Week Five Showcase Match-Up: Quinter at Ellis

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>As we entered the midway half of the Kansas high school football season, I made my way to Ellis to watch the (1-4) Ellis Railroaders take on the (2-3) Quinter Bulldogs in a big 8-Man I District 7 match-up with plenty of playoff aspirations on the line. Even a loss in this contest didn't mean the end for ones playoff hopes but the victor definitely had a foot firmly in the playoff door. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Both of these squads entered this season with very young and inexperienced rosters. Ellis lost a quality senior class from a year ago that went (5-4) and lost to Rawlins County in the playoffs. The skill positions as a whole returned outside of Fort Hays State signee Caleb Noble. It is upfront where the Railroaders took the biggest blow with the loss to graduation of Toby Honas, Blake Bieker and Aron Bencze. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>One thing Ellis had going for them entering this season was the brother duo of senior running back/linebacker [player_tooltip player_id='1515810' first='Carson' last='Schartz'] (5-foot-10, 205-pounds) and sophomore quarterback/defensive end [player_tooltip player_id='1542931' first='Trenton' last='Schartz'] (6-foot-2, 215-pounds). Carson led the Railroaders in tackles this past season with 99 tackles and offensively had 559 yards rushing and 11 total touchdowns. Trenton passed for 1,326 yards and 24 touchdowns and also rushed for 635 yards and another 13 touchdowns this past season. So far this season Trenton had passed for 1,097 yards and 10 touchdowns. Rushing wise he has chipped in 400 yards and 8 touchdowns. Carson defensively has already put up big numbers with 73 tackles so far this season. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Other players that have stood out for Ellis this season have been skill position players in junior Baylor Born (5-foot-11, 150-pounds), junior Aiden Aschenbrenner (5-foot-8, 160-pounds) and senior Ben Byers (6-foot-1, 165-pounds). </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Bulldogs of Quinter on the other hand only returns one senior for this season and he is a good one in Kale Hargitt (5-foot-10, 170-pounds). They depend heavily on a talented freshman and junior classes for their team success. The juniors leading the way are Colt Werth (6-foot-0, 165-pounds), Jarrett Packard (6-foot-0, 205-pounds), Cooper Havlas (6-foot-0, 175-pounds and Isaac Gillespie (6-foot-0, 230-pounds). Leading the way for the sophomores is Berkely Mesch (6-foot-0, 300-pounds). Freshman Easton Blackwill and Jax Ruff are quite talented and are already big parts of the Bulldogs offensive attack. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Overall this was a really good ballgame with Ellis taking control early but it was the Bulldogs that had a big second half forcing Railroader turnovers and took a big time District 7 victory. [player_tooltip player_id='1542931' first='Trenton' last='Schartz'] had a big overall night numbers wise but costly turnovers forced by Quinter was the difference in this ballgame. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We started off our night scoring with a 23 yard touchdown run by sophomore quarterback [player_tooltip player_id='1542931' first='Trenton' last='Schartz'] with 5:32 in the 1st quarter. The 2-point conversion was successful and our score was 8-0 Ellis. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Quinter responded with 2:29 left in the 1st quarter with a 1 yard plunge by freshman quarterback Easton Blackwill. The 2-point conversion was not successful and our score was 8-6 Ellis. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>With 10:49 in the 2nd quarter it looked like Ellis had taken control of the momentum when junior Aiden Aschenbrenner forced a Bulldog fumble and got the recovery. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Ellis cashed in on the turnover with a 17 yard touchdown run by [player_tooltip player_id='1542931' first='Trenton' last='Schartz'] with 9:17 remaining in the 2nd quarter. The 2-point conversion was no good and our score was 14-6 Ellis.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>With very little time taken off the clock, Quinter came back with a 17 yard touchdown run by freshman Jax Ruff with 8:11 in the 2nd quarter. After a successful 2-point conversion, we were tied up 14-14.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>By the later part of the 2nd quarter Quinter started to see momentum shift their way and Easton Blackwill found senior Kale Hargitt with a 16 yard pass for a touchdown with 3:37 left in the half. The 2-point conversion was a good and our score was now 22-14 Quinter. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>After homecoming halftime festivities were completed, we saw the Bulldogs come out with a lot of energy to start the 3rd quarter. Neither team got into the endzone until the 4th quarter but Quinter set themselves up nicely with a interception by Blackwill on Schartz with 3:47 in the 3rd quarter. But they were not able to capitalized right away.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Ellis clawed themselves back in to the ballgame with a Trent Schartz 1 yard touchdown run with 10:08 in the 4th quarter. The ever important 2-point conversion was no good and found ourselves with a 22-20 Quinter lead. This would be the last scoring for Ellis on this homecoming night. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>With 7:12 in the 4th quarter Quinter added to their lead with a 29 yard touchdown run by Jax Ruff. The 2-point conversion was successful and our score was 30-20 Quinter. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Ellis made a couple more deep pushes into Bulldog territory but a Colt Werth interception of Schartz with 4:39 left in the ballgame was the dagger. Quinter was able to run out the clock and put themselves in a very good position playoff wise and moved to (3-3) on the season. Ellis fell to (1-5) on the season but their playoff hopes are not over quite yet. They still have matchups with Ness City and Wichita County. Beating Ness City and getting some help would still put Ellis in the playoffs due to their victory over LaCrosse earlier this season.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Ellis will be on the road to face the (1-5) Ness City Eagles and Quinter has a tough contest against the (4-2) Wichita County Indians. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>I'll be headed for Hanover for a absolutely huge 8-Man II match-up between the #3 Hanover Wildcats (6-0) and the 4-time defending state champs in 8-Man II and the owner of the state record 58 game win streak in the #1 Axtell Eagles (6-0). Overall Hanover has 7 state titles in football and Axtell has 5 state titles themselves. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->