A world of emotions could envelop Veritas Christian’s five senior football players in their KCC state-playoff rematch tonight with Wichita Word of Life, a team that beat the Eagles by four points in the regular season.

Mark Randtke, Casey Woods, Jesse Schultz, Michael Humphrey and Andrew Bartlow, who coach Doug Bennett said helped start the football program at Veritas, could be playing their last game for the Eagles.

Or, they could help the program win its first playoff game.

“They really see the culmination of the season coming to an end,” Bennett said. “They really want to be a part of laying the foundation for these future Veritas students. So I think they are taking a lot of pride in kind of being those pioneers on the football field for our school.”

The Eagles showed they were not ready to quit Friday in a 66-18 trouncing of Hamilton Public Ward. Veritas shut out Hamilton in the second half.

“We’ve just got to get out there and start hammering people in the first quarter like we did Friday,” Humphrey said. “We can’t wait until the third and fourth quarter to step it up. We just need to get out there in the first quarter and start banging heads, make them scared.”

Wichita Word of Life beat the Eagles earlier this season, 42-38. Veritas only has had three days between games, but the Eagles already know Word of Life’s schemes.

“Frankly, when we get on the field, we won’t know if its Tuesday or Friday,” Veritas quarterback Woods said. “I’m ready for them. We’ve played them already, so we already know half the stuff. We’ve already prepared for them once, so we just have to adjust a little bit more.”

Veritas needs to improve its tackling and two-point conversions – the Eagles went one-for-six on conversion attempts against Word of Life.

The poise and determination of the seniors was captured best by Schultz.

“This is probably the most significant game I’ve played yet in my entire high school career,” Schultz said. “It means more to me than anything else ever has.”