High School Notebook

Friday night’s Class 6A state football semifinal between unbeatens Free State High and Shawnee Mission West will be at SM South District Stadium.

Kickoff will be at 7 p.m. at the Overland Park facility. Sunflower Broadband Channel 6 will carry a delayed telecast at 10:30 p.m.

Although Free State (11-0) and SM West (11-0) are members of the Sunflower League, the two teams were not scheduled during the regular season.

The last meeting between the Firebirds and Vikings was in the first round of last year’s 6A playoffs, also at the SM South facility. SM West won, 40-18.

Kansas State High School Activities Assn. officials also announced that the 6A state championship game will be Nov. 25 at Welch Stadium on the Emporia State campus.

The SM West-Free State winner will meet the winner of Friday’s clash between Manhattan (8-3) and defending 6A champ Hutchinson (11-0) at the Emporia facility.

KSHSAA also announced that the 5A championship contest will be at Topeka’s Hummer Complex, the 4A title game in Hutchinson and the 3A final in Salina. The 2A-1A championship had already been scheduled for Hays. All games will be Nov. 25.

The two eight-man finals will be Saturday in Newton.

Two-way Tony Williams led Lawrence High to a 6-4 record with 1,303 rushing yards. Williams, a senior who played almost every down of every game at running back and in the secondary, also scored 17 touchdowns. Nolan Kellerman led the Lions in rushing last season with 1,488 yards and 15 TDs, but Kellerman rarely played on defense.

Lawrence High’s other primary weapon was wide receiver Nathan Padia who caught 33 passes for 782 yards and scored 12 touchdowns, one on a kickoff return. Quarterback Chance Riley threw 13 TD passes.

Free State quarterback Ryan Murphy needs 27 rushing yards Friday night against SM West to reach the 1,000-yard plateau. Murphy has thrown for 1,653 yards. Murphy has run for 17 touchdowns and passed for 14. He had tossed at least one TD pass in every game until last Friday when he was blanked in the 32-19 win over Olathe East.

Free State tailback Brian Murphy went over the 1,000 mark in the O-East game with 99 yards in 19 carries. Ryan Murphy’s twin brother now has 1,072 rushing yards and 16 touchdowns.

Ryder Werts, a starting linebacker, also doubles as Free State’s goal-line fullback, and the 5-foot-10, 215-pound junior bolted over from one-yard out twice against Olathe East for his first touchdowns of the season.