Chieftains swamp De Soto
De Soto came into Friday night’s game against Tonganoxie with a 2-0 record and a highly-touted running back in senior Michael Allen.
The Wildcats left homecoming with its first loss and an inability to do much offensively.
If Tonganoxie fans stay up late enough, they can watch the Chieftains on television Friday on Channel 6. The Lawrence station will air the Tonganoxie-Immaculata football game at 10:30 p.m. on a tape-delay basis. Now that Sunflower Broadbrand has extended to Tonganoxie, the Chieftains’ home game will be highlighted as this week’s game of the week. “Eudora usually gets one game and we get one game and the rest of them are basically Lawrence High and Free State,” said Brandon Parker, THS athletics director. The game will also be aired again at 11 a.m. Saturday. Sunflower Broadband extended its viewing service to Tonganoxie last year. The business is owned by the World Company of Lawrence, which also owns Channel 6, The Lawrence Journal-World, The Mirror and five other local weekly newspapers.
Tonganoxie (2-1) shut down Allen, limiting him to 43 yards on 22 carries and tackling him for a loss nine times.
The senior was crowned homecoming king at halftime, but was far from superior against the Chieftains. Despite posting 2,000 yards the last two seasons, the Wildcat was a target for THS Friday.
“We’re just not blocking for him,” De Soto coach Brad Scott said. “He’s got nowhere to run. If he’s got nowhere to run, he’s not going to get any yards.”
Senior Andrew Miller put continued pressure on Allen and his Wildcat counterparts. The Chieftains had a shutout going until late in the game when quarterback Greg Francis scampered in from one-yard out.
“We held our own through the game,” Miller said. “I’ve got the best guys to play with this year. We just lined up and played smash-mouth football.”
Miller blocked a DHS punt and also spent much of the night in the Wildcat backfield.
“Andrew always goes hard,” THS coach Mark Elston said. “He knows we rely on him heavily on defense, and he stepped up and made some plays for us.”
After two weeks on the road, Tonganoxie will be back at home Friday with another conference game against Immaculata. The Raiders are 0-3 on the season.