Casting aside five lethargic halves of football, the Chanute Blue Comets stunned the Louisburg Wildcats, 29-28, with one of the most mind-boggling endings you’ll ever see in the first round of the KSHSAA 4A playoffs.
With 90 seconds left in the game and the score knotted at 22-22, Louisburg fumbled at its own 45-yard line and Chanute’s Bo Small emerged from the pile with the ball.
From there, Chanute head coach Clete Frazell wanted to end the game.
“We wanted to get into field goal position, inside the 15-yard-line,” Frazell said. “We wanted to try and have a shot to score before the game ended. Then Kris broke that run and we didn’t have to worry about it. When we got the ball back, we wanted to go and win the game.”
Four plays later, Chanute quarterback Kris Harding II split the Wildcats’ defense on a designed draw and raced 36 yards to the end zone.
“It was awesome to see and he took over the game,” Frazell said. “He decided we weren’t going to lose. He had great effort in the second half. On that play, they blitzed and he found a window. There wasn’t a second level left when he broke through. He just put it on his shoulders in the second half. He was ready to impose his will.”
We’re at the halfway mark of a story you had to see to believe.
On the ensuing kickoff, Louisburg’s Cole Heinrich fielded the ball at the 21-yard-line and dashed to the end zone, leaving the Wildcats one point shy of the Blue Comets.
“We had a short squib called and we were going to kick it on the ground,” Frazell said. “But when we got lined up — we had pooched it all night — they had their dudes up at the 20-yard line. So we didn’t want to let them touch the ball. Our kicker can kick it to the 10 or deeper, so we wanted to try and get a touchback. We didn’t hit the ball square and kicked it right to them. We had a couple of guys off our kickoff team because they were tired. So we had a few guys out of position and we didn’t do our job on the kickoff return.”
Louisburg came out to kick the extra point when Frazell called his last timeout.
“I wanted to talk to the kids about going for a block and trying to win the game right there, and to ice the kicker,” Frazell said. “Bo Small had come within inches of blocking it and we wanted to emphasize it. We had almost blocked it three times, so we wanted to lay out. Then they came out on offense and the stress got higher.”
When Louisburg came out of the timeout, they were lined up to go for two and the win. The Wildcats burned another timeout — it’s between the Louisburg sideline and God as to whether they changed the play call.
On the two-point try, the Blue Comets snuffed an option try a halfyard shy of the goal line to secure the win. Blake Cummings was credited with the game-saving tackle.
“As soon as they showed option, that wasn’t what I wanted to see on the goal line,” Frazell said. “I trust our corners…they pitched it to the running back and we rallied to the ball. His butt hit the ground and he was straight vertical and he was a half-yard shy. It was awesome to see our guys make a play like that.”
While the final minute-and-ahalf warrants the spotlight, Friday’s playoff win was very much in doubt for the Blue Comets.
After two straight games of apathetic football against Pittsburg and Labette County, the Blue Comets trailed, 14-0, at halftime against Louisburg.
Fortunes finally flipped in the second half.
“Our guys were puzzled, too, at how things had gone,” Frazell said. “We finally got a stop — our defense stepped up. Honestly, it was a lot of our young kids getting called out at halftime to make plays. They were there and just not making them. They had to grow up. Guys that were missing tackles stopped in the second half. And they played a lot tougher.”
Harding II rushed for 176 yards on 18 carries with two scores — a refreshing performance from the guy atop the team’s org chart.
“He’s a great player but he hasn’t had the supporting cast he’s been used to in the past,” Frazell said. “We talked before the season that he’d have to make impacts in different ways. He’d have to use his legs more and things like that. He’s done well at times with it. But now he gets it. He knows he has to be a runner and a thrower and make an impact. It was awesome to see that on Friday. He decided we weren’t losing.”
Asher Love added 57 yards rushing with a pair of touchdowns.
“Once we got that first score on the board, we established our dominance up front,” Frazell said. “We got a shot of confidence, and our guys were ready to go. We got some momentum.”
Up next
Chanute advances to the second round of the KSHSAA 4A playoffs and will face a very familiar foe. The Blue Comets head south to Altamont to face co-SEK League champion Labette County.
“We’re a big time underdog. They beat us soundly two weeks ago,” Frazell said. “We’ve got an uphill battle for sure. But we think we can manage the game better and make plays we didn’t the first time. We want to have a chance in the fourth quarter and we think we can do that. We’re obviously rivals. Our kids will be fired up and up to the challenge.”
The Grizzlies routed Chanute, 35-14, in their Week 8 matchup in Altamont.
“We’re going to have to play better defense,” Frazell said. “It’s hard to win if we can’t get stops. We’ve got to play more inspired football. We had a lot of mistakes last time. We had two bad snaps that went over the quarterback’s head that stalled us out. We’ve got to eliminate all of those. And we have to convert when we have a drive going.”
