They did it in 2006-07, and with Tuesday night’s win over Chase County, the Olpe boys finished off another perfect regular season.
Led by junior Bradley Argabright’s 27 points and senior Cole Krueger’s 18, the Eagles pulled away from Chase County in the second half, holding them to eight points after the break in a 59-29 win. Olpe finished the regular year at 20-0 and now awaits its substate opponent next Monday, which could be the Bulldogs again.
“Just to get that feat is a big accomplishment for the kids, and memories for them down the road,” Olpe coach Chris Schmidt said. “And I think we had to do some good things to get there, and be proud of that.”
Olpe led 16-5 in the first quarter, but Chase County ripped off a 12-0 run between the first and second quarters to take a 17-16 lead. The Eagles went back ahead and took a 29-21 lead to the locker room.
“I give (Chase County) some credit,” Schmidt said. “I thought they did some good things offensively, but our defense was a little sluggish. We kind of talked about that before the game — we’d had a week off, and sometimes you come out a little flat.”
The Eagles woke up defensively in the second half, forcing turnovers and limiting Chase County to four points in both the third and fourth quarters.
Argabright had 10 of his 27 points in the first quarter.
“And then, in the third quarter, Brad, he kind of led us on defense,” Schmidt said. “He had eight points there, and several of that was getting into the passing lanes, and I think he stole a couple just from pressuring the ball.”
Krueger was a starter on the team that went undefeated in the regular season two seasons ago, but he’s about the only player who’s been a major contributor on both undefeated Eagle teams. Jim Lauer led Chase County (4-15) with nine points. The Bulldogs will host Flinthills on Saturday in a substate play-in game, with the winner taking on Olpe on Monday.
“We thought going (into the season) that we had a good nucleus coming back, and we felt good that we could end up being a pretty good team,” Schmidt said. “To go 20-0, probably, I wouldn’t have thought that was something to do with our league, especially some games we’ve had here down the stretch. ... So it’s a big accomplishment.”
Tuesday at Chase County
Olpe 16 13 13 17 — 59
Chase County 13 8 4 4 — 29
Olpe (20-0) — Krueger 18, Argabright 27, Klumpe 6, Vaughn 3, Dreier 2, Swan 2, Blankley 1.
Chase County (4-15) — Lauer 9, Cole 5, Talkington 4, Lang 5, Davis 2, Benjamin 2, Jones 2.