By VINCE LOVERGINE
TopSports.news
Topeka High opened the 2024 football season against Wichita West and won, 52-19.
The 2025 opener was a duplicate of dominance from the Trojans, who dismantled the Pioneers once again, 40-14 on Thursday night at Hummer Sports Park.
Senior quarterback Zane Smith had a hand in three touchdowns in Thursday's 40-14 Topeka High win over Wichita West. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Topeka High possessed the ball six times in the first half and scored on their first four possessions and led 27-0 at halftime. The Trojans didn’t give up much of anything to Wichita West, allowing just two pass completions, recovering a fumble, posting two sacks and recovering a muffed punt in that first half alone.
Trojan coach Jason Filbeck said last season when they played Wichita West, they led early with some broken plays and he wanted to change the script this year.
“We wanted to come out here and operate clean and actually score with the plays we actually practiced,” Filbeck said. “Tonight was clean. Halftime killed us. We were rolling and halftime just stopped that momentum.”
Filbeck was excited to see how his offense moved the ball in that first half and kept that up-tempo going. He was pleased to see senior quarterback Zane Smith’s efforts, with Smith having a hand in three touchdowns, two on the ground and one passing.
“He’s (Smith) an athlete,” Filbeck said. “He needs to stop trying and get hit. I keep telling him, 'It's okay to get out of bounds after you get your gain. He did a good job for the most part. There were a couple of plays where he maybe could’ve thrown it away but he’s a high school quarterback, he did a good job.”
Smith had 54 yards on the ground, including a 33-yard score which put High up 40-8 in the fourth quarter. He completed 7 of 12 passes for 121 yards and a 9-yard touchdown toss to Courtney Sanders to put the Trojans up 20-0 in the first quarter.
“It felt great to get back out there,” Smith said. “Senior year, last first game, we dominated but we have a lot of stuff to fix and we just have to go week by week and just keep playing.
“All week we were talking about the holes in the (Wichita West) defense and we hit them all night.”
Sanders left the game in the second quarter with what appeared to be a leg injury and did not return to the game.
Sophomore Ricardo Dowd had 86 total yards in Thursday's 40-14 Topeka High win over Wichita West. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Ricardo Dowd scored two touchdowns on the ground in the first half and finished with 86 total yards. Even Fred Stayhorn got in on the action, scoring a 20-yard TD and finishing with 40 total yards.
Smith went on to say about Dowd that he’s a ‘dog’ and he’s happy for his success and they knew what they were going to get coming off Dowd's injury last season. As for Dowd himself, he credited his offensive line.
“It was just the team and they were going out there and blocking, doing their assignments, and I couldn’t have done what I did without them,” Dowd said.
Filbeck mentioned that with their three sophomore running backs, it’s going to be nice to utilize, but it will be difficult to give them a lot of carries. But if all three are having a good night, that means the offense line was doing its job and that was certainly the case in Thursday's game.
“We expected to win this game and we expect to win next week,” Filbeck said. “We really don’t know where we’re at until we get to our league … we have to be better on the broken plays, sharpening out schemes so when we play more of the disciplined teams, we’re in those games and competitive.”
Topeka High will hit the road against Wichita Heights on Friday, Sept. 12.
TOPEKA HIGH 40, WICHITA WEST 14
Topeka High -- Dowd 32 run
Topeka High -- Smith 5 run
Topeka High -- Sanders 9 pass from Smith
Topeka High -- Dowd: 6 run
Topeka High -- Stayhorn: 20 run
Wichita West -- Watkins 1 run
Topeka High -- Smith: 33 run
Wichita West -- Muniz 2 run
Individual statistics
Zane Smith: 7-12, 121 passing yards, 54 yards rushing
Ricardo Dowd: 86 total yards, two touchdowns
Malachi Murph: 24 rushing yards
Fred Strayhorn: 40 rushing yards
Jonel Tibbs: 8 rushing yards
Courtney Sanders: 2 catches, 46 yards
Jalen Aldridge: 1 catch, 29 yards
Dowd: 3 catches, 33 yards
Jones Erby: 1 catch, 7 yards
Antione Stewart: 1 catch 6 yards
