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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Bill Arnold reached a rare milestone Friday night, posting his 200th win as a high school football coach in Hayden's 41-7 road win at Olpe in the 2023 season-opener.
"It just means you're getting old,'' Arnold told TopSports.news earlier in the week.
Arnold is now 200-65 as he begins his 24th season as a head coach and his 17th season at Hayden after an earlier stint at Scott City.
Arnold, who has coached Hayden to state championships in both football and baseball, said he looks at the 200-win achievement as a testament to the teams he's been fortunate enough to coach.
I don't look at it as any type of personal thing,'' Arnold said. "I look at it more that as a head coach I've been involved in two really good programs and I've had a lot of good players and a lot of good assistant coaches right along with me.''
Arnold has averaged 8.6 wins a year over his 23 full seasons.
"I think it keeps you young a little bit, but I feel old sometimes,'' Arnold said. "High school is ever-changing, too. The game has changed just not at the NFL or the college level but it's a trickle down effect to the high school level and society has changed a lot, too.''
But through all the changes, Arnold said he is still enjoying himself.
"I like what I do,'' he said. "It's fun. It becomes a way of life. I've been fortunate to have great family support. It takes a special person to be a coach's wife and I got lucky in that aspect of it.
"And both my kids, they've undersood everything that goes into it and all three of them have been there to support me all the way through.''
Arnold's wife, Mickey, is a Hayden grad and been a long-time member of the school staff while son Grant Arnold played for his dad at Hayden and is currently a member of his coaching staff while daughter Kalie played volleyball for the Wildcats.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Wichita East's football team moved the ball up and down the field against Washburn Rural Friday night, finishing with an unofficial total of 426 offensive yards, including 244 passing yards from senior quarterback Daeonte' Mitchell.
But the Junior Blue defense came up big play after big play to help turn the tide, including a late-game blocked extra point by senior JC Heim that proved to the difference in Washburn Rural's 26-25 season-opening win at Bowen-Glaze Stadium.
"I got it with my full hand,'' Heim said. "It was a lucky block though. Originally I started on the left side, but then I was like, I'm going to try something new.' So I came from the right and I took the right angle and it just happened that God gave me a block.It was awesome.''
Senior Jaren Heim had a 24-yard pick six for the Junior Blues while JC Heim and junior Lafayette Thompson also picked off passes and Rural also recovered a fumble and took advantage of a botched punt snap as Rural held on for the win.
"We still have a lot to work on but I think what makes us special is we didn't give up and that was important this game,'' JC Heim said. "We all gang tackled and one big play didn't affect us and we went to the next play.
"I knew they were going to bring out speed. I knew their quarterback was a great player and I knew their defense was going to be tough and it was going to be a great game.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
PITTSBURG – Washburn University football played No. 4-ranked Pittsburg State within six points through the first half Thursday night, but the Gorillas scored on three straight drives and added a defensive score as the Ichabods fell 34-7 in the season-opener.
The Ichabods will return to Yager Stadium to open their home slate against Missouri Southern next Thursday at 6 p.m.
The Ichabods (0-1 overall, 0-1 MIAA) trailed at the half 6-0 after the Gorillas (1-0, 1-0) connected on a 45-yard field goal to end the second quarter.
In the opening half, the Ichabods were outgained 223 yards to 91, including a 142 to 29 advantage by the Gorillas in the second quarter.
The Ichabods took the second half kickoff, but an interception on the third play of the drive inside their own 20 returned to the ball back to the Gorillas and four plays later Pitt State pushed its lead to 13-0 on a 1-yard run with 12:09 to play in the third quarter.
Washburn would then go on a 14-play, 80-yard drive, taking 7:05 off the clock, cutting the Gorilla lead to 13-7 with 4:51 to play in the third quarter.
The drive was capped on a 1-yard pass from Kellen Simoncic to D.J. Bell for the first Ichabod points of the season. The Ichabods converted a fourth-down play on the drive on a 15-yard pass completion from Simoncic to Shawnee Heights product Tyce Brown.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University soccer kicks off its 2023 season with Friday and Sunday road matches in St. Louis, Mo.
Washburn will face Drury in a 5 p.m. match on Friday before facing Missouri-St. Louis on Sunday at noon.
The Ichabods are coming off an 11-6-2 record in 2022, finishing sixth in the MIAA.
Drury went 6-3-8 last season and 3-2-7 in the GLVC before losing in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament.
Missouri-St. Louis was 6-7-5 in 2022 with a 3-4-5 record in the GLVC. The Tritons advanced to the semifinals of the GLVC tournament. They take on Northwest Missouri State Friday before taking on Washburn.
The Ichabods, picked sixth in the MIAA Preseason Coaches Poll, returns 19 players from last season's roster while adding two transfers and seven freshmen.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
In a game of spurts, Hayden High's boys soccer team got the final and most important one Thusday at Hayden, scoring the final two goals to pull out a 3-2 win over Centennial League foe Topeka High and improve to 3-0 on the young 2023 season.
"It was a good win,'' Hayden coach Klaus Kreutzer said. "It was ugly. We scored on a great goal and then we gave them two and to our credit, at least they stayed with it. It's always nice to beat a (Class) 6A school for us.
"We've got a lot of younger players and they're making the effort. We've had a couple of balls bounce the right way and I'll always take that. I've had enough where they've bounced the wrong way.''