Free State High’s football players wanted it. Now they have it.

The Firebirds and Shawnee Mission West, both 11-0, will meet in a Class 6A state high school football semifinal Friday night.

“It’s the game we’ve all been waiting for,” Free State quarterback Ryan Murphy said following Friday night’s 32-19 victory over Olathe East. “It doesn’t get any bigger. It’ll be a showdown.”

Murphy, the Sunflower League’s total offense leader, turned in another day-at-the-office performance on a raw, windy, sometimes rainy evening at the College Boulevard Activities Center.

Murphy ran for 102 yards – three more than twin brother Brian – and passed for 100 more as the Firebirds twice battled back from early deficits. Those early 6-0 and 13-7 holes weren’t as scary, however, as Murphy walking off the field during the Firebirds’ second possession with his left arm limp.

Fortunately, the injury wasn’t as serious as it looked, and Murphy was back on the field a few minutes later.

“The shoulder just kind of popped out of place,” Murphy said. “Once the trainer popped it back in I was fine.”

Murphy also intercepted a pass, one of four turnovers the Firebirds forced. The most critical may have been Christian Ballard’s 52-yard touchdown run after stealing a screen pass. The TD snapped a 13-13 deadlock.

“We’ve been working on stopping screen passes all season and I finally got one,” a jolly Ballard said of his first career theft, “so I had to take it to the house.”

In the final analysis, though, the Firebirds’ ability to prevent Dee Bell, the Sunflower League’s leading rusher, from dominating was probably the deciding factor.

Bell, who galloped for 220 yards in the first meeting nine weeks ago at Haskell Stadium, scored on a 43-yard run the second time he touched the ball, but that touchdown proved to be far from foreshadowing. In his other 23 carries, the senior speedster gained just 32 yards. A dozen times he was stopped for no gain or for negative yardage.

“For the most part we stopped him,” linebacker Andy Petz said. “We had some breakdowns, but that happens in every game. Our whole defense played great. Everybody contributed.”

The Firebirds bounced back from Bell’s early TD run and they rebounded from their most glaring error of the evening – a botched punt return that an O-East player fell on in the end zone for a cheap touchdown.

Kicking with the wind, the Hawks’ Travis Tannahill launched a punt that appeared headed into the end zone for a touchback. However, the Firebirds’ Brian Murphy, standing at his own two, reached for the ball at the last moment, couldn’t handle it and the ball skidded into the end zone.

Moments later, Free State coach Bob Lisher appeared incensed on the sidelines. He was arguing that Murphy never had control.

“It’s a high school rule you can’t advance a muff,” Lisher said. “If it was a muff, it would have been a touchback. That play gave (O-East) some momentum.”

Not for long, though. The Firebirds dropped a 19-0 goose egg on the Hawks in the second quarter to take a comfortable 26-13 lead into an even more comfortable – considering the weather conditions – locker room.

“They hadn’t been down twice in a game all year,” Olathe East coach Jeff Meyers said, “but they responded both times. That’s the sign of a great football team.”

Olathe East wound up with an 8-3 record. Two of the losses were to Free State, the other to SM West.

“That,” Meyers said of next Friday’s showdown, “will be a good football game. Both teams have dangerous skill players and big, physical linemen.”