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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Topeka High's game plan entering Friday night's Centennial League football game against Highland Park was to run the football.
Trojan senior star Tylas Alejos took that to the extreme, carrying the ball 27 times for 400 yards and scoring eight touchdowns as Topeka High pulled away in the second half for a 70-42 win over the Scots at Hummer Sports Park.
"Coach (Carlos Kelly) told us we were going to try to run the ball,'' Alejos said. "We liked what we had up front, so we just had to execute.''
Alejos set the tone for the night when he carried the ball all three times on High's 64-yard game-opening scoring drive, including a 32-yard touchdown run with 10:51 left in the first quarter.
The 5-foot-9, 190-pound Alejos also scored on runs of 21 yards and 4 yards in the first quarter and added a 6-yard TD in the second quarter, 71, 51 and 31-yard scores in the third quarter and a 21-yard TD in the fourth quarter. Alejos also ran for a 2-point conversion to finish with 50 points on the night.
Alejos knew he was having a big night, but tried to concentrate on the score and not the stats.
"I was really looking at the scoreboard and just making sure we got the win,'' Alejos said.
Trojan junior quarterback Peyton Wheat added 96 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 10 attempts while senior Talayah Thiomas kicked eight extra points as Topeka High improved to 2-3 overall and in the league..
Highland Park fell to 0-4 overall and 0-3 in the league with its 61st straight loss, but the Scots put up a spirited fight in the first half, trailing by just a 36-28 margin at the break.
The Scots took the second-half kickoff and drove to the Topeka High 2-yard-line, but junior quarterback Kei'Juan Johnson was thrown for a 13-yard loss on fourth down to stop the threat and Alejos scored on three long gallops to give the Trojans an insurmountable 57-34 lead entering the fourth quarter.
Highland Park junior star Tre Richardson had a monster night for the Scots in a losing cause, scoring five touchdowns.
Richardson scored the Scots' first touchdown on a 36-yard pass from senior quarterback Kellan Spruce and he also hauled in a 19-yard TD pass from Spruce, ran for an 80-yard touchdown and scored on a pair of 70-yard kickoff returns.
"Tre Richardson is electrifying,'' Kelly said. "He's that kid that wins every tag game. You put him in just (a little bit of room) and that's just too much room.''
Highland Park also got a 44-yard TD pass from Spruce to junior Tyrell Reed.
Spruce completed 14 of 17 pass attempts for 160 yards and the three TDs, but was picked off twice.
Richardson rushed for 105 yards on five attempts and caught five passes for 78 yards while Reed had seven catches for 67 yards.
"I tip my hat to Highland Park,'' Kelly said. "Those kids really fought hard.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Longstanding football rivals Washburn University and Emporia State will meet for the 117th time on Saturday, with the Hornets hosting the Ichabods in a 1 p.m. MIAA contest at Welch Stadium.
Washburn is 3-1 after a 47-41 home win over Missouri Western while 2-2 Emporia State is coming off a 30-28 road loss at Pittsburg State and its two losses have been by a total of three points.
The Ichabods and Hornets will be meeting for the first time since 2019, when Washburn took a 37-17 win in Emporia. Washburn trails the all-time series to the Hornets, 57-53-6.
"Rivalries are part of the fabric of college football and ours is a perfect rivalry,'' Washburn coach Craig Schurig said. "We're right down the street, the games are close.
"They're good. We feel like we're good and it should be a very intense, heated game. It's going to be a good game. They're talented across the board.''
The Washburn-Emporia State series is the second-most played series in NCAA Division II history as South Dakota Mines and Black Hills State have reclassified to NCAA Division II. Those two schools have met 134 times dating back to 1895.
Washburn senior quarterback Mitch Schurig, the reigning MIAA Offensive Player of the Week, needs one touchdown pass to reach 50 for his career. He currently ranks fourth on the all-time chart, trailing Dane Simoneau (102), Jordan Brill (57) and Tyler Schuerman (53) on the Ichabod chart.
Schurig has passed for 4,971 yards in his career, which is sixth on the Ichabod career chart. He needs 525 yards to move into the top five all-time.
The Washburn quarterback completed 24 of 30 pass attempts in the win over Missouri Western with five touchdown passes.
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By ISAAC DEER
TopSports.news
Seaman soccer extended its winning streak to three games Thursday night as senior Pablo Font scored both goals in a 2-0 home Centennial League win over Highland Park.
The Vikings are hot as of late after a rocky start to the season and it’s obvious that Seaman's spirits are high and the Vikes have momentum.
The Seaman defense has shut out its last three opponents and coach Jacob Kirmer likes the way the Vikings defense has played lately.
“The defense has been more consistent and working together,'' he said.
Seaman’s offense also continues to show improvement, led by the likes of Gavin Wilhelm, Font and others.
“We have started playing together as a team,'' Kirmer said. "We’ve moved the ball well and haven’t faced any issues on the offensive side of the ball.”
Font scored both his goals in the first half, with his first goal off an assist from freshman Kaelin Loy and his second score off a pass from senior Justin Kruse.
The Vikings' successful defensive outing was led by junior goalkeeper Ayden Thompson.
The second half lasted just about ten minutes before the game entered a rain delay with lightning strikes affecting the area.
After 50 minutes of delays, the game was called due to the storm.
Seaman improved to 4-7 on the season while Highland Park fell to 1-8-1 on the year.
SEAMAN 2, HIGHLAND PARK 0
Highland Park (1-8-1) 0 0 -- 0
Seaman (4-7) 2 0 -- 2
Seaman -- Goals: Font 2. Assists: Loy, Kruse. Shutout: Thompson
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Not everything went exactly the way Hayden wanted it to in Thursday's non-league boys soccer game against Cair Paravel Latin at the Sunflower Soccer Complex, but there were two very big positives for Klaus Kreutzer's Wildcats.
No. 1, Hayden was able to get the game in despite a weather delay of nearly an hour, and No. 2, the Wildcats were able to come out with a 3-1 victory over the pesky Lions to improve to 5-4 on the season.
"The way we've been playing that's a good thing because I really don't know what team shows up any more,'' Kreutzer said. "We've got the components and it's just like we can't all work at the same time. So I'll take the win and move on and be happy with that.''
Hayden never trailed against the Lions, with junior Nick Padilla scoring a goal in each half and the Wildcats also getting a first-half goal from junior Jake Muller, but Hayden also missed several scoring opportunities to put the game away against short-handed Cair Paravel, which suited up just 12 players.
"We need composure when we get in front of the goal and we need to not play the ball square across the field and make the goalkeeper look good,'' Kreutzer said. "I thought we were better at creating chances, we just didn't take advantage of the chances that we had, pure and simple.''
Hayden got on the board on Padilla's first goal off pass from junior Konnor Becker and went up 2-0 on a good individual effort from Muller.
However, Cair Paravel (2-5-1) got back in the game on a goal from senior Max Colombo off an assist from senior Ethan Everhart and the Lions were still in the hunt until Padilla converted a penalty kick later in the match.
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THE PENNANT PLAYER PROFILE
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University senior linebacker Jacob Anderson and Emporia State junior wide receiver Corey Thomas are best friends dating back to their days as standouts for Topeka High, and nothing is going to change that.
But Anderson and Thomas will put that unbreakable bond on hold for about three hours Saturday afternoon when the rival Ichabods and Hornets hook up in the Turnpike Tussle at ESU's Welch Stadium (1 p.m. kickoff).
"I'm always wishing Corey the best, but this week we both know that out there on that field we're just going to be competing and our main goal is to win,'' Anderson said. "We both want to win, we're both super competitive and we're going to give it everything we have while we're out there and then it will be all love after the game. That's the type of relationship we have.
"We know that when we're out there on that field, it's war and we're going to be battling and fighting, but after the game we're going to shake it up and go back to being brothers.''