THS must first take care of business Friday when the Chieftains travel to Baldwin to take on the Bulldogs at Baker University’s Liston Stadium.

Records: Tonganoxie 6-0 overall and 5-0 in Frontier League play; Piper 0-6 and 0-6.

Last week: Tonganoxie’s ground game motored along, but there also were several passing highlights for the Chieftains as THS junior quarterback Blake Poje threw for four touchdowns.

Last meeting: Tonganoxie won, 20-0, in 2018. THS has won the last two meetings.

Series record: Tonganoxie leads the series, 10-6, since World War II, though this is only the third time during the 2000s or 2010s the teams have played. In fact, the first was 2013 when Baldwin won a second-round playoff game, 28-10. THS then won last year’s contest in the first year of being conference opponents after Tonganoxie joined the Frontier League earlier in 2018.

The teams split four contests in the 1990s, 2-2, including a district-clinching 23-7 season-finale victory in 1992 for Tonganoxie. Tonganoxie also won, 26-12, on homecoming night in what would be the team’s final meeting before 2013.

Tonganoxie and Baldwin mainly played each other in the 1950s and 1960s. They also played once in 1972, a 55-14 THS victory. The teams played in 1981 when Baldwin won, 30-8, in a first-round playoff game. Baldwin went on to win the Class 4A state title that year.

Coaches: Baldwin’s David Bowen is in his first year as Piper head coach. His record at Piper is 0-6. He previously was head coach at Thomas More Prep in Hays for a year. He is 3-12 overall as a head coach in two seasons. Bowen led the TMP junior high team to two undefeated seasons before taking over at the high school level. He also had experience coaching at Ness City. Aside, from athletics, he started the first FFA Chapter at a private school in Kansas at TMP. Tonganoxie’s Al Troyer is in his eighth year at Tonganoxie and 12th year overall. He is 48-29 at THS and 50-63 overall. Troyer was at Larned before coming to Tonganoxie. He also served as an assistant coach and offensive coordinator in the Texas high school football ranks.

Trends: Tonganoxie sits at No. 4 in the Class 4A rankings, according to K Preps and Catch It Kansas. Fellow Frontier League team Paola is No. 3, while Louisburg is No. 9 in CIK and in the “others considered” outside of the Top 5 for K Preps.

Two-minute drill: THS senior running back continues Tonganoxie’s tradition of having a go-to back putting up big numbers.

Cunnigham has 1,260 yards entering the Baldwin game, the seventh of the season. Last year, then-senior Korbin Riedel amassed 1,531 yards in 10 games. Riedel averaged 5.5 yards per carry, while Cunningham is averaging 8.6 per carry this season. Riedel averaged 153.1 a game compared to Cunningham’s current 210. Riedel had 17 rushing touchdowns and one other touchdown; Cunningham is at 10 rushing TDs and 11 total through six games this season. In 2017, Dalton Bock rushed for 1,441 yards in 10 games, averaging 8.6 yards per carry and 160 yards per game. He finished the season with 13 rushing touchdowns.

— Local high school football historian Jeff Hughes contributed to this story.