By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
With half of the high school football season already behind us, it’s been a mixed bag of results for local area schools in 2020. Some have gotten off to a hot start, while others have struggled out of the gate.
In this midseason report, we’ll be taking a look at the first half of the season of each of our 4A and 5A schools, in terms of record, performance and upcoming games.
A report on 8-Man, and 1A-3A schools will be posted tomorrow.
Central Mustangs (0-4)
It’s been an excruciating season for the Central Mustangs in 2020, who despite being 0-4 to start the year have been in almost all of their games. They opened their season with a five point loss to Campus and followed that with a 3 point loss at the hands of Eisenhower. After a blowout loss to Andover, they fell to Valley Center by just two points last week.
While the close losses have been hard to swallow, coach Mark Sandbo has been proud of what he has seen from his guys so far this year.
“Our kids are resilient and I’m very proud of how they’ve scratched and clawed their way back into games,” he said. “Obviously we’re disappointed but the silver lining is we’ve been in a lot of football games against a lot of good teams and we feel like we can right this ship.”
That ship has been captained by junior quarterback Parker Kavanagh, who has thrown for just shy of 1,000 yards and seven touchdowns in just four games.
Assisting Kavanagh has been strong O-Line play from guys like Matt Glen and Jake Eisenhauer, and strong receiver play from Logan Losey and Ezavyar Jackson, who have combined for almost 500 yards worth of catches already.
Defensively it’s been a good start for Dakota Hogan, Kayson Graham and Brooks Richardson at linebacker, who have gotten a lot of work done behind defensive end Rafael Serrano.
Central’s upcoming schedule is a mixed bag. The team will have an opportunity to gain some momentum against Ark City (1-3), before hitting the road for back to back games against Andover Central (3-0) and Goddard (3-1).
The Mustangs close their season out with the Mayors Cup against South, in what should be an interesting matchup this year.
“The Mayor's Cup is a huge game for both schools,” Sandbo said. “I’m sure both teams will be very honed in on that and it should make for a good football game.”
South Cougars (1-2)
It’s been an interesting year for the South Cougars in 2020. The team got off to a very slow start, falling to McPherson 45-25 and Maize South 62-6 to start their season.
They rebounded with a commanding 55-35 win over Campus in a game where a lot of the players looked much more relaxed.
“Friday night should be about going out there and playing your heart out with a bunch of your best friends in front of people who love you,” head coach Sam Sellers said. “Once they figured that out they really relaxed and just started playing football.”
South would have had a chance to even their record against Derby last week but on Friday morning, coach Sellers was informed that due to concerns relating to Covid-19, the game would not be played.
“You get three games into the season without any hiccups and you kind of get lulled into a sense that this feels like a normal season,” Sellers said. “To get that call on Friday was tough, especially when I think about guys like our seniors.”
The Cougars will get a much tougher chance to even things up this week against a 4-0 Maize team on the road.
So far this season South has been led by a three headed monster on offense. Sophomore quarterback Weston Fries has thrown seven touchdowns, including four to Colin Schreiber and only three interceptions against three very good defenses.
On the ground, Brandt Cox has gotten his as well, racking up over 200 yards and five touchdowns through three games.
Defensively, Carter Kirby and Owen Bulleigh have gotten off to good starts, leading the team in tackles while the D-Line has been very disruptive of opponents this season.
After their showdown with Maize this week, South will turn their attention to 4-0 Hutchinson before facing 0-4 Newton.
The Mayor’s Cup will cap off the season as the rivalry between South and Central is renewed.
“You know that at the end of the season this will be the big showdown,” Sellers said. “That week is always different, even in practice, every game is important but you really don’t want to lose that game.”
Abilene Cowboys (0-3)
It’s been a rough start to the season for the Abilene Cowboys as the team stumbled out of the gate and has struggled mightily to put points on the board this season.
The Cowboys began their 2020 campaign with a 57-0 loss at the hands of Clay Center and followed it up with a 42-0 loss to Concordia and a 46-0 loss to Chapman.
Despite the incredibly slow start, first year head coach Brad Nicks is not impatient with his team.
“The biggest thing that’s stood out to me is how we’ve fought in the second half,” he said. “Our guys have shown pride, heart and commitment as we build this thing.”
Despite not putting up huge numbers, running back J’Angelo Herbert, and linebackers Logan Buechman and Robbie Keener have all shown flashes of greatness this year.
Before Abilene had a chance to right the ship, Covid-19 struck, causing them to lose their next three games.
In addition to losing their matchup with Christ Prep last week, Abilene will be unable to play against Hays this week, or Ulysses next week.
If all goes according to plan, the team will return to action against Augusta on October 16th. At this point in the year, every game that can be played is incredibly important to Abilene.
“These two games are equally important,” Nicks said. “When you have something taken away from you, you really cherish every opportunity you get to put on that helmet and shoulder pads especially for our seniors.”
Chapman Fighting Irish (2-1)
The Chapman Fighting Irish were off to a great start in 2020 before Covid-19 brought their season to a halt.
The team bookended a tough loss to Holton with a hard fought victory against Sabetha 34-29, and a 46-0 beating of Abilene on the road.
Quarterback Trevor Erickson has been putting on a clinic so far, completing 15-22 for 250 yards and 2 touchdowns to add to 43 carries for a yard shy of 400 yards and 7 touchdowns on the ground.
“I hope us only playing three games so far due to Covid doesn’t affect his chances of playing where he wants to in college because he’s the real deal,” head coach Kurt Webster said.
Defensively Tate Milton and Ryan Hengemuhle have held things down on a unit that has taken care of business in 2020.
Right before a challenging opponent in Riley County, the season stalled out due to Covid-19, forcing Chapman to cancel three games.
In addition to Riley County Chapman will miss out on Clay Center this week and Marysville next week.
If school and practice resume on time, Chapman will be able to restart their season against Council Grove (2-2) on October 16th before finishing the regular season with Concordia (3-1) the following week.
“Every game that we have left is extremely important,” Webster said.
With KSHAA changing playoff guidelines to account for winning percentage instead of win total, Chapman still has a great chance to host a postseason game this year if they can take care of business.