Kansas City, Mo. — Piping hot was Kansas City Piper's passing attack Friday night, and Perry-Lecompton was scalded, 34-23.
"They did a great job of throwing and receiving," Perry-Lecompton coach Charlie Golder said after the Kaw Valley League football game. "A lot of times we had two guys there and they still caught the ball."
KC Piper quarterback Jake Kaminski, a 6-foot-3, 180-pound junior, completed 16 of 23 passes for 228 yards and two touchdowns.
Most of Kaminski's tosses went to multi-talented slotback Jeff Zimmerman. The 6-3, 206-pound senior caught seven passes for 114 yards and one touchdown. He also ran the ball seven times for 57 yards and a touchdown.
Friday's match was billed as an early-season showdown of league powers. Both teams had won their first two games handily.
Perry-Lecompton, which suited just 23 players, led 14-7 at halftime, thanks to a 53-yard touchdown run by tailback Joe Corcoran on the second play of the second quarter and an eight-yard scamper by halfback Mike Cloud with 1:39 remaining before the break.
After three quarters, the score was knotted at 17.
Two plays into the fourth quarter, KC Piper grabbed its first lead on a 17-yard Kaminski-to-Zimmerman TD pass.
Perry-Lecompton came right back, however, with Corcoran carrying five straight times for the last 48 yards of a 67-yard, 10-play march.
With 7:38 remaining, KC Piper led, 24-23.
Instead of asking Corcoran to kick the extra point, Golder opted for a two-point conversion attempt. It failed. Cloud's burst up the middle was stopped inches from the goal line.
Too early to go for two? Not according to Golder.
"I went for it," he said, raising his voice, "because I wanted to win. I had confidence. I had confidence in the players. We're on the road. I made the decision."
Minutes later, Golder asked Corcoran to attempt an onside kick. It failed to go the required 10 yards and the Pirates took over on the P-L 47. Eight plays later, KC Piper boosted its advantage to 31-23 on Zimmerman's three-yard TD run.
Too early to attempt an onside kick? Maybe, said Golder.
"Yeah, it could have been," the Kaws' coach said. "I just made the decision to do it. We work on it in practice. I wanted to go down swinging."
Corcoran didn't take any called third strikes, either.
The P-L senior carried the ball 18 times for 175 yards and two touchdowns. The 6-foot, 165-pounder also kicked a 32-yard field goal and threw a 29-yard flea-flicker pass to quarterback Gary Freeman " not to mention playing every down on defense at linebacker.
Perry-Lecompton (2-1) will hit the road again next week to DeSoto. KC Piper will face another battle of unbeatens next week at Santa Fe Trail.
-- Chuck Woodling's phone number is 832-7147. His e-mail address is cwoodling@ljworld.com.
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