Sophomore linebacker Colton Beebe has already made a mark in the Piper football annals. He led the Pirates in tackles as a freshman and is second this season with 104, trailing only fellow inside linebacker Blake Martin (109). Beebe also has racked up 531 yards and three touchdowns rushing, with 119 yards and another touchdown receiving, as arguably the squad’s most gifted player. With Piper playing for a crack at its first Kansas 4A championship-game berth, we asked Beebe to go Four Downs with The Star.

Q. 1. The team is doing things that have never been done before at Piper. How much excitement is there around the halls right now?

A. “Everybody around the halls and in the community is excited about our accomplishments. People who don’t normally associate with the football team are taking notice. We’ve had a lot more people the last two home games than we have all season at our games.”

Q. 2. Are you guys handling the nerves better or has it kept building since the Jefferson West game?

A. “I don’t really think anybody on our team is that nervous. We’re confident in our play and we let that show in our play. I mean, I guess we’re nervous, but we still have that confidence when we step on the field, and we haven’t felt overwhelmed.”

Q. 3. Eudora got you guys 25-7 in the season opener. Why might it be different this time?

A. “Our team has developed a lot throughout the season. We’ve gotten better at everything we do, especially our linemen. The seniors have set a great example of how hard we need to fight, and we’ve all followed along.”

Q. 4. The Chiefs get penalized and ridiculed when they try to have fun, but what would your touchdown or sack celebration look like?

A. “I don’t have one. I normally just get excited with the teammates. If I had one, I’d probably do a little muscle flex — probably Clay Matthews style — but I don’t expect to break that out against Eudora.”

 6 Defensive touchdowns for Lawrence Free State, 11-1, which got a fumble recovery by Blake Winslow for a score during last week’s 28-17 quarterfinal win against Olathe East. That puts a premium on ball security for SM West, which has committed only nine turnovers this season and faces the Firebirds at 7 tonight at SM South District Stadium in the Kansas 6A semifinals.

32 Total touchdowns this year for Fort Osage quarterback Steven McBee. He has split the scores evenly, with 16 passing touchdowns and 16 rushing touchdowns. McBee has totaled 3,044 yards of offense during his senior season.

100.39 Quarterback rating for St. Thomas Aquinas’ Danten Cosentino, which is higher than his counterpart from Bishop Miege in tonight’s Kansas 5A semifinal, Montell Cozart. Cosentino has completed 111 of 189 passes (58.7 percent) for 1,639 yards with 20 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Cozart, who rating is 96.1, has completed 182 of 321 passes for 2,456 yards with 23 touchdowns and seven picks.

3,384 Rushing yards for the Harrisonville Wildcats this season. That equates to 260 yards per game on the ground for the run-first offense. Quarterback Zach Davidson leads the team with 956 rushing yards and 21 touchdowns.

Tod Palmer (tpalmer@kcstar.com) and Sam McDowell (smcdowell@kcstar.com) contributed to this report.