Call them the underdog, call them the surprise team, call them whatever you want but perhaps the most important thing you should call the Axtell Eagles are winners because that's what they continue to do as they dominated their way to the Class 1A-Division II state title game with a 56-29 win over White City in the semifinals.

The Eagles soared out to another early lead behind shutdown lock down defense in the first as Axtell lead it 15-2 after the first quarter and held a 23-8 lead at the half. The Eagles defense was a true team defensive performance but it was the performance of junior, Christian Buessing on the defensive end of the ball that stood out as he gave up only two points to White Cities best scorer in Sam Morgan who averaged 16 points per game.

Although, Axtell held a sizeable lead White City made a charge to try and get back into the game getting the lead down to single digits in the third quarter, behind a 17-12 third in favor of the Huskies. Then the Eagles responded to close the game out with an 11-4 fourth quarter and push themselves to the state title game.

For the second straight game three players tallied double figures at state for the Eagles as senior, Aaron Schmelzle lead the way for the second straight game, this time registering 16 points. Juniors, Derek Porting and Payton Heinen each posted 11 and 13 points on the night. Porting nailed three three-pointers on the night, while Heinen did most of his damage early with 10 of his 13 in the first quarter of action.

With the win the Axtell Eagles improved to 18-8 on the season and continued their first winning season since 1996 by winning yet again, setting themselves up for a chance to play for the Class 1A-Division II state title in Hays. The Eagles will take their 11-0 perfect tournament record this season into the championship to play an unbeaten team in the number one seeded, 25-0, Fowler Goldbugs. Game time set for 6:15pm and you can hear the game on 92.1 KMZA and online (click here).