|
It's a new season with new opportunities as we have reached district play throughout the state of Kansas and 1-5 Tonganoxie used that philosophy on Friday night to knock off previously unbeaten Atchison 21-14 to begin Class 4A district play.
Right away it could be easily seen that the Chieftains were ready for a fight as on the opening kick Tonganoxie would try and successfully recover an onside kick to give them the first possession of the ballgame. The Atchison defense was able to quickly force a three and out though to negate any momentum that the Chieftains had early in the match up. Tonganoxie would take the momentum right back as their defense forced a three and out as well and a punt for the Redmen. This is where the first big play of the game would come for the Chieftains as senior runningback Jared Sommers received the punt, went along the right sideline, and ran it 65 yards into the endzone for the first points of the evening with 8:27 left in the first quarter.
The two teams would then trade possessions for the rest of the first quarter with neither team able to keep a drive going. Atchison was then able move the football via the run game down the field into the red zone just as the first quarter came to an end. The Redmen would then use two straight run plays to begin the second quarter and on the second play runningback Fred Simpson found the endzone from 2 yards out to even up the score at 7 with 11:45 to go in the half.
This score would hold up for rest of the quarter with each team having a chance to pull ahead late in the half but each defense was able to come up big giving us a tie ballgame heading into the halftime break.
The second half began just like the first with both teams trading possessions as neither offense could sustain a drive but late in the third quarter the offenses were able to get going to put some points on the board. First Atchison once again went to the run game and moved the ball down the field on rushes by Simpson, Chase Grippin, and quarterback Adam Smith as the Redmen were forced to use multiple rushers with the losses of usual starting quarterback Wykeen Gill and starting runningback Parker Welch to injuries. The Redmen were able to eventually find the endzone this time coming on a 2 yard run by Zane Boldridge to put Atchison on top 14-7 with 2:14 to go in the third quarter.
Tonganoxie wouldn't waste any time after the Redmen score as the Chieftain offense then went to the wildcat formation with Sommers taking the direct snaps and just when Atchison began to commit to the run, Sommers dropped back to pass and floated a ball over the top of the defense into the hands of usual starting quarterback Carl Hecht who took it in from 40 yards out to tie things up at 14 at the end of the third.
Atchison then took the ensuing kick and marched right down the field once again getting into Chieftain territory on simple runs by the committee of Redmen runningbacks. The drive would stall though and Atchison would decide to go for it on 4th and 5 from the Tonganoxie 35 yard line but the Chieftain defense would come up big stop to force a turnover on downs with 9:45 to go in the ballgame.
After the turnover Tonganoxie would elect to stay in the wildcat formation and with the momentum on their side would go up tempo with run after run by Sommers to easily move the ball into Redmen territory. The Atchison defense couldn't do anything to stop the senior runningback as he put the Chieftain offense on his back and with 7:37 to go in the ballgame Sommers took the direct snap and ran it in from 4 yard out to put Tonganoxie on top 21-14 late in the fourth quarter.
Now it was up to the Atchison offense to try to answer the score and tie things up late in the match up. Things got of to a fantastic start for the Redmen as quarterback Adam Smith found senior receiver Marcus Denton over the middle on a spectacular diving catch of 27 yards to put them into Chieftain territory and a chance to tie. The Tonanoxie defense would then come up big and didn't allow another first down on the drive and forced a turnover on downs.
The Chieftains now had an opportunity to run the clock out but the Atchison defense had one more big play in them and forced a fumble with 5:30 to go to give the offense another chance, but just as earlier the Tongie defense would come up big and force another turnover on downs with just 3:00 minutes to go.
Atchison had one more chance to get the ball back as they used all 3 timeouts and held the Cheiftain offense, but on a 4th down and 1 the Redmen defense would jump offside which gave Tonanoxie a first down and allowed them to run out the rest of the clock and come away with the big 21-14 upset.
The Redmen now move to 6-1 on the season and 0-1 to begin district play and will now shift their attention to next week for round 2 of districts as they will play host to Basehor-Linwood on Friday night.
|
