Playoff spot, league title on the line for Northern Heights and Mission Valley
By Joey Berlin
Thursday, October 23, 2008
It’s as big as regular-season games get: Northern Heights can win a share of a second straight Flint Hills League title on Friday night with a win over league leader Mission Valley, and the Wildcats can also cinch up a spot in the state playoffs, too.
Obviously, Heights has come a long way since the beginning of the year, when it was crushed by Olpe 55-14 in the opener and lost to Osage City in Week Three.
“Initially, we were kind of struggling a little bit, and we were kind of wondering where we were gonna head,” Wildcats co-head coach Tad Hatfield said. “And our young guys have done a great job of stepping up and filling some roles, and our seniors have stepped up and been good leaders for us. And we’ve gotten in a routine right now, and hopefully we’ll continue on.”
After opening Class 3A District 5 play last week with a 41-21 win over Council Grove, the Wildcats got a shock when they learned that previously unbeaten Mission Valley had been clocked 62-8 at Rossville in the other District 5 opener.
Now, the stage is set: Heights carries its 5-1 league record in to face 5-0 Mission Valley, and regardless of what happens the following week, the winner will be a league champion. Mission Valley would win it outright, while a Heights win would clinch a share of the title. And if Heights moves to 2-0 in district, that would clinch a top-two spot in the district standings because they hold the tiebreaker over Council Grove.
With four straight wins and a spread offense that’s been looking unstoppable, Heights will have momentum, and they’ll go into this game knowing that Mission Valley has cracks in its facade.
“After watching film, they made some mistakes, and Rossville got on ’em early,” Hatfield said. “But they’re still a very solid team, and a very good team that we’re gonna have to prepare for.”
In Mission Valley coach Lee Weber’s mind, Rossville was “better than advertised.” He agreed that the big score resulted from Rossville’s fast start, which he said took the Vikings out of their game plan.
“We like to run the ball a lot, and we got (down) 21-0. That doesn’t lend itself to comebacks, and we had to try to do some things to get back into the game, and Rossville made a lot of plays. ...
“It was just one of those quicksand games — just started getting down, and the more we try to dig ourselves out, the bigger we dug ourselves in a hole.”
Like seemingly every Heights opponent, Mission Valley will focus on running the ball and keeping it away from Heights’ offense. Wildcats quarterback Kenneth Bronson is now up to 1,975 yards passing this season with 22 TD passes, and he has a team-leading 427 yards on the ground, too. Roman Murray has 745 yards receiving on the year on 47 catches, and sophomore Nick Mendez has 503 yards on 32 grabs.
Both teams have plenty of experience along their offensive lines. Tailback Caleb Baber has been the beneficiary of Mission Valley’s experience up front, running for 660 yards. He’ll trade carries with Alvin Harris, who gets the ball on even-numbered series.
Northern Heights’ defense has improved under first-year coordinator Damon Leiss after tackling issues at the beginning of the year. The defensive line has been key in recent weeks, and Joel Young and Derrek Swanson have been productive at inside linebacker.
End Kyle Fritz is Mission Valley’s top defensive threat, but Harris is also a factor at outside linebacker and cornerback Ryan Cook has eight interceptions.
Though Heights is rolling and Mission Valley is coming off a demoralizing defeat, the Vikings don’t plan on letting last week’s loss affect this week’s game, or the rest of a season that they hope can continue beyond next week’s finale.
“It’s a championship game, and our kids are excited about it,” Weber said. “It’s been one of our goals all year. Irregardless of our loss last week, our goals that we’ve had all season are still there. We can still achieve ’em, and we’re not going to let Rossville beat us twice, if you know what I mean.”