photo by: John Young

After getting behind the Shawnee Mission East secondary, Lawrence High junior receiver Ekow Boye-Doe (12) hauls in a long pass for a touchdown during their game Friday night at LHS.

In a matchup between the top two teams in the Sunflower League standings, Lawrence High’s football team learned why Shawnee Mission East is such a tough matchup for opponents.


The Lancers feature the top offense in the state, scoring 35 points in the first half on their way to a 48-26 victory over Lawrence. The way they run the flexbone offense is so much faster, more explosive than any other team in the league. Then their defense has the size and physicality to punish offenses.


In the first half, the Lions needed things to go right to keep up with the Lancers offensively. But a fumble on the first drive and an injury to junior quarterback Dante Jackson hurt those chances. Instead, SM East proved its among the elite teams in Class 6A this season, along with Derby and Blue Valley.


Fortunately for the Lions, they don’t have much time to dwell on the loss. Not when the City Showdown is a few days away.


Free State’s football team didn’t play its best in a 28-14 road victory over Olathe East, when the Firebirds didn’t create as much offense as they wanted.


It’s likely just a matter of jumping out to a faster start. In the last four weeks, all wins, the Firebirds only have two offensive touchdowns in the first quarter.


The Firebirds are tied with SM East in the league standings and could earn a share of a league title for the first time since 2013. They lost to SM West in the first week, but that was technically an open date (choice to play any team) and didn’t count toward the league standings. But of course, they have enough motivation for the upcoming City Showdown matchup without worrying about a league title.


“All the seniors remember last year and how we lost that game,” FSHS senior Jay Dineen said. “It still leaves a feeling in my stomach that’s just not good. We need to get that one back.”


Now for a look ahead to next week:


Lawrence High at Free State on Friday at 7 p.m. — For the first time since 2013, the City Showdown returns to its spot as the last game of the regular season because of the end of the district playoff format. Free State, which has won eight of the last 10 rivalry games, leads the all-time series, 11-8. Lawrence High won last year’s game, 14-12. We’ll have much more coverage of the City Showdown throughout the week on ljworld.com.

photo by: John Young

After getting behind the Shawnee Mission East secondary, Lawrence High junior receiver Ekow Boye-Doe (12) hauls in a long pass for a touchdown during their game Friday night at LHS.

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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. Trey Moore, sr. RB — In the first half, Moore had some success running the ball — rushing for 67 yards in the first half on 15 carries. He helped push the Lions across midfield on a couple of drives against a strong SM East front-seven. With the game out of hand, Moore didn’t stop running hard with two long touchdowns in the fourth quarter. Moore finished with 217 yard, 150 on his last three carries.


2. Santino Gee, sr. LB — When SM East’s starting offense was on the field, the Lions only had three run plays that were stopped for no gain. Gee made two of those tackles, including a huge hit with his shoulder in the third quarter. He did a nice job of filling the gap on run plays up the middle and making tackles.


3. Ekow Boye-Doe, sr. WR/CB — With the Lions struggling to find a rhythm on offense, Boye-Doe faked like he was run blocking, then ran past every defender for an easy 60-yard touchdown catch. His only negative was he fell down on the chest bump following the score. Boye-Doe finished with two catches for 68 yards.


4. Jake Unruh, sr. DE — Unruh made some nice tackles around the line of scrimmage on a couple of run plays that went to his direction and he provided a decent pass rush on a couple of drop backs.


5. Dante Jackson, jr. QB/CB — The biggest theme in Lawrence’s two losses this season is that Jackson had to exit because of an injury. He was under pressure on nearly every pass attempt, dancing around in the backfield like a punt returner before throwing the ball (6 of 8 for 114 yards). The Lancers did a good job of keeping him from running too much and they certainly hit him as much as possible on option plays.


6. Clarence King, soph. WR — Trailing by 15 points in the second quarter, Jackson heaved up a toss when he was under heavy pass pressure on 4th-and-18 and King caught a jump ball over a defender to the one-yard line for a critical first down. The Lions scored on the next play to cut the score to 21-12 before the Lancers scored a pair of touchdowns to end the first half. King had two catches for 36 yards.


7. James Reeder, sr. DB –Forced a punt during the first quarter with a key tackle on 3rd-and-6, which was SM East’s fifth or sixth punt of the year. Reeder did a nice job in pass coverage, breaking up a pair of passes included a toss near the end zone in the third quarter.


8. Jaxon Malone, soph. CB — Filling in for Jackson at cornerback after his injury, Malone made some nice tackles in the run game, including a sweep to the outside in the second half to force 4th-and-long.


9. Erik Shackelford, sr. LB — The speedy linebacker flew to the ball and made some nice tackles on run plays. The Lancers went with a short kickoff strategy, mostly kicking to Shackelford who did a nice job of holding onto the ball and he started to make some decent returns in the second half.


10. Mark Greene, sr. DT — Greene, along with BJ Murry and (I believe) Kaiden Ambrose, made some key tackles for short gains up the middle. The problem is it’s so difficult to stop the Lancers in the backfield because they are always running downhill.


• Rankings from Bobby Nightengale

Free State football

1. David Johnson, jr. LB — The Free State linebacker had a nose for the football in Friday night’s road matchup against Olathe East. Johnson forced one of three Olathe East fumbles. The Free State junior also snuffed out a bootleg when the Hawks went for it on 4th-and-3, and came up with a tackle just short of the line to gain to force a turnover on downs.


2. Zion Bowlin, sr. RB — Bowlin wasn’t pleased with his performance, but he still did plenty to get the Firebirds in the win column. The physical running back scored on a 61-yard touchdown run, and had 152 yards on 26 carries. Outside of the breakaway touchdown run, many of Bowlin’s yards came after contact.


3. Gage Foster, jr. LB — While the Hawks did not air it out much, they did not have much time to do so anyway thanks to Foster. The junior linebacker had a sack, a stop for no gain and had two near sacks of Olathe East backup quarterback Hunter Thomas that ended up being incompletions. Foster also played a big role in stopping the run.


4. Jay Dineen, sr. LB — Dineen was at the center of containing the Hawks’ flexbone-style offense, grabbing an interception late in the first half. The Free State senior was also able to get to the quarterback when the Hawks dropped back to pass. Dineen helped take down OE starting quarterback Will Scofield in the second quarter, and force a fumble that was recovered by the Firebirds. Scofield remained on the turf for 20 minutes before being carted off the field, but tweeted, “Thank you everyone for keeping me in your prayers and for the support it really mean a lot and I appreciate it,” following the game.


5. Zack Sanders, sr. WR — Sanders hauled in a team-high five receptions for 99 yards. His first two catches were just before the end of the first half while the Hawks were in a prevent defense, but they were big completions to build Free State quarterback Dallas Crittenden’s confidence after he struggled to hit his receivers.


6. Kameron Lake, so. K — Lake had plenty of distance his two successful field goals of 31 and 40 yards. His lone miss never had a chance with it being blocked by a Hawks player that was unblocked off of the edge.


7. Drew Wise, sr. LB — Wise came up with the fumble recovery on the play that Scofield was injured on. The Free State linebacking corps has been solid while the Firebirds try to patch up some holes in the secondary.


8. Dallas Crittenden, sr. QB — Crittenden did not have his best game throwing the ball, but he made a couple of big plays with his legs to prolong drives. The senior quarterback rushed for 42 yards and a touchdown on five carries, and also threw for a score late in the fourth quarter.


9. Daniel Bryant, sr. WR — Bryant was the recipient of Crittenden’s 36-yard touchdown pass over the middle. It was one of two catches for Bryant.


10. Nathan Spain, jr. NT/C — Spain started at nose tackle in place of Sam Hambleton, and helped stuff the Hawks run game. The Firebirds were disciplined for much of the night on both the offensive and defensive lines, as Free State only committed four penalties for 35 yards.


• Rankings from Chris Duderstadt

David Johnson (31) wraps up Trevon Kearney in first half action as Free State played Olathe East Friday at ODAC.

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It’s the last week of the regular season and here is a look at the current playoff standings:


If the season ended today, Lawrence High would be the No. 3 seed in the East bracket and would play No. 14 seed Olathe North in the first round at home, but of course, that’s likely to change in the next week. The Lions can’t improve their seed this week, but could drop to fourth with a loss.


The Firebirds are the No. 6 seed in the West bracket and could jump to as high as fourth with a victory. With a loss, the Firebirds could drop to seventh, depending on how Washburn Rural plays next week, but they are guaranteed a home game. If the season ended today, Free State would play No. 11 seed Dodge City in the first round.

6A East football playoff standings/Kpreps.com

6A West football playoff standings/Kpreps.com

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