Sunday, August 30, 2015

North Andrew Topples Sacred Heart to Stay on Top of Rankings

#1 North Andrew 58, Sacred Heart 26 In a match between perennial Eight Man powers, North Andrew ran away from Sacred Heard 58-26. The Cardinals did nothing to hurt their hold on the #1 slot. Gunner Hughes ran for 138 yards and passed for 110 more in the rout. Sacred Heart took a 20-14 lead in the second quarter, but then did not score again until the game was already decided.

#2 Stanberry 60, #8 Nodaway/South Holt 28 The Bulldogs did nothing to hurt their ranking, but the Spartans showed that they belong in the conversation. Nodaway/South Holt entered the rankings after beating South Nodaway and played Stanberry tough, trailing 8-6 after one and 30-14 at the half before Stanberry finally pulled away. Stanberry is one of those squads which does better as the game progresses; they pulled away in similar fashion in Week One. Stanberry's two-headed monster of Clayton Stoll and Trey Schieber did most of the damage, with Stoll running for 147 and Schieber running for another 136. 

#3 Southwest Livingston 80, Chilhowee 16 Southwest Livingston had little trouble disposing of Chilhowee; they lead Eight Man teams in offense as they have scored over 80 points in both games.

#4 Hardin-Central 28, KC East 24 Hardin-Central survived against a Kansas school.

#5 Albany 58, #9 East Atchison 8 This was supposed to be an interesting matchup given that the Wolves got the biggest victory in program history in Week One, 38-36 over Mound City. Albany was supposed to be on the decline after graduating a lot of seniors from last year's squad and enduring two drubbings in Worth County's jamboree. But Albany had little trouble disposing of East Atchison, who will likely drop out of the rankings this week. The Wolves will be a hard team to predict; it depends on which team shows up to play.

Rock Port 88, #6 North West Nodaway 70 North West Nodaway will likely drop out after this loss. The game was 52-42 in Rock Port's favor at halftime and they quickly expanded it to 74-42 in the third quarter. North West Nodaway made things interesting by cutting it to 80-64 at one point, but Rock Port hung on. Tackling has become a major issue for the Muskets in the first two games; they struggled to tackle Brady Minter, who ran wild all night long for the Blue Jays. But don't count out the Muskets yet; they started off 0-2 last year as well before winning all but one of their remaining regular season games. Rock Port will likely jump back in the rankings with this victory.

#7 Worth County 68, Greenfield 12 The games will only get more difficult for Worth County, who will likely move up in the rankings after this game. Mound City seems to have started to figure out their problems in the second half of the Stewartsville game. Worth County tackled well against Rock Port and Greenfield; they have to continue to tackle well and play good assignment football and watch out for the surprise pass in order to prevail against Mound City. Against the same Rock Port team, North West Nodaway did not tackle well and fell to the Blue Jays. Mound City will have to figure out how to block Brevyn Ross; he was in the Greenfield backfield four times to disrupt plays for major losses. He was always known for his rushing skills on offense, but has emerged this year as a defensive force as well. 

#10 St. Joseph Christian 46, South Nodaway 14 The Lions maintained their toehold on the rankings by disposing of Dan Collins' Longhorns. Matthew Corkins ran for 72 yards and threw for 140 more. If they can continue to establish their dual threat quarterback, they can do serious damage down the road.

Also of interest:
Mound City 42, Stewartsville 24 Worth County's next opponent fell behind the Cardinals 24-12 in the third quarter before coming back to win. They are almost exclusively a running team this year (so far), only attempting two passes all night. Dylon Faller ran for 179 yards and Ben Shiflett for another 118 in the victory. Jaden Gillenwater, who played receiver, moved to quarterback this year and is another threat to break one. 

Carthage 36, Lafayette 0 Worth County alum Bart Hardy has taken over the Fighting Irish in St. Joseph; however, he has had a rough start, dropping his first two games. 


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