By Fred Solis
Hutchinson Tribune
ANDALE—The Andale High School Indians thrashed the Hesston High School Swathers 57-0 last night to win district and secure home field advantage throughout the 3A playoffs, which begin Thursday at Andale. The No. 1-seeded Indians (8-0) will face 16th seed Chapman (1-7) in the first round.
Aside from Andale’s impressive performance, locking down home field advantage for the playoffs was a bonus for the Indians on homecoming night. All of Andale’s scoring came in the first half.
“That’s one of the best games we’ve played all year,” Andale Coach Dylan Schmidt said. “It was real impressive. I thought we were ready to go intensity-wise and focus. We executed really well.”
“We have the No. 1 seed,” he added. “We’re going to host every game from Game 9 through Game 12 as long as we keep winning. We talked about it all year.”
The Indians, the defending 3A state champions, hope to add to their lore of five state championships in the last six years under Schmidt.
Andale’s first score of the night was a gift as senior Hunter Grimes pounced on a Hesston fumble at the Swathers 3-yard line less than a minute into the game. It took the Indians three tries to get the ball into the end zone, though, which happened on senior Jack Horsch’s 1-yard carry at 10:17. Senior quarterback Sam Harp’s successful two-point conversion put Andale up 8-0.
“They’re tough down front, they’re bigger than us and did a good job trying to take away what we wanted to do. That’s how it’s going to be from here on out,” Schmidt said.
Hesston punted on their next possession, the first of nine boots on the night, giving Andale the ball back. But back-to-back incomplete passes on third and fourth downs left the Indians at fourth-and-seven, leading to a punt.
After the Swathers’ next three-and-out, senior Lane Parthemer ripped off an 83-yard run for the score for a 14-0 Andale lead. Junior Jrayton Damsel paid off the Indians’ next possession with a bruising 29-yard run for the end zone to put Andale up 22-0 in the first period.
“We needed to mix it up a little bit, and we did,” Schmidt said of Andale’s adjustment following their initial possessions. “We figured out how they were trying to defend us. We went away from some things that we normally do.
“You run a lot of plays in practice and you have answers to what they’re trying to do. They were able to have the bodies and kids to take some stuff away, so that opened up other things,” Schmidt said.
Sophomore Noah Stanley opened the second-quarter scoring for Andale as he fought through defenders on a 30-yard run.
Two plays into Hesston’s next possession Harp picked off a pass, setting up his 3-yard plunge three plays later at 8:52, upping the Indians’ advantage to 36-0.
After completing a pass for a first down on fourth-and four, Harp then found Grimes for a 51-yard touchdown receptionto give Andale a 43-0 lead. A little over a minute later, Parthemer rambled for another score, this one a 63-yard burst, making it a 50-0 game.
The final score of the night came with 43 seconds to go in the first half when junior Afton Allaire caught a 2-yard pass from Harp. Harp was 5-of-7 in passing for 119 yards and two touchdowns. Grimes was the Indians’ leading receiver with one catch for 51 yards.
The second half was played with a running clock and the Andale junior varsity and sophomores taking the field.
On the night the Indians racked up 498 yards of total offense, with 379 coming on the ground. Parthemer led the ground attack with 146 yards on two carries and two touchdowns. Harp ran for 97 yards on nine carries with one touchdown, and Stanley churned up 50 yards on three touches with one score.
Sophomore Austin Bugner was a perfect 3-of-3 in point-after tries.