By TYLER HENRY
Little Apple Post contributor
Last season, Wamego advanced to the 4A quarterfinals for a second consecutive season where the Red Raiders met an Andover Central team cruising at 9-1.
The ensuing battle was a bloodbath, as the Jaguars jumped on the Raiders early and cruised to a 48-0 victory and a trip to the 4A semis.
A year removed from that fateful day, Wamego finds themselves in the quarterfinals once again with an opportunity to avenge the program’s worst loss in over three years against the Jaguars tonight.
“This is a revenge game for us for sure,” Raiders head coach Weston Moody said. “They embarrassed us last year. You couldn’t play a much worse football game than what we played that night and our guys are pretty ticked off about it and want to make a showing this week.”
While the schools involved in this matchup remain the same, each has undergone major changes since their last meeting, which should make for a much different dynamic on Friday night.
The Red Raiders enter this game undefeated at 10-0, having steamrolled Ulysses (56-11) and Rose Hill (35-8) to get to this point, after an equally dominant regular season.
“We’ve been pretty consistent in the postseason,” Moody said. “Our defense has been playing well, our gameplans have been pretty good and our offense has remained balanced as we figure out what defenses want to do to us. It’s been nice to have big rushing and passing potential and our ability to be balanced has been big for us all year.”
On the flip side of that coin, Andover Central will come to Wamego at 7-3, with six of their ten games, including all three of their losses, coming against 5A opponents.
This game will pit one of the largest 4A communities against one of its smallest, with Andover holding a population of over 15,000 people while Wamego is home to under 5,000.
“Andover Central is a very athletic team,” Moody said. “They always have been and they played some pretty good competition this year. They’re always going to be a force in 4A. Andover is a metro-area city whereas when you drive through our little rinky-dink town you see rural America. We have Dollar General, they have Walmart.”
Despite the disparity in population pools, the Raiders, and Jaguars are locked on a collision course for what should be a competitive football game, and while this one is personal for Wamego, the Raiders aren’t expecting anything to come easy.
“Andover Central is very balanced on offense just like us,” he said. “They run the ball effectively, use a bunch of different formations to put you in bad spots and they’re very speedy on the perimeter. We know we’re going to face some adversity on Friday night but hopefully, we can overcome that and we’re looking forward to it.”
That Jaguar offense will have to overcome the #1 defense in Class 4A, as Wamego hasn’t allowed more than 11 points to a single 4A opponent this season.
On the other side of the ball, the Raiders will have the full benefit of a Colin Donahue and Hayden Oviatt-led backfield, with the pair rattling the cages of opposing defenses for the last four weeks.
“They’re going to try to bring pressure and bring some blitzes to disrupt what you want to do,” he said. “They’re athletic in the secondary and they’ll try to man you up. We just have to be us and take what we can get, we’ve seen a lot of defensive looks but that’s prepared us for what we expect to be a good battle.”
This will be Wamego’s third attempt in as many years to advance past the 4A quarterfinal, but their previous shortcomings have come with growth, and the Raiders will look to put all the pieces together to get over the hump on Friday night.
“This team definitely plays with a little bit of a swagger,” Moody said. “They’re very confident, and when you’re experienced and you’ve been there before the bright lights aren’t quite as bright and you play with even more confidence.”
Kickoff between the Raiders and Jaguars is set for 7 pm at Wamego High School with the winner advancing to the 4A semifinals to take on 9-1 McPherson or 8-2 Towanda-Circle.