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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
You can usually expect a couple of strange plays in a season-opener, but weird was almost the norm in Friday night's Washburn Rural-Topeka West Centennial League football game at Hummer Sports Park.
Early in the game Topeka West had a pick six wiped out by a penalty while Washburn Rural set up one touchdown off a blocked field goal attempt and scored another TD when a pass bounced off one Junior Blue into the hands of a Rural teammate.
And the weirdness continued to the very end, with Topeka West scoring its lone points of the night after the clock ran out in the fourth quarter.
But when all was said and done, Washburn Rural achieved its opening-night goal, rolling to a 45-6 win over the Chargers.
"Some of us oldtime coaches, like coach (Steve) Lincoln and I, were looking at each other on the sideline like, 'Did that really just happen?' '' Rural coach Steve Buhler said. "It was some strange football.''
Sophomore Branton DeWeese threw for 205 yards and four touchdowns in Washburn Rural's 45-6 win over Topeka West Friday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
But Buhler also saw a lot of positives that the Junior Blues can take from the opener.
"The thing I was most happy about was our effort,'' Buhler said. "That probably was one of the best defensive efforts we've had in a long time here and it was because of the hustle.
"There were the weird plays, but we made plays on both sides from kids just hustling and playing hard and putting themselves in a position where those kind of things actually happen.''
Sophomore quarterback Branton DeWeese completed 15 of 22 passes for 205 yards and four touchdowns while junior Amr Sabbarini had five catches for 66 yards and a pair of TDs, including a 44-yard score off a deflection.
Washburn Rural senior Robby Bolin (11) celebrates a touchdown reception in Friday's 45-6 win over Topeka West. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Senior standout Robby Bolin had four catches for 54 yards and two TDs and Bolin set up another Rural touchdown when he alertly scooped the ball off a blocked field goal attempt and scampered 22 yards to the West 5, with junior Ma'kenttis Adams scoring on the next play.
Junior Kason Williams led Rural with a game-high 70 rushing yards on seven carries while Adams had 63 yards on eight attempts and junior Lukas Hanks had three catches for 54 yards.
Washburn Rural opened up a 24-0 halftime advantage and forced a running clock at 45-0 with 5:48 remaining on a 16-yard touchdown run from sophmore JC Heim.
Defensively Washburn Rural limited Topeka West to 173 total yards, including just 61 rushing yards.
Topeka West junior quarterback Malachi Berg threw for 112 yards and scored West's lone touchdown in Friday's 45-6 loss to Washburn Rural. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
West junior quarterback Malachi Berg passed for 112 yards and rushed for a team-high 39 yards on 18 carries.
Rural came within one play of pitching a shutout, but the Junior Blues were flagged for a facemask penalty on the final play of regulation, giving West one untimed play to end the game.
Berg scored from 3 yards out to get the Chargers on the scoreboard.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The old saying is that "every kid wants to be a quarterback.''
And former Seaman star Dalton Cowan got that opportunity for the bulk of his football career.
But when it came time to think about his final two seasons for Emporia State, Cowan quickly got on board with making a position switch and will line up at the Hornets' stinger back position when ESU opens its 2021 season at Northeastern State Saturday night (6 p.m. kickoff).
Cowan, a 6-foot-3, 204-pound redshirt junior, started at QB for the Hornets for the majority of the '19 season, passing for 1,683 yards and 11 touchdowns and rushing for 241 yards and six TDs.
But when Braden Gleason took over as the Hornets' starter late in the season, Cowan started thinking about the best way he could help the Hornets moving forward and made the decision to become an S-back.
Emporia State redshirt junior Dalton Cowan and the Hornets will open their 2021 season Saturday night at Northeastern State. [Photo courtesy of Emporia State Athletics]
Former Seaman star Dalton Cowan is excited for Emporia State's 2021 season after making the switch from quarterback to stinger back. [Photo courtesy of Emporia State Athletics]
"My dad (Jeff) was caught completely off guard and everybody that I told was caught completely off guard, but when I sat those last two games I was thinking, 'Man, I could really help the team doing this other position and I think I would enjoy it a lot,' '' Cowan said.
"I never gave it much thought, but I always thought, 'I could play receiver, I could play something else.' ''
Having the 2020 season canceled due to COVID-19 gave Cowan plenty of time to adjust to his new position.
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TopSports.news
The long wait ended for Washburn University's women's soccer team Thursday night, with the Ichabods opening their 2021 season with a 1-0 victory over William Jewell at Yager Stadium.
Tera Lynch
In a slow first half, the Washburn defense kept the Cardinals to just one off-target shot while the Ichabods held possession on William Jewell's side of the field for a lot of the half, taking three shots on goal.
The game remained scoreless into the second hallf before a Washburn possession five minutes into the second half in the Cardinals box led to a goal from senior Washburn senior Tera Lynch off an assist from Khloe Shuckman.
Ichabod goalkeeper RaeganWells needing to make just one save en route to her sixth career shutout (second against William Jewell) in the first game of her sophomore campaign.
With the win against the Cardinals, Washburn takes the 2-1 series lead and a two-game win streak.
The Ichabods will be back at Yager Stadium to host Augustana on Sunday, Sept. 12 (1 p.m.).
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Washburn's volleyball team celebrates a point during Thursday's 3-0 win over Cameron. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
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The No. 8-Washburn University volleyball team opened its 2021 season with a 3-0 sweep over Cameron Thursday night at Lee Arena, rolling to a 25-11, 25-16, 25-9 victory.
Washburn never trailed during the entire match, starting things off by taking the first three points of the opening set. Washburn claimed eight of the final 10 points, capped off by a service ace from Jalyn Stevenson.
The second set started similar to the first as Washburn took a 3-0 early lead. Cameron (0-1) recorded back-to-back points to make it 3-2 before the Ichabods rattled off 11-straight points to take a 14-2 advantage.
Washburn led by as many as 15 when the Aggies put together two scoring runs of four points to chip away at the deficit, but it wasn't enough as the Ichabods closed out the second-set victory on a kill by GennaBerg.
The Ichabods quickly took control of the third set, going up 6-1 and then extending their lead to 14-5 thanks to a four-point scoring run. Washburn held Cameron to under 10 points and secured the sweep with a 25-9 decision.
Washburn had a .341 hitting percentage while Cameron finished the match at -.072 percent. The Ichabods recorded 41 kills and the Aggies knocked down 19.
Berg landed 10 kills for the Ichabods and was a part of three blocks at the net. Allison Maxwell and Kelsey Gordon each knocked down eight kills and hit above .429. Setter Allison Sadler achieved a double-double with 18 assists and 12 digs. In the back court, Faith Rottinghaus had 13 digs and added four assists.
Alanni Carter led the Aggies with eight kills and added four digs and two blocks. Sydney Bolin and Noemie Narbonne each recorded eight digs.
Washburn opened play in the Washburn Invitational Friday morning with a 25-5, 24-26, 25-11, 25-13 win over Colorado-Colorado Springs.
The Ichabods are slated to play No. 19 Harding at 6:30 p.m. Friday before playing a pair of matches on Saturday, taking on Minot State at 11 a.m. and No. 15 Northern State at 4 p.m.
The Ichabods began play in the Washburn Invitational Friday morning with a 3-1 win over Colorado-Colorado Springs.
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By ISAAC DEER
TopSports.news
The 2021 Kansas high school football campaign has officially begun!
The Topeka High Trojans played host to Junction City Thursday night at Hummer Sports Park in the season-opener for Shawnee County football, with the Blue Jays rolling to a 34-0 Centennial League win in a game that was shortened due to inclement weather in the area.
Tylan Alejos
Junction City got '21 off to a scorching hot start, taking the opening kickoff and driving down the field for an 11-yard rushing touchdown by Tyree Holloway.
Topeka was stumped on the offensive side of the ball, with constant pressure from the Blue Jay defense early in the first quarter.
Later in the first, quarterback David Rowell connected with TJ Jones for a 19-yard touchdown to put the Blue Jays up 13-0 with 2.8 seconds to go in the opening quarter.
Early in the second quarter, Rowell threw a perfectly-placed pass to Holloway for 59 yards that led to another Junction City touchdown. The score became 20-0 with 9:25 to go in the first half.
With no answers from the Topeka High defense or offense, the Blue Jays took advantage of the Trojans to take control of the game.
Xavion Felton rushed for a 3-yard touchdown to put the Blue Jays up 27-0 with 6:22 left in the second and Rowell ran in a 1-yard touchdown minutes later to put Junction City up by its final 34-point margin.
Topeka High picked up some momentum on a 58-yard run by senior Tylan Alejos with 2.2 seconds left in the half, but Junction City's Tyre Smith picked off a Peyton Wheat pass to end the threat.
The game went into a lightning delay at 8:34 p.m. and multiple lightning strikes forced the game to be called.
Junction City (1-0) will take on Manhattan next week and Topeka High (0-1) will travel to Emporia.
Alejos rushed for 95 yards to lead Topeka High while Rowell passed for 129 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 55 yards and a TD to lead Junction City.
