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LJWorld.com Area Football Roundup

PAOLA – After breaking the postgame meeting with a circle of jumping jacks, senior Korbin Riedel gave a big hug to his quarterback, senior Hayden Robbins. Decorated with a swollen ear, a cut on his forehead and a bloodstained, torn-up jersey, Riedel finished the final game of his high school career with his eighth straight 100-yard performance.

“(Hayden) is my best friend, he believes in me, I think he really does,” Riedel said. “I believe in him passing the ball, too. Both of us are really close, and both believe in each other.”

Sixth-seeded Tonganoxie fell to Paola in the regional final of the Class 4A state tournament by a 35-13 margin. Entering Friday night, the two teams had not met in 35 years prior to the Frontier league expanding this season.

“We graduated 21 seniors last year. This team had to find their own identity, and it took us a few weeks to get us there,” Tonganoxie head coach Al Troyer said. “I can’t be more proud of (the seniors). We brought back eight new people and only had three returning starters … they’re leaders, they’re great young men.”

Tonganoxie (7-3) set the tone early, scoring on its opening drive with a 12-yard pass by Robbins to Dallas Bond. Robbins opened the game completing each of his four passes for 78 yards in the first half, then completing his first two attempts to start the second half. He finished the game with 122 yards.

Riedel gave the Chieftains continuous short gains, breaking free for a first down when Paola’s defense made a mistake. Riedel carried the ball 20 times in the first half, finishing the game with 132 yards.

The Chieftains had their biggest break of the night to end the half. On a controversial rush, senior defensive back Jesse Collier recovered a fumble in the end zone for a touchback to get the ball back with less than two minutes to go. Paola (9-1) was at the 3-yard line after a 26-yard pass from Seth Richmond to Carter Holub.

On the defensive side of the ball, Cole Sample, Jacob Miller and Cooper Cunningham were getting to the Panthers backfield with clutch stops and tackles for loss, while holding them to four first downs.

“We played hardball, we knew it was going to be physical, we knew it was going to be smashmouth,” Riedel said. “We still knew we were only up by one touchdown (at the half). We didn’t get happy, we didn’t get excited, we knew this is a playoff game and we knew this was going to be close.”

The Chieftains were on the other end of a pair of pass interference calls on deep passes by Robbins intended for Bond, Drake Pray and Tucker Isaacs. At the end of the Panthers’ second drive of the half, kicker Ryan Wokutch put the ball at the half-yard line, saved from almost being a touchback.

Waiting for pressure, Robbins sent a deep ball intended for Isaacs that would have easily put up six points and gave the Chieftains a lead. Isaacs had a hand on the pass, but couldn’t finish as Tonganoxie eventually punted.

A personal foul on the kick netted seven yards on the end zone punt, as the Chieftains tallied their eighth flag for 80 yards. Running back Connor Hasz found the end zone for the easy run, and began a stretch of three-straight scoring drives for the Panthers.

PAOLA 35, TONGANOXIE 14

THS | P

First downs 9 | 9

Rushes-yards 39-153 | 34-193

Passing yards 122 | 172

Total offense 275 | 365

Fumbles-lost 0-0 | 2-1

Interceptions 1 | 0

Penalties-yards 8-80 | 5-35

Score by quarters

Tonganoxie 7 6 0 0 — 13

Paola 0 7 14 14 — 35

Individual statistics

Rushing

THS: Korbin Riedel 30-132, Hayden Robbins 5-15, Cooper Cunningham 1-(minus 1), Drake Pray 3-7.

P: Connor Hasz 17-138, Brendan Ohlmeier 3-6, Seth Richmond 5-10, Garrett Williams 9-39.

Passing

THS: Hayden Robbins 7-10-122.

P: Seth Richmond 4-5-107, Garrett Williams 1-1-65.

Receiving

THS: Tucker Isaacs 2-39, Dallas Bond 2-41, Elijah Tyner 1-7, Drake Pray 1-33, Korbin Riedel 1-2.

P: Carter Holub 2-38, Evan Pauser 2-69, Corbin Gant 1-65.

HOW THEY SCORED

First quarter

4:10 — Dallas Bond 12 pass from Hayden Robbins. Ethan Jacks kick good. (THS 7, P 0)

Second quarter

9:15 — Connor Hasz 41 run. Ryan Wokutch kick good. (THS 7, P 7)

5:32 — Korbin Riedel 1 run. Jacks kick no good. (THS 13, P 7)

Third quarter

7:32 — Hasz 14 run. Wokutch kick good. (THS 13, P 14)

1:56 — Hasz 14 run. Wokutch kick good. (THS 13, P 21)

Fourth quarter

11:48 — Corbin Gant 65 pass from Garrett Williams. Wokutch kick good. (THS 13, P 28)

8:17 — Evan Pauser 22 pass from Richmond. Wokutch kick good. (THS 13, P 35)

Sabetha 8, Perry-Lecompton 26

Perry-Lecompton suffered a 26-8 loss to unbeaten Sabetha, the top seed in 3A division four, in its regional final Friday night.

After a pair of scoreless drives, Perry-Lecompton (7-3) was the first to put points on the scoreboard when William Welch found Colton Mallonee for a 44-yard touchdown pass. From then on, the Kaws allowed 17 points going into the half, and gave up another nine after.

Welch attempted 36 passes, completing 21 for 187 yards. Mallonee led the team with 120 yards on 10 catches, with Andrew Ledbetter and Baine Patton each catching four. On the ground, Dalton Kellum led all rushers with 81 yards on 16 carries.

The Kaws recovered a pair of fumble recoveries, but committed four turnovers on offense. Welch threw three interceptions, and the Kaws had a fumble as well.

SABETHA 26, PERRY-LECOMPTON 8

P-L | S

First downs 17 | 14

Rushes-yards 27-84 | 46-178

Passing yards 187 | 171

Total offense 271 | 349

Fumbles-lost 1-1 | 2-2

Interceptions 3 | 0

Penalties-yards 2-20 | 7-70

Score by quarters

Perry-Lecompton 8 0 0 0 — 8

Sabetha 0 17 6 3 — 26

Individual statistics

Rushing

P-L: Dalton Kellum 16-81, Shane Quinlan 1-6, Baine Patton 1-2, William Welch 9-(minus 5).

S: Joe Gruber 19-73, Gave Garber 17-49, Joel Hackney 7-49, Colby Tinklin 1-4, Tristan Edelman 2-3.

Passing

P-L: William Welch 21-36-187

S: Gabe Gruber 8-11-171

Receiving

P-L: Colton Mallonee 10-120, Andrew Ledbetter 4-33, Baine Patton 4-18, Dalton Kellum 2-8, Shane Quinlan 1-8

S: Drew Schmelzle 3-84, Ryan Stapleton 2-63, Mason Spellmeier 2-19, Kamden Brownlee 1-5.

HOW THEY SCORED

First quarter

5:30 — Colton Mallonee 44 pass from William Welch. Run succeeds. (S 0, P-L 8)

Second quarter

10:48 — Ryan Stapleton 14 pass from Gabe Garber. Braden Cox kick good (S 7, P-L 8)

4:43 — Joe Gruber 1 run. Cox kick good. (S 14, P-L 8)

15.0 — Cox field goal. (S 17, P-L 8)

Third quarter

4:53 — Cox interception return. Pass fails. (S 23, P-L 8)

Fourth quarter

2:21 — Cox field goal. (S 26, P-L 8)