Wichita-area all-stars lead the way as West retains Shrine Bowl title in 2020
Chance Omli called the defensive plays for the West in the second half. He is a player, not a coach.
Omli, a former Eisenhower and All-Metro safety, was just one of the Wichita-area’s Shrine Bowl all-stars in 2020, and though his play-making didn’t shine like others’, he was perhaps most impactful in the West’s 14-9 win over the East Saturday night at the Hummer Sports Complex.
West coach Tommy Beason, of Eisenhower’s rival Goddard High, gave Omli the game ball afterward. Omli watches maybe more film than anyone in the state. He realized the defense Beason implemented in practice was a carbon copy of what he ran at Eisenhower, even down to the language.
“I was just remembering similar looks I saw during the season, and Beason was always behind me,” Omli said. “He would always check me if I was wrong, the little amount of times I was. We made some adjustments in the second half on the white board. Football is a game of adjustments, and we came out with a dub.”
The West featured five Wichita Eagle All-Metro selections from the 2019 football season. All five were on the defensive side of the ball Saturday night in Topeka’s Hummer Sports Park:
- Trey DeGarmo - Andover Central, linebacker, Cowley County Community College (baseball)
- Tyler Dorsey - Derby, defensive line, Washburn University
- Scotti Easter - Andale, cornerback, Baker University
- Trevion Mitchell - Maize South, cornerback, Fort Hays State University
- Chance Omli - Eisenhower, safety, Butler County Community College
Including those players who just missed out on All-Metro selection last season, 15 of the 36 West players were from the Wichita area. And those players, especially the ones on defense, were the engine behind the West victory.
The East finished with 1 yard rushing on 27 attempts. The West gave up 187 through the air against 8-man legend Quinn Buessing, of Axtell, and Basehor-Linwood’s Chase Torkelson. But Humboldt’s Conor Haviland scored the East’s lone touchdown on a 1-yard effort.
The West’s biggest defensive stand came at the end of the first half. The East drove into the red zone after a pass interference call against Andale cornerback Scotti Easter against Fort Scott’s C.J. Horton, who is heading to K-State. Backed up near its own goal line, the West made an adjustment.
Goddard’s Carter Morrow, 3 inches taller than Easter, flipped assignments onto the 6-foot-6 Horton and made a jaw-dropping breakup in the corner of the endzone. A couple of plays later, Easter got redemption as he batted down another touchdown-bound pass.
Blue Valley Northwest’s Evan Ranallo, who hit a field goal on the other end of the field, missed an attempt, and the West took over.
“One thing these West guys had going in: They bonded, even in that short window,” Beason said. “Even comparing my last year’s team to this year’s team, it was night-and-day different. These guys were as glued together as possible, and it was cool to watch that growth.”
Late in the game, on East’s final offensive snap, Maize defensive lineman Keaton Robertson put a dangerous swim move on the East right tackle and got to the quarterback to seal the victory. It was the West’s sixth and final sack. The Wichita area accounted for 4.5 of them.
For having three All-Metro defensive backs in the secondary, Omli said the defensive line deserved all the credit Saturday. Beason agreed.
Several players on both teams dropped out of the game, and those losses were felt greatest on the defensive line. Two offensive linemen opted not to play, which forced Valley Center’s Tony Caldwell and Garden City’s Refugio Chairez to move to full-time offensive line duty.
The West played with four defensive lineman in a 4-3 scheme all night: Robertson, Bishop Carroll’s Phoenix Smith, Norton’s Judson Wiltfong and Derby’s Tyler Dorsey, a Top 11 pick. Robertson said the group was well-conditioned and showed even more strength in its bond.
“Those are my guys now,” Robertson said. “I’ve only known them for a week, and I met brothers for life.”
West’s first score came on a 1-yard run from Norton’s Kade Melvin after Wichita North’s Joe Williams III, Wichita West’s Jeremiah Brown Sedgwick’s Kale Schroeder, Goddard’s Kaeden Hoefer and Cheney’s Riley Petz accounted for 89 yards on the drive.
The game-winner was on a 44-yard sprint from Great Bend’s Dalton Miller, who played quarterback in high school and was named the game’s MVP on five carries for 52 yards.
“I was talking with coach (Erin) Beck (of Great Bend),” Miller said. “He said, ‘All I need is one seam, one breakaway play. It came to me, and I’m just so thankful. Great blocking, great counter play.”
With the win, the West has won back-to-back Shrine Bowls and three of the past four. The East has also been held under double-digits in back-to-back Shrine Bowls for the second time since 2010.
“Everything that worked tonight was because of what happened off the field,” said Mitchell, the former Maize South All-Metro cornerback. “We got really close really fast. The very first day, we already had that trust in everyone. There was no weak link.”
This story was originally published July 18, 2020 at 11:31 PM with the headline "Wichita-area all-stars lead the way as West retains Shrine Bowl title in 2020."