their heads on, but an inept offense cost them the opportunity to pull off a major upset of Free State. They need to get their offense on track, and soon.

Week Two Players of the Week

Christian Blessen, SM East: The Lancers have had excellent quarterback play the past four years, and it's continued this year with Blessen, just in more of a running capacity. On Friday he ran the ball nine times for 128 yards and two touchdowns, in addition to completing six of his 13 passes for 116 yards and two touchdowns.

Andre Maloney, SM West: Maloney has established himself as the most valuable all-purpose player in the league. Against Olathe South he caught four passes for 122 yards and a touchdown, carried the ball 10 times for 35 yards and returned a punt 55 yards for a touchdown.

Week Three Power Rankings

1. SM West (2-0): The Vikings' defense has been -- for the most part -- stellar, having only allowed 11 points through two games. While they haven't blown either of their opponents out they appear to be on the cusp of getting rolling as a unit.

2. Lawrence Free State (2-0): The Firebirds will be able to "out-athlete" basically every team they play. They weren't crisp for three quarters against SM Northwest, but their team speed and tackling abilities kept the game at a basic tie early on until they were able to pull ahead.

3. SM East (2-0): The Lancers' performance line through two weeks (2 wins, 60 points scored, 3 points allowed) is absolutely phenomenal, especially considering they underwent a coaching change in May. They have one more game to build before they hit a ridiculously tough stretch for five weeks.

4. Olathe East (1-1): Teams ranked #4 through #7 are basically interchangeable at this juncture in the season, but I gave the Hawks the nod for now. The reason? Jeff Meyers' teams, in an almost robotic form, always perform better as the season continues.

5. SM South (1-1): After two weeks it looks as if SM South is in the league's top half of teams, which is something we haven't been able to say in more than a decade. If they take care of business the rest of the way there's no reason they shouldn't be able to break their string of losing seasons.

6. Olathe North (1-1): After an impressive week one win against Olathe East the Eagles reminded us of their youth in an underwhelming performance at home against SM South. The program is yet to display any semblance of sustained consistency in tenure No. 2 under Gene Wier.

7. Olathe South (1-1): The Falcons got the short end of the stick this week coming off a loss (I could justify ranking them as high as #4), but they have plenty of time to prove themselves going forward. Their performance against SM West wasn't great, but it also wasn't awful for a young team.

8. Olathe Northwest (1-1): Save a late second quarter comeback, the Ravens of Friday looked much like the Ravens of the past nine years (offensive production but little defense to match it). That's got to change, and quickly, if Olathe Northwest wants to accomplish anything new this year.

9. Lawrence (0-2): The Chesty Lions have had a rough go of it through two weeks, but that was pretty much expected with all the starters they had to replace. It doesn't get any easier in week three traveling to SM West, but a win would completely make up for any initial shortcomings.

10. Leavenworth (1-1): The drive for .500 has the Pioneers playing a third home game in a row this week against Olathe South. Coming away 2-1 in this stretch would be huge in terms of building momentum for the remaining six games.

11. SM Northwest (0-2): The Cougars need to find an offense, and quickly. Their defense has played well through two weeks but at a certain point the offense needs to catch up. On the bright side, it looks like the Cougars have one of the best kickers in the state in Jonathan Killeen.

12. SM North (0-2): As stated earlier, the majority of the Indians' starters are juniors and sophomores. But its their freshman quarterback, Will Schneider, who is most intriguing. Already standing 6-foot-3 and weighing 185 pounds, with impressive poise for a 14-year-old, you just get the feeling he will have a very good career.

3 comments:

TheImpaler said...

TheImp's Power rankings:

1. SMW

2. LFS

3. SME

4. SMS

5. OS

6. ON

7. OE

8. ONW

9. LAW

10. SMNW

11. LV

12. SMN

8timestatechamps said...

SMW
LFS
SME
SMS
ON
OE
OS
ONW
LV
LAW
SMNW
SMN

Free State Fan said...

Half the league is 1-1. WOW!!! Come districts, everyone will be battle tested. Go 'Birds!