Rossville Defeats Colgan

From the Capital-Journal:

ROSSVILLE — As much of a lethal weapon as quarterback Tucker Horak is, defending Rossville is truly a “pick your poison” situation.

Colgan knew that going into Friday’s Class 3A playoff quarterfinal, but still concentrated its effort on containing the Bulldawgs’ All-State quarterback.

“You just can’t let Horak beat you,” Colgan coach Chuck Smith said. “Our game plan was to stop him and make the others beat you.”

And that’s just what happened. Christian Roduner and Dawson Hammes turned in big offensive nights and Horak delivered the knockout blow as Rossville fought past the Panthers 42-32 to earn a spot in the Class 3A semifinals. The defending champion Bulldawgs (12-0) won their 26th straight game and will play host to Wellsville (10-2), a 31-14 winner over Sabetha, next week.

Colgan finished the season 9-3, losing to Rossville in the playoffs for the second straight year.

In most offenses, Roduner and Hammes very well could be the headliners. But with Horak running the Bulldawg attack, the two are somewhat relegated to supporting roles, and that’s just fine with them.

At the same time, when they’re called upon, they’re ready.

“Every chance I get to have the ball, I want to make the most of it,” said Roduner, a senior receiver. “Same for Dawson. Early on when we get the ball, we just want to set the tempo. Whenever my number gets called, I get excited and I just do my job to the best of my ability whenever that happens.”

It was Roduner who got the Bulldawgs going in Friday’s game, busting a 46-yard touchdown run on a jet sweep five plays into the game. The Bulldawgs followed his lead, scoring on all three first-half possessions with Horak adding touchdown runs of 1 and 26 yards.

But just as was the case in last week’s playoff win over Nemaha Central, the Bulldawgs couldn’t shake Colgan. The Panthers answered Roduner’s opening touchdown with a field goal and then got a 2-yard touchdown pass from Ryan Cedeno to Connor O’Brien to cap their second drive.

Rossville led just 21-11 at halftime, thanks to Horak’s touchdown run with 1:20 left in the half.

“I thought they had a good game plan,” Rossville coach Derick Hammes said of Colgan. “We knew Cedeno was going to be tough to deal with. Fortunately, we built a little bit of a cushion at the beginning of the game. Our mistakes hurt us a bit and they made some plays.”

Rossville not only had a cushion but was on the verge of blowing out Colgan when Dawson Hammes finished off the Bulldawgs’ first drive of the second half with an 11-yard touchdown run to make it 28-11. Rossville’s defense opened the half with a three-and-out and then held on fourth down on Colgan’s next possession.

But the Panthers got a big break when a Horak pass to the flat was tipped up into the air by the Bulldawg receiver and O’Brien snagged it and returned it 55 yards to the Rossville 5. Two plays later, Cedeno hit O’Brien for a 4-yard score to get the Panthers back within 10.

Colgan couldn’t get any closer. After Horak hit Roduner for a 35-yard touchdown pass, Cedeno and O’Brien hooked up for a third score. Horak then delivered the back-breaker with another highlight-reel touchdown run, breaking one tackle after another on a 54-yard jaunt for a 42-25 lead.

Colgan scored in the final 20 seconds on a 2-yard pass from Cedeno to Garrett Normand, but it wasn’t enough.

Horak finished with 188 yards on the ground and three touchdowns, while throwing for 51 yards. But Hammes added 104 yards rushing and Roduner had a combined 123 yards rushing and receiving to offset a 215-yard passing night by Cedeno.

“I think our balance helped us tonight,” Hammes said. “They did a good job on a couple of our base plays of bottling Tucker up and we were going to need other guys. We’re certainly going to have to have that moving forward.”

Colgan (9-3) 3 8 7 14 — 32

Rossville (12-0) 14 7 7 14 — 42

Ross — Roduner 46 run (Nascimento kick)

Colgan — Steinmiller 22 field goal

Ross — Horak 1 run (Nascimento kick)

Colgan — O’Brien 2 pass from Cedeno (Esch pass from Cedeno)

Ross — Horak 26 run (Nascimento kick)

Ross — Hammes 11 run (Nascimento kick)

Colgan — O’Brien 4 pass from Cedeno (Steinmiller kick)

Ross — Roduner 35 pass from Horak (Nascimento kick)

Colgan — O’Brien 5 pass from Cedeno (Steinmiller kick)

Ross — Horak 54 run (Nascimento kick)

Colgan — Normand 2 pass from Cedeno (Steinmiller kick)

GAME IN FIGURES

                      Ross     Col

First downs        18      17

Rushes-yards  38-370 41-104

Passing             51      215

Comp-Att-Int 4-7-1 20-31-0

Punts            2-27.0  1-27.0

Fumbles-Lost   1-0     1-1

Penalties-Yards 5-40 6-58

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Colgan: Battitori 17-34, Cedeno 16-33, Stewart 1-minus 1, Beck 4-14, Hayes 2-40, Esch 1-minus 16. Rossville: Horak 21-188, Hammes 11-104, Roduner 5-75, Balch 1-3.

PASSING — Colgan: Cedeno 20-31-0, 215 yards. Rossville: Horak 4-7-1, 51 yards.

RECEIVING — Colgan: Hayes 2-12, Battitori 3-19, Normand 8-151, O’Brien 4-17, Stewart 1-7, Beck 2-9. Rossville: Roduner 3-48, Hammes 1-3.

Rossville Advances

    Rossville goes to the semifinal game next Friday after defeating St. Marys Colgan 42-32 on an ideal football night in Rossville.    The game wasn't quite as close as the score would indicate as Colgan scored their final TD with 17 seconds left on the clock.
    The Dawgs handled the panther running game,  but were susceptable to the long pass, and helped the panther cause with a couple pass interference  penalties.
    The Dawgs did most of  their damage on the ground with 365 rushing yards lead by Tucker Horak with 195, Dawson Hammes with 90  and Christian Roduner with 75 yards.  Tucker was 4/7 passing for 52 yards and one TD.
    Horak had one interception when his receiver juggled the ball and the panther defender grabbed it in mid-air and ran it back to within the 5 yard line, where Tucker eventually caught him. This resulted in an quick TD for the panthers two plays later.
 

Dawgs Lead At Half

    The Dawgs have a half-time lead over St. Marys Colgan of 21-11.   Each time has scored when they got the ball.  Rossville received the initial kick,  so they scored their three TDs.  Colgan only got a field goal on their first possession, but got a TD and 2 pt converstion the next time.  
    The Dawg defense has been able to stop the running game,  but Colgan has completed a number of passes to stay close.
    Colgan will receive the 2nd half kick-off,  which gives them a chance to close the gap in what has turned into a real dawg fight.

Kaw Valley # 321 Fifty Years Old

By The Capital-Journal

Two towns with a history as rivals, from two different counties, met on common ground 50 years ago to form one unified school district.

And so on Tuesday the students from Rossville Grade School, in Shawnee County, and those from St. Marys Grade School in adjoining Pottawatomie County got together in St. Marys to celebrate the 50-year anniversary of Kaw Valley USD 321.

In a show of both individuality and togetherness, the school kids maintained separate roles in building a common design that spelled out "Kaw Valley 50" over the length of a football field.

The red-clad kids from Rossville formed the "5" and the word "Kaw." The blue-clad St. Marys kids formed the "0" and the word "Valley."

An aerial drone recorded an overhead view of the formation for a district-wide grade school team photo, and a balloon release followed.

CJ Football Game Predictions

Capital-Journal CLASS 3A Computerized Football Playoff Predictions

93.9 Hoisington 0.4  HALSTEAD 93.5

106.5 ROSSVILLE 26 Colgan 80.5

85 SABETHA 1.2 Wellsville 83.8

106.7 WICHITA COLLEGIATE 14.1 Norton 92.6

2 N 2 Video

    New Video from Rossville High about safe driving.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs0RKSP6ksg&feature=em-subs_digest-g

Two Vehicle Accident On Main St.

From the Capital Journal:

by phil.anderson@cjonline.com

ROSSVILLE — No serious injuries were reported Monday morning in a two-vehicle collision in northwestern Shawnee County that restricted traffic on a highway for about an hour.

Emergency crews were called about 7:45 a.m. to the intersection of N.W. US-24 highway and Main in Rossville after a pickup truck and passenger car collided.

Authorities initially indicated one person suffered serious injuries in the crash, but officers later said those injuries didn’t require ambulance transportation to a hospital.

Shawnee County sheriff’s deputies on the scene said the crash occurred when a white Chevrolet passenger car that was northbound on Main failed to yield the right of way, pulling out in front of a gray Ford F-150 pickup truck that was eastbound on US-24 highway.

The driver’s side of the Chevy was heavily damaged, and the pickup truck’s front end also was damaged.

The vehicles came to rest against each other facing east on the northeast corner of the intersection.

Officers directed traffic around the crash scene until tow trucks arrived and moved the crashed vehicles.

Pre-Season 321A Wrestling Rankings

The Dawgs are ranked #3 in the pre-season ranking by the KWCA.  Ahead of them are Norton (1)and Hoisington (2).  Trailing Rossville is Scott City (4) and Silver Lake (5).  Ranked in the top six of their weight classification are: Bryce Gfeller (113#),  Alex Cavanaugh (126#), Isaiah Luellen (138$), Derek Gentry (152#, Isaac Luellen (182#) and Kole Davoren (220#).  

Click on image below to enlarge.

Seniors Attend KU Honors Program

RHS Seniors Attend KU Honors Program Reception

The Kansas Honors Program sponsored by KU Endowment and Alumni Associations recognizes and awards high school seniors for their academic achievements. Each year, the alumni gather in more than 40 locations across the state for an awards ceremony and reception. All high school seniors in the top ten percent of their graduating class are recognized and presented a certificate and a special edition dictionary. The Scholars are selected based on academic records through the end of their junior year.

Rossville High School recognized four seniors at the Kansas Honors Program held on November 3, 2015, at the Ramada Inn Downtown in Topeka. The seniors recognized were Eric Ebert, son of Kyle & Karen Ebert; Justin Logan, son of Spencer & Cindy Logan; Kyle Parr, son of Howard & Rhonda Parr; and Britnee Zemek, daughter of Harley & Amy Douglas.

 RHS Kansas Honors Scholars 

pictured with their dictionaries are from left: 

Eric Ebert, Kyle Parr, Britnee Zemek, and Justin Logan.

Rossville Football Video

     Here is KSNT video of the Rossville-Nemaha game and also the Silver Lake-Sabetha game:

http://ksnt.com/2015/11/07/h-s-football-playoffs-rossville-sabetha-burlingame-axtell-advance/

     WIBW also has video of the game at:

http://www.wibw.com/sports/ksprepzone/headlines/KPZ-Week-10-Rossville-at-Nemaha-Central-342748242.html

Meeting To Decide Bridge Funding

From the Capital Journal:

The Topeka and Shawnee County Joint Economic Development Organization will meet Nov. 18 to discuss the allocation of revenue from a countywide half-cent sales tax dedicated to infrastructure and economic development.

Whether the city and county can reach an agreement at that meeting on how the funds will be used is unknown — there appear to be more worthy causes on the board than can be funded. But it is good that the meeting, called by Mayor Larry Wolgast in response to a request from Shawnee County Commission Chairman Kevin Cook, will occur.

Topeka officials had planned to wait until December to conduct such a meeting but the county has a pressing issue it wants decided earlier — the funding available for construction of a new, $24 million bridge over the Kansas River to replace the deteriorating Willard Bridge.

As of this writing, the city and county governing bodies differ on how they would allocate the revenue generated by a 15-year extension of the sales tax, which voters approved last year. Now, they must draft an interlocal agreement, which has to be approved by both governing bodies, on the use of that money.

Article About Horak & RHS

   Here is a very interesting article about Tucker Horak and the Rossville football team written back before the current season started.
http://kansas-sports.com/ks/news/?id=5983&t=faces-in-ks-tucker-horak

3A Playoff Picture

   The Dawgs will play Pittsburg St. Marys Colgan next Friday at Rossville.  The Dawgs are now 11-0 and Golgan is 9-2.
    Sabetha's surprise 34-28 win at Silver lake on Saturday means that there will not be an encore of the 2015 War on 24.  In recent years,  the two schools have usually met a second time in the playoffs,  usually the state semi-final.  Sabetha (7-4) will play  at Wellsville (9-2) on Friday and the winner will play the winner of the Rossville - Colgan game.
    In other 3A playoff games this Friday will be Hoisington (11-0) at Halstead (11-0) and Norton (9-2) at Wichita Colegiate (11-0).

Willard Bridge Budget To Be Set

On Monday, Shawnee County public works director Tom Vlach will ask county commissioners to approve the operating budget for the pending Willard Bridge reconstruction project. That budget calls for $23,546,466 from Shawnee County. Those funds will come for a combination of sources:

■ Remainder from the 2004 countywide half-cent sales tax. About $6 million is left over.

■ Between $7 million and $10 million for a Kansas Department of Transportation loan.

■ A still unknown amount from the 2017 sales tax extension.

■ A yet-to-be-determined amount from federal obligation funds, a federal match for roads and bridge projects and temporary financing or general obligation bonds, if necessary.

How much money will come from each source will be determined after the county knows exactly how much to expect from the sales tax extension and KDOT loan, Vlach said.

Another $1,158,406 will come from Wabaunsee County. Shawnee County already has spent $1.4 million on bridge design.

Setting the project budget is necessary for drafting an agreement with Wabaunsee County, Vlach wrote in a memo to the commissioners. The county will be able to open bidding for the project at 2 p.m. on Dec. 2 with the contract awarded by Dec. 22.