After six weeks of high school football, now’s the time when the stakes get raised. This upcoming week is the start of district playoffs.

Free State won’t face another Sunflower League opponent for the remainder of the season unless it’s in the state championship. Instead they look towards Topeka schools in District 5, with Washburn Rural, Topeka High and Manhattan.

Lawrence High will try to compete for the Olathe city title in District 4 by facing three Olathe schools (O-Northwest, O-North and O-East) over the next three weeks.

Both Free State and LHS have tough draws this year. The Firebirds get Manhattan (6-0, ranked No. 5 in Class 6A by Kpreps.com) and Topeka (5-1), who was ranked before it was upset by Shawnee Heights last week. The Lions get Olathe North (6-0, ranked No. 2) and the other two Olathe schools have .500 records or better.

But before we look too far ahead to the districts, here are some of my thoughts from Free State’s 21-6 victory over SM South.

•There’s not many places to throw against Free State’s secondary. Entering the season, teams were aware of how good senior cornerback Joel Spain was with all of his interceptions over the past two years. But on the other side of the field, Andrew Keating has made a name for himself. He had two interceptions last week, bringing his season total to four, and earning the “Keating Island” nickname from his teammates. Both Spain and Keating have great ball skills, and the Firebirds trust both of them in man-to-man situations.

•Junior quarterback Bryce Torneden kept the defense off balance with his runs and throws. Every opponent knows plenty about Torneden’s ability to run the ball on options and read-options (their “bread and butter,” Torneden calls them), as he ran for 154 yards last week. But in terrible weather, he completed two passes for 37 yards and a touchdown. On a few incompletions, he had an open receiver but just barely missed. The Firebirds haven’t really thrown the ball much over the past few weeks, but the touchdown throw was a positive sign.

•The Firebirds finished a few long drives, a problem they’ve had in recent weeks. That was a focus for the offense and they got it done. The first two drives of the game for FSHS, both ending with touchdowns: 5 plays, 67-yards; 7 plays, 48-yards. The offense still could do better on a few more drives (one ended at midfield after a false start, another by a lost fumble), but that has to provide some confidence after long drives stalled in the past couple of weeks.

•Some of the Firebirds’ injury woes are fading. The Firebirds got Carson Bowen and Khaury El-Amin back at running back Thursday, and they’re hopeful to get a few more defensive starters back this week. Free State changed its defensive scheme because of all the injuries in the victory, and the Firebirds executed well for the majority of the game. It’ll be interesting to watch if they stick with the new scheme when some guys come back (probably at less than 100 percent) or if they go back to the 3-5-3.

Lawrence High rallied back in the second half of its 29-21 loss to Olathe South and here are my thoughts:

•The second half showed a lot about this team. After trailing by 29 points at halftime, the defense stood tall in the second half after stopping four straight runs inside of the two-yard line on O-South’s first possession of the second half, giving the offense momentum for a 99-yard scoring drive. Afterward, Olathe South’s drives ended with three straight punts, an interception, and another punt in the final minute of the game. Not too many teams can turn it around like that against a top-five ranked team.

“I didn’t know what to tell them after that,” LHS coach Dirk Wedd said. “I was upset with them and I love them to death because they showed a lot of character and fight. I think we’ve got a shot — a legitimate shot — to make a run in next three games.”

•The Lions’ secondary was solid against a good passing team. After O-South quarterback Jake Seurer started the game 4-for-6 for 39 yards, the secondary held him to 1-for-7 for one yard over the remainder of the game (after the goal line stand). LHS senior safety Dearion Cooper highlighted the secondary’s play with two interceptions. There was also pass deflections from Ivan Hollins and a big pass breakup by Luke Zenger in man-on-man coverage to keep the game alive. The past few weeks, they’ve had some breakdowns in coverage, but this looked like their best performance in awhile.

•The Lions are going to make teams respect their passing game. A lot was made of Lawrence’s win two weeks ago when the Lions didn’t attempt a single pass (though winds and the score did play a factor). But junior quarterback Alan Clothier, who went 7-for-17 for 109 yards and 3 INT, kept the Falcons from loading the box on runs. He made some great throws, especially on the potential game-tying drive, and just overthrew a few more passes on the first half. He vowed after the game to make the team’s passing game even better. The key on Friday was that it was effective enough to keep teams from focusing too much on Lawrence’s run game.

•Speaking of the running game, it’s hard to bottle up JD Woods for an entire game. Olathe South did as well as any team has this season, holding Woods to just 38 yards on 15 carries in the first half. But all it took was one adjustment, leading to a cut back lane, that set up three runs of 19 yards or more in the second half, before he totaled 179 yards by the end of the game. It’s impressive how fast Woods can move in the second level.

“We made a couple of adjustments as far as going to the perimeter a little more,” Wedd said. “JD is special. Wow.”

Now for a look ahead to next week:

Washburn Rural at Free State on Friday at 7 p.m. — The Junior Blues (2-4) have struggled this season, but they have a strong quarterback in Blake Peterson, a Texas State commit. Not including Friday’s game, Peterson has thrown for 1,135 yards (227 per game), according to the Topeka Capital-Journal. His top receiver Jake Michalski had 14 catches for 340 yards.

Olathe Northwest at Lawrence High on Friday at 7 p.m. — After a 31-0 rout over SM Northwest, the Ravens (4-2) have some momentum heading into districts. Entering last week, they owned the top rushing defense in the Sunflower League, holding teams to just 86 yards per game on the ground. They also lead the league in points allowed, only 52 points over six games — the next closest teams have allowed 66 and 82.
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If Philadelphia is the city of Brotherly Love, then Lawrence might set claim for Sisterly Love. Especially, if we’re talking about girls tennis.

Lawrence High seniors Yelena and Anna Birt, twin sisters, won a regional championship in doubles over Free State junior Caitlin Dodd and freshman Ali Dodd, another set of sisters.

Along with the Birt and Dodd sisters, Free State will also send its doubles team of Rachel Walters and Taylor Hawkins to the state tournament this weekend.

But of the three doubles teams to qualify for state, it was impressive to watch the Dodd sisters win close game after close game. In the quarterfinals, their opponent called for a line judge midway through the second set because of disputed calls. That only added the drama when the Dodds led five games to four and had match point on a deuce, but lost the point and eventually went into a tiebreaker.

In the tiebreaker, no team really separated before the Dodds finally won two points in a row (winning match point on a double fault) for the 11-9 victory.

The two sisters were supporting each other between every point, “Only two more,” or “Come on, right here.” They had a similar close match in the semifinals, in which the opponent also called for a line judge.

One of their keys is Ali Dodd’s serve, which I overheard opponents saying “Watch out for those. They’re really good.”

“My serve is probably one of my strongest points,” Ali Dodd said. “I just like always think about where I’m going to hit it and where I’m going to put it in all of the time.”
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Free State’s gymnastics team finished second at the Sunflower League meet, while Lawrence High took ninth.

Free State senior Grace Bartle won a league title in the floor exercise and finished as runner-up in all-around and uneven bars. FSHS seniors Haley Johnson and Carrie Howland finished eighth and ninth in the all-around, respectively. Howland’s best finish was sixth in the vault and floor exercise, while Johnson took ninth in the floor and 10th in the vault. Junior Callie Hicks also added a third place finish on the uneven bars and was 12th on the beam.

Lawrence’s top placer was junior Ashley Ammann, who took third in the floor exercise and 12th in the all-around. Jordyn Leon also added a 22nd place finish on the bars, and Elizabeth Harms was 29th in the floor exercise.
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