Unlike most years, the football City Showdown has passed and there’s still a lot of season to be played.

Instead of all of the playoff hopes riding on the rivalry game, it’s back to business as usual for both teams.

But before we take a look forward, it’s a look back at last week in our weekly blog post: Football Game Tape.

Here are some of my observations from the City Showdown on both teams, starting with Free State, who won 31-12:

•The Firebirds’ run defense seems to improve each week. They plugged up holes all night to stop Lawrence High’s running back duo of JD Woods and Trey Moore. Outside of the two long touchdown runs, Free State’s defense held the Lions to 54 yards on 27 attempts. It starts up front with Blake Murray, Michael Georgie, Josiah LeBrun and Shane Hofer on the defensive line, while the linebackers have a lot of speed. “The defensive line had no space or gaps,” Moore said afterward. “They just fill all the gaps.”

•The Firebirds have a number of running backs without much drop off between them. Whether it’s Carson Bowen, Joe Lane or Khaury El-Amin, they’re all threats to have big games. The City Showdown was El-Amin’s debut at the varsity level and he responded with more than 100 yards and a score. “They’re very talented,” LHS coach Dirk Wedd said. “They keep running (RB’s) out there that I didn’t even know were on the scorecard. I’ve never seen (El-Amin) and he runs hard.” Add in Bryce Torneden, and it’s tough for defenses to shut all of them down.

•Torneden bounced back from a rough week against Olathe North and made a difference on the ground and through the air. Torneden ran for 62 yards and a score, while also throwing for 50 yards and a touchdown. He didn’t turn the ball over, and he has so many plays that should be sacks or short gains that he can improvise into a long run. It seemed like he’s been there before, except this was his first start behind center in the City Showdown.

•A reliable kicker is very important in high school football and Daniel Clarke was exactly that in the City Showdown. Not only did Clarke kick a 23-yard field goal in the second quarter, but he had some nice kickoffs to limit Lawrence’s returners from doing damage through special teams. Though extra points are usually an after-thought, there have been some games across the state decided by missed extra points.

Now for Lawrence High:

•The offensive line opened some holes for long touchdowns but struggled to win the line of the scrimmage for most of the night. The biggest problem with the Lions’ run game is blocking for outside runs. When those plays break down, they usually lead to tackles in the backfield, and it forces LHS to just run between the tackles. “They beat us up front. They’re big and we couldn’t knock them off the ball,” Wedd said. “We couldn’t block on the perimeter to get anything going. So then (FSHS’s defensive line) got us to try and get physical with them, and they’re pretty good at that.”

•Alan Clothier looked like a leader at the end of the first half trying to will the Lions’ offense to the end zone. Entering the final drive of the first half, the Lions were without a first down. Then on a third-and-two, Clothier bounced a scramble to his right and lowered his shoulders to pick up four yards and a first down. Then he did the same thing on his next two runs, picking up first downs. That’s exactly what you want out of a quarterback. The offense struggled and he did his best to create some of his own, helping LHS pick up some momentum into halftime despite not scoring.

•Price Morgan and Tanner Green were flying around the field and limited Free State’s ground game until the end of the third quarter. The Lions confused Free State’s offense in the first half with a lot of different stunts that the Firebirds weren’t expecting. Credit also goes to Cole Greenwood, Nathan Koehn, Amani Bledsoe and Trey Georgie up front for allowing Morgan and Green to roam free to make tackles. Every time I saw a pile of players in a tackle, Morgan and Green were at the bottom next to the ball carrier. However, Free State had so many long drives, the defense seemed worn down by the end of the third quarter. “I was very happy with how the defense was doing the first half,” Georgie said. “The second half we weren’t as effective but we just have to keep on working.”

•The secondary had a solid game despite giving up a touchdown throw in the first quarter. Even during Joel Spain’s 21-yard touchdown catch, Woods was right next to him and had a hand in his face. It was a good play by both Spain and Woods, just Spain played the ball perfectly. The secondary of Woods, Dearion Cooper, Ivan Hollins and J’Mony Bryant didn’t allow any more big completions and forced Torneden to scramble more with strong coverage.

Now for a look ahead to next week:

Shawnee Mission Northwest at Lawrence High on Friday at 7 p.m. — The Cougars (1-2) were crushed last week by the top-ranked team in 6A, Shawnee Mission East, 41-6. Their defense has struggled this season, especially through the air. This is the final home game for the Lions (1-2) until Oct. 17, and there should be some motivation for them after the City Showdown as it is their homecoming game.

Leavenworth at Free State on Friday at 7 p.m. — The Pioneers (1-2) are on a two-game losing skid falling to Olathe Northwest, 15-6, last week and LHS the week before. Quarterback Landry Hodges leads the offense in rushing and through the air, while receiver Isaiah Ross is among the top wideouts in the league. The Firebirds (2-1) have limited two of the top running teams Sunflower League over the last two weeks and now they’ll face a good passing attack.
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Both of Free State’s cross country teams had a strong showing on Saturday at the Baldwin Invitational.

Senior Ryan Liston won the boys’ race in a photo finish by 0.005 seconds, while junior Claire Sanner paced the girls field by taking an early lead and never looking back in her first victory of the season.

Besides the winners, another strong day came from sophomore Kiran Cordes, who finished third while running in a personal-best 15:25.80. Liv Lyche and Marlee Yost-Wolff also added top-15 times.

I heard several spectators talking about Cordes’ improvement from last year, and how they couldn’t believe how much faster she was this season.

“We actually saw that in track season last year,” FSHS coach Steve Heffernan said. “She just — in one race — made a jump from being a very good runner to kind of an elite runner. Today that just showed up again. So if she can continue to do that, that really helps our chances to do some things at state.”

At last year’s Baldwin Invitational, Cordes finished 17th in 15:46.01.

“I’m more experienced with pacing and how many miles the courses are,” Cordes said. “I’ve seen all of the courses once.”

Liston’s first-place finish wasn’t the only highlight for the boys’ team as junior Ethan Donley took 5th, Thomas Becker finished 9th and Tanner Hockenbury was 11th.

“They’re starting to look like the team we thought they’d be coming into the season,” Heffernan said. “At this point, we just have to see if we can get our fifth runner a little bit closer to where we’re at, and we’ll be in good shape.”

Liston added: “I’m really excited to see where we’re at, at the end of the season because that’s something I’ve been looking forward to since basically the end of last year, when we moved up four spots in state (6th place) from the year before.”

Free State’s girls team is ranked No. 1 in the cross country coaches poll and the boys are ranked No. 2, and it seems like they are both starting to hit their strides.

Meanwhile Lawrence High’s cross country teams struggled to eighth place finishes.

“We didn’t have such a good day today,” LHS coach Brian Anderson said. “I don’t know. We have a lot of injuries in the girls side. On the boys side, I don’t know what happened. I thought we were better prepared.”
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