photo by: John Young

Free State High sophomore Jax Dineen (33) pulls Shawnee Mission Northwest senior Xavier Perry (24) into the end zone with him during their game Friday night in Shawnee.

Lawrence High football players were upset about their loss against Lee’s Summit West and were looking to make a statement when they played Shawnee Mission West.


That message was heard loud and clear.


The Lions were dominant with their no-huddle offense and rolled to a 49-19 victory over SM West. Defensively, they were just as strong with a great push up front by their linemen.


“They killed it today. Our D-line is amazing,” junior quarterback/cornerback Dante Jackson said. “If we just play like that every game, there’s no way people are going to be able to put points on us.”


The Lions had so many questions entering the season that it was hard to predict how they’d look early in the season. With a 3-1 record, they certainly deserve praise, like this column from Tom Keegan, for making all of their offseason changes work so well.


For Free State, senior Zack Sanders continued his dominant season with one of the best games in his career, scoring four touchdowns in a 41-7 victory against Shawnee Mission Northwest. He scored in every phase of the game with two touchdown catches, a punt return score and an interception return for a score.


Sanders is one of the state’s leaders in receiving yards and he’s becoming more dangerous on special teams and defense.


“We should’ve punted away from (Sanders) to start with,” SM Northwest coach Bo Black told the Shawnee Dispatch. “Once he’s in the open field, we’re not catching him.”


The Firebirds (2-2) didn’t have their cleanest game in the secondary and a fumble at the goal line, but they bounced back with a strong first half after a loss to Park Hill. One great sign was the strength of their run game, averaging 6.3 yards per carry even without senior RB Zion Bowlin.


Now for a look ahead to next week:


Olathe South at Free State on Friday at 7 p.m. — With a 28-21 victory over Olathe East last week, the Falcons handed coach Craig Lewis his first career victory at the school. The Falcons (1-3) are led by quarterback Nick Jouret, who is a strong runner and scored three touchdowns in last week’s win.


Lawrence High at Olathe North, at ODAC, on Friday at 7 p.m. — The Eagles (1-3) have their first losing record since 2012 after graduating a talented senior class. They’ve only completed two passes on offense this season, relying on running backs Deion Poindexter (366 yards and TD) and Jonya Boyd (259 yards and 3 TD), and quarterback Mason Myers (183 yards and 4 TD). Junior Ryan Huck is their leading tackler with 31 stops this season. They lost to Shawnee Mission East last week, 48-13.

photo by: John Young

Free State High sophomore Jax Dineen (33) pulls Shawnee Mission Northwest senior Xavier Perry (24) into the end zone with him during their game Friday night in Shawnee.

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If you’re new to the blog, we’re copying one of the popular features of KUsports.com, “Keegan’s Ratings,” where Sports Editor Tom Keegan ranks KU football and men’s basketball players after every game he attends. These individual rankings are just one person’s opinion, but it’s a good way to look at how each person impacted each game.

Lawrence High football

1. Dante Jackson, jr. QB/CB — Jackson set the tone early with a few tackles in the secondary, then airing the ball out on offense. He completed 10 of his 18 passes for 186 yards and two touchdowns. With the pass game working, he opened up the run game, running for 74 yards and two scores. But one play that sticks out was midway through the second quarter: He just threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown and on the next play, he blocked the extra point attempt.


2. Ekow Boye-Doe, jr. WR/CB — Boye-Doe scored the first touchdown of his varsity career on the first drive of the second half, making a nine-yard grab over the middle. He ended up with five catches for 79 yards and he grabbed an interception in the fourth quarter when he said he cramped up, but fortunately the ball was tipped to him.


3. Eric Galbreath, soph. DE — It’s hard to make a bigger impact on the defensive line than Galbreath did Friday. It seemed like every play he was in the backfield for a stop. I counted him with four tackles in the backfield, including one sack.


4. Jake Unruh, sr. DE — The main mission for Lawrence’s defense was to keep SM West quarterback Zach Witters in the pocket so he couldn’t run loose for big plays. Unruh and Galbreath did it better than any other defensive front this season. Unruh constantly applied pass pressure and he recorded one sack and one pass breakup.


5. James Reeder, sr. RB/DB — Starting at running back in place of injured Trey Moore, Reeder did a nice job of following his blockers and making nice cuts upfield. He scored on two long touchdown runs in the fourth quarter, ending up with 144 yards on 24 attempts. He added a critical 45-yard reception on a 3rd-and-14 on the first drive of the second half, setting up Boye-Doe’s touchdown catch, and he partially blocked a punt.


6. Santino Gee, sr. LB/RB — Reminding everybody of last year’s linebacking corps that had three seniors, Gee was flying around the field for tackles. He had four tackles for loss or at the line of scrimmage, one sack and one fumble recovery. On offense, he ran with some intensity, going for 31 yards on seven carries.


7. Jalen Dudley, jr. WR — The 6-foot-2, 172-pound receiver finished with three catches for 56 yards, including an eight-yard touchdown catch along the right sideline in the first half. But his biggest catch was a jump ball at the end of the first quarter. Despite drawing a pass interference penalty, Dudley made the catch over a cornerback for a 31-yard pickup, setting up a touchdown run by Jackson.


8. Erik Shackelford, sr. LB — Once again, Shackelford played well at linebacker and made stops at the line of scrimmage and in the secondary. At the beginning of the third quarter, he intercepted a pass that was tipped up into the air by Jackson. Two plays later, the Lions scored for a 34-6 lead.


9. Jesse Tunget, sr. RG — In the fourth quarter, the Lions were running the ball with plenty of success and that was thanks to huge holes opened up by Tunget, Jacob Mills and Kevin Nichols on the right side of the line. The Lions averaged 5.7 yards per rush against a veteran defense.


10. Mark Greene, sr. DT — With a 21-point lead in the fourth quarter, Greene shut the door on any comeback attempt when he ran past a blocker into the backfield, drilled SM West’s running back and forced a fumble that was picked up by Gee. Two plays later, it turned into a touchdown run by Reeder.


• Rankings from Bobby Nightengale

Free State football

1. Zack Sanders, sr. WR/CB — Sanders made a huge impact while leading the Firebirds back to the .500-mark by scoring four total touchdowns — two receiving, one pick-six and another on a punt return. He nearly had a second pick-six, but a block in the back penalty negated a would-be fifth touchdown for the two-way starter.


2. Jax Dineen, so. RB/LB — Dineen did just about everything that Free State coach Bob Lisher could have asked of him while stepping into the starting running back role for an injured Zion Bowlin. Dineen averaged 7.6 yards per carry while running primarily between the tackles. The 5-foot 11-inch, 215-pound sophomore broke the century mark with 107 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries, and added a 12-yard score on a reception from Dallas Crittenden. Dineen’s lone mishap came on a fumble just shy of the goal line that took away the chance for a third touchdown.


3. Gage Foster, sr. RB/ROLB — While Sanders and Dineen combined to score all six of Free State’s touchdowns, Foster did a lot of the dirty to set them up. Foster had 54 yards on 11 carries and chipped in 33 yards on three catches. Foster also provided a spark for the Firebirds linebacking corps, and had a sack on fourth down to end SM Northwest’s last drive of the first half.


4. Jay Dineen, sr. LB/LG — Dineen made his presence felt on the Cougars’ first drive with a sack that went for a loss of 10 yards. The Free State linebacker also dropped back into coverage for a pair of pass break-ups.


5. Dallas Crittenden, sr. QB — Crittenden’s stat line wasn’t jaw-dropping, but it didn’t need to be. The Free State quarterback tossed two touchdowns to Sanders and another to Jax Dineen, while only throwing one interception. Crittenden also gave Free State’s offense a big boost in the first quarter with a 40-plus yard run.


6. Adam Tapp, jr. DT — Tapp had a near-sack in the first half when he wrapped up SM Northwest quarterback Spencer Stewart for no gain. The Free State defensive tackle over-powered the Cougars’ under-sized offensive line.


7. Noah Kema, sr. TE/DT — Kema had a fairly quiet night on the offensive side of the ball after a 21-yard catch in the first quarter, but he played a big role in anchoring the Firebird defensive front.


8. Nathan Spain, jr. C — Spain helped the Firebirds control the line of scrimmage and was a big reason why Jax Dineen had large holes to run through for most of the night.


9. Sam Hambleton, sr. NT — Hambleton and the Free State defensive line had a difficult challenge in front of them with stopping SM Northwest standout running back Xavier Perry. Hambleton was not fazed, though, as he helped the Firebirds bottle up Perry for 39 yards on 13 touches.


10. Chase Houk, sr. LT — Houk sprung Crittenden free with a critical block on his long run in the first quarter, and also kept the senior quarterback upright by protecting his blind side.


• Rankings from Chris Duderstadt

Lawrence High School receiver Ekow Boye-Doe (12) catches a pass in the 1st quarter to set up a Lions touchdown in their win against Shawnee Mission West Friday night at LHS.

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As always, feel free to comment, email me, or find me on Twitter @nightengalejr.