BY CHARLES CHANEY
EMPORIA, Kansas — There were plenty of moments for Andover Central to fold on Saturday.
Whether it was the failed fourth down attempt, the interception in the end zone, the failed fake punt all happening against vaunted Bishop Miege.
Who would have blamed them, right? It’s what happens. Miege runs players who have to play one side of the ball, providing rested players on each offense and defense. Often, Miege finds a way to win and often when they get to the state title game, they do it in a big way.
This Saturday was different.
Andover Central bucked all trends and made history on Saturday afternoon. In doing so, they did what many thought was impossible: a public school beating Bishop Miege in the state championship game.
Andover Central beat Miege, 49-42, in the Class 4A state championship game to cap off an amazing season and to secure the school’s first ever football state championship.
“Thank the good lord we get to work with such a good group of kids and they played their tails off today,” Andover Central head coach Derek Tuttle said. “Just an unbelievable game and the kids stepped up and played a big, huge heart today.”
The Jaguars relied on their senior leadership to lead them through the fire to the other side. It felt that anyone who contributed was a senior making a big play. From Jace Jefferson to Brandt Stupka and Jace Adler or Logan Taggart and Gaige Hurley, there were players after players making moment after moment.
“A lot of it is just their inherent belief in each other, the team and the program,” Tuttle said. “Even when we had success this year, there’s time in the season they could have fallen apart or crumbled, they just kept sticking together.”
With Jefferson being a group of guys who’ve been together since the third grade at Andover, it’s been something that’s been talked about for nearly a decade.
“When we’d hangout we’d always talk about how we were going to win state for football,” Jefferson said. “We brought it to life.”
COURTESY STEVE ADELSON
While everyone did their part, it was the offensive line and Maddox Archibald who rose above them all. Andover Central ran for 392 yards, with 341 coming from Archibald.
“This feels amazing,” Archibald said. “Everything we’ve worked for has paid off.”
Archibald, the unassuming senior running back who has followed a legacy of great backs over the last few years has lived up to the standard those guys have set over the previous years.
Boy, did he ever save the time for career highs.
“It’s just his competitive nature and how he how he practices and how he drills, really leads to his success on the field,” Tuttle said. “There are times when we break a pretty good run and we think, oh, wow, we’re going get the ball down in a red zone. Then, all of a sudden, he shifts, jukes, side, steps, breaks, couple tackles, and next thing you know, he’s tumbling in the end zone. Like… how do you do that? He’s just a natural runner and just so good creases in the holes.”
COURTESY STEVE ADELSON
Archibald pointed to his linemen.
“When your O-Line is that good and our wide receivers out there blocking, it’s hard to stop a run like that,” Archibald said. “We just had a balanced game plan and stuck to it.”
Tuttle agreed and said Miege coaches complimented their line.
Players like Dawson Rodd, Logan Lira, Grant Fuska, Aidan Jordan and Paxton McLeod set the tone early by being physical at the point of attack.
Rodd, Lira and Fuska have been multi-year starters and as seniors, led the way for the Jaguars.
“The big guys really, really blocked well yesterday,” Tuttle said. “One of their coaches mentioned that they hadn’t seen that physicality from even their other private schools and some of the bigger schools they played.”
COURTESY STEVE ADELSON
One thing the Jaguars did was answer any punch Bishop Miege threw at them. After watching Miege go five plays after an interception and make the Jaguars pay, Central responded with Archibald leading the way.
They’d go only three plays with Jace Adler setting up the drive with a 31-yard reception and then it was Archibald housing a draw play that was blown open by a block from Stupka to put Andover Central on the board and tie it with 1:53 remaining in the quarter.
Then, Andover Central went on a 16-play drive that ate up more than five minutes of the quarter, limiting the opportunities of Miege being on the field. It’s what makes linemen salivate. They ran the ball, they made good passes and most importantly, there were zero penalties.
The drive was capped off when Jace Jefferson rolled out, finding Stupka easily for the 4-yard score and the Jags had their first lead of the game.
Jefferson, who has faced expectations of this moment since he took over last year, has led the Jaguars in back-to-back state championship games and finally took home the hardware.
“We knew we wanted to win this game,” Jefferson said. “This was our last chance to play with each other. We knew we wanted to win this and just battling adversity.”
COURTESY STEVE ADELSON
Jefferson’s mobility tasked with the offensive line performance helped free up things for Archibald and the defense. The offensive line loved the double-digit play drives. Their being able to block and allow Jefferson time to either complete a pass or scramble, helped set up the run for Archibald.
“Our kids did a nice job giving Jace time and on several of those long drives, Jace did a good job of just pulling it down and running,” Tuttle said. “That’s what we told him to do. With the pass protection and Maddox, we were able to move the chains on those big drives.”
Miege responded with some trickery on their next drive as they ran a reverse pass from the tight end to Teryn Jackson. After a failed fourth down QB sneak, Miege quickly scored on a 1-play to Jackson on a post route, to make it 21-14 with 2:25 remaining until halftime.
Miege did what they were going to do, right? They hit you back after you made a huge play and taken the lead on them. This is where some teams crumble.
Andover Central didn’t and they hit Miege right in the mouth.
They’d run 11 plays is just over two minutes that were capped off by a diving Jefferson as the Jaguars were finding the equalizer, sending the game into the break tied at 21-all.
Early in the second half, it was the defenses that decided to steal the show. After a few 3-and-outs by both teams, Miege finally broke free, driving down the field and took a seven-point lead.
Then, Archibald went to work.
The senior went bananas in the second half, ripping through arm tackles, breaking ankles of defenders and made the Miege defense look silly.
“We’ve had that feeling and we used that all summer long for fuel,” he said. “When we got here, we just didn’t want it to happen again. It was nice to be able to just finish the game like that.”
Archibald ripped through the heart of the Miege defense, racing to the end zone for a 42-yard score and sending it to the fourth tied at 28-all.
After Miege would score right at the start of the fourth, Andover Central would answer anything Miege threw at them. They drove 13 plays in five minutes with a short pas from Jefferson to Logan Taggart to tie it once again. The Jaguar defense forced a 3-and-out and Central drove and took their final lead of the afternoon.
COURTESY STEVE ADELSON
It was Archibald once again, doing everything. He caught a pass for 17 yards and then capped it on a 3-yard run with 3:00 remaining to put the Jaguars up for good.
“When they punted to us I knew we could go down and score,” Archibald said. “We’ve been in these moments before. We were ready for the moment.”
Defense then came to play once again.
While the offense was on the field for most of the game, it was the defense resting against a Miege team who primarily runs players on one side of the ball. Andover Central has key players, such as Stupka and Adler in the secondary going both ways. The rest was key as the Jaguars rarely blitzed to counter the heavy passing game from Miege and it paid off as seniors were able to get pressure and it forced Marco Rodriguez into bad throws and they would turn it over on downs.
“Our mindset was just different,” Hurley said. “We were playing for the man next to us every snap.”
Hurley has been carrying last year’s runner-up medal taped above his bed frame as a remainder of what he never wanted to experience again. Now, him and his senior teammates will leave as champions.
“This is what we’ve expected all year,” he said. “This senior class had the expectations that we were going to win it and it feels amazing.”
You could feel the sigh of relief rip through the stadium as the Jaguar faithful could feel the impossible come to fruition.
Archibald wasn’t done as he decided to put the nail in the coffin.
He took the handoff to the left side, cut up and ripped his way to the end zone for his fourth touchdown and marking his way into history books with the run.
His 341 yards are the most in a KSHSAA state championship game, regardless of class. It’s the most in a game since 1987 when Stockton’s Robert Winters ran for 322 yards against
130 of his 341 yards came in the fourth quarter against a defense that had struggled to keep him in check. The Jaguar saved his best for last and when they needed it most.
“We never had a doubt that we could win,” he said. “We knew they’d come out and be good but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. We weren’t going to be intimidated or any doubt that we could win this game.”
COURTESY STEVE ADELSON
Andover Central is the first public school to defeat a private school at the 4A level since Buhler did it in 2013. They are the first 4A public school to hand Miege a loss since Baldwin did it in 2008.
“It’s nice to be the first one hats off to Miege,” Tuttle said. “They did a tremendous run to the championships over the last 15 years. “W kind of figured, if it was going to be a school in the way for us to get the job done. It’s probably going to be them but give them credit. They played a heck of a ball game today.”
Jefferson threw for 183 yards and a couple of touchdowns. Stupka had eight receptions for 96 yards, a touchdown and a key play where he stayed in bounds on the go-ahead drive when Miege players were trying to pull him out of bounds.
For the Jaguars, this will go down as a life defining moment. Many are left speechless but the goal was achieved. The team that arrived a year too early last season, were set up for success this year. For some, it’s the culmination of appearing in three championship games in four years.
“We came we came up short last year and came a short freshman year,” Adler said. “This is our third time’s the charm kind of deal.”
COURTESY STEVE ADELSON
CLASS 4A STATE CHAMPIONSHIP
Welch Stadium — Emporia, Kansas
Andover Central 49, Bishop Miege 42
Bishop Miege 7; 14; 7; 14 — 42
Andover Central 7; 14; 7; 21 — 49
BM – Teryn Jackson 58 pass from Marco Rodriguez (Luke Whitmore kick)
AC – Maddox Archibald 35 run (Andrew Clouse kick)
AC – Brandt Stupka 4 pass from Jace Jefferson (Clouse kick)
BM – Jackson 29 pass from Michael Blount (Whitmore kick)
BM – Jackson 36 pass from Rodriguez (Whitmore kick)
AC – Jefferson 6 run (Clouse kick)
BM – Vinny George 5 run (Whitmore kick)
AC – Archibald 42 run (Clouse kick)
BM – Jackson 2 pass from Rodriguez (Whitmore kick)
AC – Logan Taggart 5 pass from Jefferson (Clouse kick)
AC – Archibald 3 run (Clouse kick)
AC – Archibald 38 run (Clouse kick)
BM – Jeremiah Johnson 12 pass from Rodriguez (Whitmore kick)
RUSHING: BISHOP MIEGE — Nabazas 9-36; Watskey 10-31; Rodriguez 9-26; George 1-5; Ballard 1-4. TOTALS: 31-101. ANDOVER CENTRAL — Archibald 38-341; Jefferson 12-49; Adler 1-3. TOTALS: 52-392.
PASSING (C-A-I): BISHOP MIEGE — Rodriguez 14-28-0 313; Blount 1-1-0 29. ANDOVER CENTRAL — Jefferson 18-33-1 183.
RECEIVING (C-Y-TD): BISHOP MIEGE — Jackson 7-225-4; Ballard 3-42; Gibson 2-49; Blount 1-12; Johnson 1-12; Watskey 1-2. ANDOVER CENTRAL — Stupka 8-96-1; Adler 3-52; Archibald 3-20; Bolan 2-3; DeGarmo 1-7; Taggart 1-5-1.
