Wichita Northwest Slams the Door Shut on East

With five rivalry games hitting early in the season, some of the state's best teams clashed in very intriguing games that could have far-reaching impact on the season.   In this report, I am taking a high-level look at five games in the Wichita and surrounding area that generated serious fireworks in week two. We had promised prime-time entertainment for this Friday and it was definitely delivered.   So, without further adieu, let's dive into the “Games of the Week”.   Wichita East vs. Wichita Northwest – I traveled to Wichita South's stadium for the big game and it was a doozy. Both squads are loaded and ranked in the top ten, and it had all the makings of being a serious shootout as the two teams combined for almost 100 points last week. However, both team's defenses stepped up to turn it into a low-scoring rock fight that Northwest ended up winning 14-0.   With the score tied at 0-0 at the half, Northwest stayed with their game plan of pounding the run with standout running back [player_tooltip player_id='904436' first='Augie' last='Fast'], a transfer from Maize who piled up 200+ yards in the opening game, which was balanced with effective play-action passing from D1-recruit, QB [player_tooltip player_id='585904' first='Jaylen' last='Mason'].   With the score still goose eggs moving into the middle of the third quarter, Northwest finally broke the ice as Fast took the handoff moving right, shook off a couple of initial hits and sprinted past the East secondary for a 45-yard TD run.   Mason had a number of passes dropped in the first half, but with Iowa State Head Coach Matt Campbell in attendance and just down the aisle from where I was, he rifled a 48-yard scoring strike to 6'3 junior wideout [player_tooltip player_id='904443' first='Chase' last='Carter'], who slipped a tackle and outran the East defense to put NW in front 14-0, which would be the final difference.   Although the game was marred by a ton of penalties and early sloppy play, both defenses were swarming and taking every opportunity to bust each other in the chops. If you didn't know these two teams were arch-rivals to begin with, it only took a couple of plays for that to be evident.   There were four different times in the game when play had to be stopped while medical units from both teams took care of injured players following savage hits.   The Northwest defense was particularly impressive, as middle linebacker [player_tooltip player_id='780142' first='Johnmichael' last='Fountain Jr.'] was a beast, playing sideline-to-sideline and delivering big-time blows. The NW linebackers of Fountain, Ja'mari Bland and [player_tooltip player_id='1115480' first='Quavon' last='Harris'] are as good a group of LB's in the state and they showed out Friday night helping shut down the explosive Blue Aces.   Additionally, multi-positional athlete [player_tooltip player_id='1115090' first='Franklin' last='Ekue'] played a strong game, delivering numerous open-field tackles and broke up several key pass plays to force the ball to be turned over. He also handled kicking and punting duties, was deep on both and was ready and waiting for anything else the coaching staff wanted to throw at him.   As Coach Steve Martin emphasized to his team at halftime to stick together, they came out of the break on a second-half mission; sticking to the game plan on both sides of the ball and picking up a key rivalry win. It was also sweet for NW as they were knocked off twice last year by the Aces, once in the regular season and again in the playoffs.   In the other games of the week there were fireworks all over the Wichita and the surrounding area. Here is a quick snap shot of the other four games last night:   Andale @ Wellington – ranked as high #1 in 3A, Andale went on the road to play at 4A Wellington and it was a wild one to put it mildly. The Indians ended up prevailing 56-48, to stay unbeaten, but it went to the wire. Senior quarterback [player_tooltip player_id='1112386' first='Dusty' last='Bannister'] passed for 483 yards and accounted for six touchdowns, four in the air and two on the ground, in another heartbreaking loss for the Crusaders, as they fall to 0-2.   Goddard Eisenhower vs. Goddard – ranked as high as #4 in 5A, Eisenhower continued to fine-tune the machine, this time against arch-rival Goddard, and they did not disappoint, winning a slugfest 32-21. The [player_tooltip player_id='676467' first='Derek' last='Morgan']-to-[player_tooltip player_id='442660' first='Carter' last='Pabst'] senior connection has taken off where they left off last year when Pabst set the school record with 19 TD's, as they hooked up three times last night. He made several acrobatic catches and was lethal in piling up yards after the catch.   Wichita Collegiate @ Rose Hill – ranked as high as #4 in 3A, Collegiate traveled to Rose Hill and bludgeoned the reeling Rockets 42-6. Collegiate stayed undefeated with the road win and looks ahead to next week at home against El Dorado and then the following week in a showdown when they roll into #1-ranked Andale.   Conway Springs @ Garden Plain – ranked as high as #1 in numerous rankings, defending 1A Champion Conway Springs went on the road to Garden Plain and picked up a big win 13-7. Conway Springs has now won 12 straight games since last losing a game, which was last year to Garden Plain 20-14. This year's game had a familiar feel to it as of the 94 snaps for both teams, the ball was run 83 times. The state champs continue to do what they do best, run the ball and play stout defense.   In conclusion, these were the kind of games we were hoping to see and the players stepped up. And, as always, if you know of teams or players flying under the radar feel free to reach out to me via DM on X.

With five rivalry games hitting early in the season, some of the state's best teams clashed in very intriguing games that could have far-reaching impact on the season.