SM East fights through a storm delay for victory against SM Northwest
Most of the fans spent the 50-minute lightning delay in their cars after being turned away by school district police at the main gates.
The cheerleaders instead opted for the locker rooms after a soggy, screaming jog across the track and turf as the wind blew over team benches and the rain shorted the scoreboard.
Shawnee Mission East coach Dustin Delaney and his Lancers decided to spend the delay alternating between stretches, walking and a little free time in the gym as tornadoes touched down less than 30 miles away from the SM South District Stadium.
The strategy seemed to work for the defending Kansas Class 6A state champions, who eased their way to a 44-20 victory against SM Northwest on Friday night. They improved to 3-0 with a 2-0 ledger in the Sunflower League, outscoring opponents 138-20 in that time.
The Cougars dropped to 1-2 and 1-1 in league play in Bo Black’s first year.
“We let them kind of get loose a little bit, because you don’t want them focused for that many hours in a row,” Delaney said. “Our kids did a good job of handling it and played well in the first half, I thought.”
Delaney attributed the successful recovery to his senior class that has now won 16 consecutive games and played in the last two Class 6A state title games. They have lost just twice in his two-plus years at the helm.
“With that much time off, weird things can happen, but our kids came out ready to play and excited that we were getting the game in,” Delaney said.
In fact, he said it was the Lancers’ best first half so far this year as senior running back Jack Tyler got the game started with a rushing touchdown on the first possession.
The defense kept the momentum going with a quarterback sack by Luke Heisdorffer that forced the Cougars to punt out of their own end zone. A few plays later, Lancers running back Mike Bamford had them back across the line to go up 14-0.
Bamford added one more touchdown before the end of the quarter on a 56-yard run.
The second quarter brought a touch of trouble for the Lancers with a fumble and a Cougar touchdown pass from Ron Kopp to Gerrit Prince for the team’s first allowed point of the season. But they recovered quickly with three more touchdowns and a safety before the break. Tyler scored the first, Luke Kaiser connected with Sky Tate and then Calvin Jones ran in the third for a dominant 44-7 lead. They scored on every possession and nearly passed their score total for each of the first two games in the process.
“We didn’t think we were going to shut out everyone all year, and Shawnee Mission Northwest has a high-powered offense,” Delaney said. “Our starters limited them to seven points, so we are pleased with their effort tonight.”
The Lancers removed their starters midway through the third quarter and did not score again. The Cougars scored on a 42-yard pass from Kopp to Prince to open the fourth.
Robert Strain scored the game’s final points on a 22-yard touchdown run.
Across town, SM East’s rival SM West also handled the delay with grace to defeat SM North on the road. SM East and SM West are two of the last three remaining undefeated teams in the Sunflower League and will face each other on Friday at the SM South District Stadium.
“Shawnee Mission West is as talented as anyone in the metro or the state,” Delaney said. “They have great athletes at every position, and coach (Tim) Callaghan is a great coach. We have known all along this will be a great game given the rivalry. We are looking forward to the challenge next Friday.”
To reach Kathleen Gier, call 816-234-4875 or send email to kgier@kcstar.com. Follow her on Twitter: @kgier.
This story was originally published September 19, 2015 at 12:11 AM with the headline "SM East fights through a storm delay for victory against SM Northwest."