LIBERTY, MO. ? Free State High grad Jamie Resseguie admitted he felt trepidation coming in.

It was those darned Olathe kids.

“Pretty much anybody from Olathe I’ve never really liked,” he quipped after Thursday’s K.C. Metro All-Star game. “Then you come out here and they play real hard, and they’re all good guys – just like us in Lawrence.

“It was real fun to meet all the guys we played against the last three years in high school.”

Despite the dearth of Kansas talent, as well as the surprisingly tight-knit attitude on the sideline, Missouri prevailed, 38-15, in the annual showcase at William Jewell College.

The Show-Me squad caught Kansas off guard right from the get-go, pulling off an onside kick to start the game and capitalizing with a 50-yard touchdown bomb from Nathaniel Ebel to Reuben Hartzel.

Kansas responded in the second quarter and tied the game with a 14-yard connection between Blue Valley quarterback Geno Waters and Olathe South wideout Bryce Morris. After that, the Sunflower State representatives had their petals removed swiftly, allowing 28 consecutive points.

For an all-star game, it was pretty rough, with loads of trash talk going both ways as well as a ton of huge collisions.

Most of the contribution from city athletes came on the defensive side, with Lawrence’s Ian Handshy and Jeff Colter seeing a bulk of the snaps along with Resseguie and Firebird grad Philip Weinmaster.

Colter had the city highlight of the night in the third quarter, when he chucked his 5-foot-9, 160-pound frame at Missouri’s Korie Henry, a 6-foot-4, 250-pound beast of a tight end. The hit drew praise from the crowd, but was a rare highlight for the Kansas defense.

Despite his unit getting pushed around for a good part of the night, Colter agreed the experience was worth the trip.

“The end didn’t quite turn out how we thought it would, but we played our hardest,” he said. “It was fun practicing with them and building relationships.”

Handshy also had a chance to build bonds, but with players he’ll be teaming with down the road when he suits up for Kansas University in the fall as a preferred walk-on. Those included Resseguie, who will try and earn a walk-on spot, as well as Sunflower League foe Adam Booth of Leavenworth.

“I was really surprised how easy it was for us to mesh as a team,” Handshy said. “It’ll be fun now having people I’ve played with before going up to KU.”