Courtesy of Kpreps.com
The Kansas high school football season kicked off last week with several great games. In all, there were seven games that pitted ranked opponents against one another.
In all, 14 ranked teams lost in the opening week, including two preseason top-ranked teams.
Visit our Rankings page and find out how the results from Week 1 impacted the statewide rankings!
Class 6A
Manhattan defeated Derby for the third time since the beginning of the 2022 season. On Friday, the defending 6A-champion Indians defeated the Panthers, 33-19. The Manhattan looked reloaded with quarterback Carter Aslin and running back Charles Morgan. Aslin’s 66-yard sprint in the fourth quarter put the Indians up two scores. The Manhattan defense was in the Derby backfield all night and limited the Panthers to 58 rushing yards. But the most impressive performance goes to Wichita Northwest which absolutely dismantled rival Bishop Carroll, 58-7. How does this week’s 6A poll shake up this week? Checkout the link below!
Class 5A
Two of the top teams in the 5A poll fell in the season-opener in completely different fashions. Bishop Carroll, ranked second to begin the season, lost 58-7 to 6A No. 2 Wichita Northwest. Meanwhile, Hutchinson, ranked fourth to begin the year, fell 7-3 to Goddard-Eisenhower. Find out which new teams enters the 5A poll this week as a result!
Class 4A
Defending champion Bishop Miege rolled to a 40-point win over Blue Valley North, while fellow Eastern Kansas League rivals St. Thomas Aquinas and St. James Academy both found themselves with difficult openers. The Thunder have dropped their season opener for the fourth consecutive season. Last year’s state runner-up Wamego also fell in its season opener. Find out which new teams join the 4A poll this week!
Class 3A
Top-ranked Andale rolled to a 52nd consecutive victory with a 75-28 pounding of Wellington. In fact, all five teams ranked in the preseason top five in 3A picked up victories with three of those beating ranked opponents. Find out the results of the Class 3A poll at the link below!
Class 2A
Defending champion Nemaha Central ran its win streak to 14 consecutive games with an impressive 31-6 win over traditional 3A power Holton. Kingman, the team that Nemaha Central defeated in last year’s state title game, dropped its season-opener to 3A-ranked Cheney. Find out which team enters the poll this week to replace the Eagles at the link below!
Class 1A
The opening week was chaos in Class 1A. Four of the five teams ranked to begin the season dropped their season-opener. Defending champion St. Marys jumped out to a 16-0 lead before having their 10-game win streak end at Rossville. Last year’s runner-up, Inman, was blasted by league-rival Marion. As a result, there is a new No. 1 and several new teams entering the poll this week. Find out how this week’s 1A poll looks at the link below.
Class 8M-I
Only one ranked team lost in 8-Man, Division I as Hill City dropped a 28-16 decision to 8-Man, Division II ranked team Osborne. There are several strong contenders just outside the Top 5 poll in Division I. See which team will enter the rankings this week at the link below.
Class 8M-II
For the second consecutive year, Cair Paravel challenged defending champion Axtell in the season-opener. A year ago, the Lions led in the third quarter before Axtell pulled away with a barrage of points. On Friday, the two teams were tied at 44 before Axtell put up consecutive scores to win 60-44 and claim their 27th straight victory. Find out how the new poll looks at the link below.
Class 6-Man
Class 6-Man’s feature game for the opening week was a rematch of the 2022 state championship between Cunningham and Ashland. This time, it was No. 2 Ashland topping No. 1 Cunningham 32-22. Find out how all the results impacted this week’s poll below.
Visit the Rankings page each week to view a complete list of the top five teams in each classification and how they performed last week.
