By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post
The Sacred Heart Knights (2-6) will kick off the early slate of area playoff games this Thursday at 6:00 when they travel to Valley Center to take on the Sedgwick Cardinals (7-1).
The winner of this game will advance to the round of 16 next week to play either Valley Heights (6-2), or Whitewater-Remington (2-6).
Sacred Heart enters this contest fresh off a convincing 51-20 beatdown of Republic County, which has put some pep back in the step of the Knights.
“After last week all of these boys believe in themselves and now they see how much of a threat they are,” Knights head coach Norm Jennings said. “These boys want to be the most dangerous 4-seed to ever go out there and do it and now it’s time to go be that.”
While Sacred Heart has faced stiff competition this season, Sedgwick will present a daunting task, as the 5th-ranked Cardinals have ransacked a majority of their opponents this season, winning five of their games by two scores or more.
“Sedgwick is consistently Sedgwick,” Jennings said. “They have a good 2-dimensional offense but they have a lot of athletic kids and they can be deadly in that passing game.”
That passing attack has been led by junior quarterback Corey Crumrine, who has put up video game-like numbers in 2023, completing 65% of his passes for 2,309 yards, 27 touchdowns, and only two interceptions.
Fortunately for the Knights, they’ve faced a team like this before, and will lean on the experience they gained in week one of this season.
“Wichita Trinity had one of the best quarterback-receiver tandems in the state and we’ll see another phenomenal passer tonight,” he said. “We’ve seen an air raid team like this before and we know how to cover it. That doesn’t minimize the threat but our guys won’t be shell-shocked.”
While the Sedgwick offense has looked like an unstoppable juggernaut, their defense has left opportunities on the table, surrendering 20 or more in a majority of their games.
“Sedgwick has had some difficulties stopping the run,” Jennings said. “We saw that on film in their one loss to Sterling which is another team that runs flexbone. A lot of the teams that have had success against them have had success on the ground and we will make them show us that they have stepped up their ability to stop the run.”
Due to field conditions, Thursday’s game between the Knights and Cardinals has been moved to Valley Center High School, but will still kick off at 6:00.
As always, the game can be streamed with live audio and video on the Salina Post HERE.