Saturday, Nov. 07, 2009

North bounces back from slow start, pounds SM East

The scoreboard told a shocking tale at halftime Friday at the Olathe District Activity Center, where Olathe North hosted Shawnee Mission East in Kansas 6A regional football action.

The top-seeded and unbeaten Eagles led 14-7 midway through the contest against a Lancers team that came into play a game below .500 in its first season under Chip Sherman.

“You can say what you want about their record, but they were a much better football team than they were early in the year,” North coach Pete Flood said.

But the Eagles were still the better football team overall and that finally showed in the second half as North pulled away for a 42-14 victory and the program's third straight regional championship.

“We felt like we should have played a ton better (in the first half), but once we fixed those errors we were able to do what we usually do,” said junior quarterback Simmons, who rushed for 104 yards on seven carries.

A different North squad emerged from the locker room.

“We had too many mental errors, run-throughs on offense and some misalignments on defense,” junior linebacker Kyle Swartz said. “We were a little too relaxed, but we learned from this tonight.”

During the first seven minutes of the second half, the Eagles had three possessions, ran five plays covering covered 135 yards, and put 21 points on the board in only 54 seconds.

After the defense forced a punt, North went 41 yards in 13 seconds — a 37-yard run by Simmons and a 4-yard TD burst by senior Tre Walker.

Another SM East punt led to another two-play drive.

Senior James Franklin rumbled 11 yards on first down and junior Adonis Saunders took a short pass from David Blazevic and raced 49 up the far sideline for a score.

Following a Lancers three-and-out, Franklin powered up the gut and dashed 34 yards for another touchdown and a 35-7 lead.

“It's still not good, but the second half was reassuring,” Simmons said. “But we need to have that kind of performance first and second half. Until then, we won't be satisfied.”

Franklin added a 4-yard TD in the fourth quarter before SM East got on the board again with a 2-yard TD run by Kris Hertel, who finished with 107 yards on 36 carries.

The Lancers' defense bottled up Franklin in the first quarter, but that only meant other Eagles did the damage.

After three straight handoffs to Franklin, who finished 122 yards on 18 carries, netted a first down on the opening series, Blazevic used a play-action fake to suck SM East's safeties up and then lobbed a 60-yard TD toss over the top to Jason Peete.

With Simmons in at QB two series later, North added another touchdown on a 26-yard option keeper run by Simmons around the right edge.

But a funny thing happened — perhaps not so funny from Flood's perspective — in the second quarter as the penalty-prone Eagles racked up five penalties for 55 yards, which ended drives prematurely and allowed the Lancers to pick up easy yards.

“We actually started off pretty well, but hit a lull there,” Flood said. “We played one and a half quarters basically. We just told them they needed to relax. There were some things we didn't do very well, so we kind of refocused them at halftime then came out and took care of business.”

Behind senior Kris Hertel, who gained 52 on 10 carries during the possession, SM East marched 98 yards on 12 plays, aided by a taunting penalty against Tre Walker and a pass interference by David Haase.

Senior Kevin Hertel's sprawling 26-yard TD catch helped the Lancers pull within 14-7 at halftime. Franklin still needs 59 yards rushing to match Darren Sproles for the all-time career rushing record at North.

Kansas 6A regional playoffs

OLATHE NORTH 42, SM EAST 14

SME (4-6) 0 7 0 7 — 14

ON (10-0) 14 0 21 7 — 42

Scoring summary

First quarter

ON: Jason Peete 60 pass from David Blazevic (Jared Morss kick), 10:15

ON: Victor Simmons 26 run (Morss kick), 2:40

Second quarter

SME: Kevin Hertel 26 pass from John Schrock (Brennan Burns kick), 4:55

Third quarter

ON: Tre Walker 4 run (Morss kick), 9:16

ON: Adonis Saunders 49 pass from Blazevic (Morss kick), 6:40

ON: James Franklin 34 run (Morss kick), 5:24

Fourth quarter

ON: Franklin 4 run (Morss kick), 9:52

SME: Kris Hertel 2 run (Burns kick), 3:01

Team statistics

SME ON

Time of possession 28:35 19:25

First downs 19 17

Rushing-yards 42-119 33-274

Passing yards 77 129

C-A-I 7-23-0 5-8-0

Total yards 196 403

Fum/Lost 1-0 1-0

Pen/Yards 8-78 11-100

Individual statistics

Rushing

SM East: Kris Hertel 36-107, Adam Lowe 1-3, Robby Moriarty 3-(-14), Kevin Hertel 1-22, John Schrock 1-1.

Olathe North: James Franklin 18-122, Adonis Saunders 2-53, Victor Simmons 7-104, David Blazevic 1-(-6), Tre Walker 2-0, Tyrell Styles 2-1, Jordan Bruce 1-0.

Passing

SM East: Moriarty 4-14-0 40, Schrock 3-9-0 37.

Olathe North: Blazevic 4-7-0 119, Simmons 1-1-0 10.

Receiving

SM East: Kris Hertel 2-(-1), Kevin Hertel 2-39, Gabe Miller 3-39.

Olathe North: Jason Peete 2-66, David Haase 2-14, Saunders 1-49.

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