photo by: Sam Goodwin/Special to the Journal-World

Free State's Noah Kema (8) runs the ball past the Olathe Northwest Ravens defenders Friday night at FSHS.

Through the first five weeks of the season, the biggest weakness for Free State High’s football team was its pass defense.

After shuffling players around and spending extra time in practice working on route recognition, Free State’s defensive backs turned their Achilles’ Heel into one of their strongest weapons Friday against Olathe Northwest.

The Firebirds only allowed 51 passing yards in their most dominant defensive performance of the season, setting the tone in a 35-0 rout at FSHS. It was their second shutout this year.

Olathe Northwest (2-4) had eight three-and-out possessions and only six first downs (three via penalties) before backups stepped on the field at the end of the fourth quarter.

“We’ve been working on it since Day One,” said junior Gabe Del Valle, who recorded three pass breakups. “We started out slow, but today we really stepped up and took care of business. It’s just a great feeling to shut them out.”

In recent weeks, the Firebirds moved senior Zack Sanders to safety and inserted Del Valle into the starting lineup at cornerback. Those two, along with cornerback Daniel Bryant and safety Zion Bowlin, constantly jumped passing routes and turned the usual short completions into near interceptions.

Del Valle grabbed the team’s only interception midway through the second quarter, wrestling away a fade pass along his team’s sideline. Three plays later — after a 65-yard run by Bowlin — sophomore Jax Dineen was in the end zone on a two-yard touchdown run for a 14-0 lead.

“Our corners and our safeties played much, much better against a pretty good passing team,” Free State coach Bob Lisher said. “You have to take that and grow on it. That’s a heck of an improvement all around — both in our secondary and up front. We did a pretty good job up front too.”

The Firebirds (4-2), with one of the top rushing defenses in the Sunflower League, constantly forced the Ravens into long third down passes with tackles near the line of scrimmage on first and second down. The Ravens only completed six of their 24 passes for 51 yards.

In fact, the Ravens had six plays across midfield in the first half for a combined five yards and a missed 43-yard field goal attempt. On the only possession in the third quarter that Olathe Northwest neared midfield, the Firebirds forced a fumble, Sanders recovered and ran it all the way down the 12-yard line.

Two plays later, Sanders caught an 18-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Dallas Crittenden. Sanders, who had seven catches for 52 yards, caught another touchdown pass in the fourth quarter and has scored nine touchdowns in the past three games.

“Coaches have just been pushing us all week to jump routes, compete for the ball and just get in there to do our best,” Bryant said. “We’ve been doing that all week and we showed it tonight.”

With such a strong defensive performance — Olathe Northwest had 151 total yards (56 on the final drive) — it allowed Free State’s offense to overcome a slow start.

The Firebirds went scoreless on their first four drives, including a missed 29-yard field goal. But midway through the second quarter, Crittenden connected with Bryant for a 34-yard completion, setting up an 11-yard touchdown run by Bowlin.

“Offensively, we need to stop struggling. We need to stop shooting ourselves in the foot and we need to clean some things up and get better,” Lisher said. The Firebirds committed 10 penalties for 92 yards. “We have to do a better job coaching our guys so that happens.”

In the second half, Free State’s offense found big running lanes behind linemen Chase Houk, Jay Dineen, Nathan Spain, Reese Todd and Spencer Roe, finishing with 236 rushing yards. Junior Gage Foster scored on the team’s first drive of the third quarter on a two-yard run.

“During halftime, our line got an earful so they were fired up,” Bowlin said. “They were ready to come out and hit their line in the mouth. That’s what they had to do and they did it.”

Free State 35, Olathe Northwest 0

ONW | FS

First downs 10 | 14

Rushes-yards 31-100 | 40-236

Passing yards 51 | 189

Total offense 151 | 425

Fumbles-lost 1-1 | 4-0

Penalties-yards 2-25 | 10-92

Score by quarters

Northwest 0 0 0 0 — 0

Free State 0 14 14 7 — 35

Individual statistics

Rushing

ONW: Charlie Pfister 5-4, Drew Dumas 12-43, Jon Bowman 2-3, Easton Crupper 1-4, Brayden Koch 10-45, Jamison Baiza 1-1.

FS: Zion Bowlin 18-132 TD, Dallas Crittenden 5-8, Jax Dineen 7-61 TD, Gage Foster 5-31 TD, Jalen Nash 4-9, Team 2-negative 5.

Passing

ONW: Crupp 3-18-14 INT, Koch 3-6-37.

FS: Crittenden 16-24-189 2 TDs and INT.

Receiving

ONW: Charles Elvin 2-20, Maxwell Donahue 1-6, Joe Hatzfeld 1-0, Jack Parks 2-25.

FS: Tanner Cobb 1-9, Keenan Garber 2-17, Zack Sanders 7-52 2 TDs, Noah Kema 3-40, Daniel Bryant 1-34, Dineen 2-37.

HOW THEY SCORED

Second quarter

6:09 — Zion Bowlin 11 run. Kameron Lake kick. (FS 7, ONW 0.)

4:21 — Jax Dineen 2 run. Lake kick. (FS 14, ONW 0.)

Third quarter

8:12 — Gage Foster 2 run. Lake kick. (FS 21, ONW 0.)

2:15 — Zack Sanders 18 pass from Dallas Crittenden. Lake kick. (FS 28, ONW 0.)

Fourth quarter

6:22 — Sanders 7 pass from Crittenden. Lake kick. (FS 35, ONW 0.)