The match-up we’ve all been waiting on is finally here. With Paola downing Spring Hill and Louisburg toppling the Trojans of Osawatomie, the battle for supremacy in the Kansas Class 4A District 5 will again take place between the 8-0 Wildcats of Louisburg and the 6-2 Panthers of Paola.
This year, the Panthers will get to host the showdown, it will be senior night in Paola, and will be one of the most anticipated football games in the eastern part of the state.
It’s too bad the Panthers got off to such a slow start, floundering around for their first two games and padding the records of Baldwin and DeSoto in the process, or this match-up could have been really huge, with two undefeated and highly ranked teams meeting at Panther Stadium.
It would have been nice to see both teams come in to Paola next week with unbeaten records, but since those opening two games, the Panthers have been playing as good a football on both sides of the ball as anyone in the state. Just because Paola has a couple of losses, this is going to be one whale of a football game.
But I’m here to tell you that this meeting between these two great programs may not be the last one this year, and if you want to dream just a bit, it’s the game these two will play on Friday, November 19, that will be the game that everyone will be watching.
You see, with the state football playoff system the way it is, this game really means nothing to the overall scheme of things. The only thing this game does is determine whether you play a district champion or a district runner up on Tuesday, November 2nd. Both the Panthers and Wildcats are in, they will advance to the bi-district round, and, I think they’ll go a lot further.
Currently there are just three undefeated teams in the “Eastern” half of the Class 4A Bracket (not counting the Friday games), Sumner Academy in District one at 7-0, Basehor-Linwood in District two and Louisburg in District five. The way the state bracket plays out, the top team in district one is at the top half of the Eastern bracket and the top team in district two is in the bottom half of the bracket. The top team from the Paola/Louisburg District -- District five is in the top half and the second team from district five is in the bottom half. So, it doesn’t make any difference which slot the Wildcats or Panthers get, the potential is there to meet an undefeated opponent in the Sectional Round of the playoffs on Friday, November 12th.
The bi-district and regional rounds don’t throw match-ups at either team that they should not be able to handle and puts each one squarely on a path to meet again in the Sub-State round with a trip to the State Championship on the line.
Just for the sake of argument, and since I’m writing this a week before these two teams match up on the field. I’m going to put Louisburg in the top spot coming out of the district, and Paola in the second spot. Now before you get up in arms, I’m not predicting anything, I have to put one team in one spot and the other in another, since Louisburg is currently undefeated, I’m putting them in the top spot.
Winning the district would put the Wildcats in a bi-district matchup with the second place team in district six which will most likely be Fort Scott. A win in that game would pit the Wildcats against the winner of an Independence and Columbus matchup and if they would get past that game waiting squarely on the horizon would be an unbeaten Sumner Academy squad. Sumner would have to defeat Perry-Lecompton and the winner of a DeSoto and Eudora rematch to get to a game against the Wildcats.
Finishing as the runner-up in the district is not always a bad thing, just ask the Panthers. Last year Paola got one game further in the playoffs than the Wildcats because they didn’t have to face eventual state champion Bishop Miege until the sub-state round, rather than the sectional round.
Anyway, the Panthers, as the district runner up would probably face Anderson County in the bi-district round, and then would take on the winner of a Baxter Springs and Chanute match-up. That would put them in a regional round against an undefeated Basehor-Linwood squad that would have had to play Atchison in the first round and the winner of a Baldwin and St. James Academy or Blue Valley Southwest (if you can believe either of those teams should be playing on). Now, I’m sure Paola would really like a second shot at Baldwin, so the sectional round would be really nice for the Panthers if Baldwin would just go ahead and knock Basehor out in the regional round and set up a rematch with the Bulldogs in the sectionals. Either way, the Panthers would be facing a undefeated Basehor or a once beaten Baldwin team in the sectional finals.
Should the Wildcats and Panthers both win those games -- look who’s waiting in the sub-state championship!
Now, I’m a firm believer in taking things one game at a time, playing the games on the field and not on paper, and there’s a whole lot of football to still be played, and any other cliche you can think of. But let’s be real, the way both of these teams are playing, it’s not a big stretch to see them playing each other again.
And if they do, November 19, 2010 will go down as one of the biggest nights of football in Miami County history.
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