By Fred Solis
The Hutchinson Tribune
ANDALE—The relentless Andale Indians squashed the Pratt Greenbacks 57-7 in the 3A sectional playoff last Friday, putting Andale a win away from the state championship game as they host St. George-Rock Creek Friday, Nov. 21, in the semifinal.
Like Andale, St. George-Rock Creek is 11-0 after knocking off Cheney 14-7 in the sectional Friday. Meanwhile on the eastern side of the bracket, 11-0 Topeka-Hayden beat Meriden-Jefferson 43-29 in the sectional and will take on 11-0 Santa Fe Trail, a 28-26 winner over Holton, in the semifinal game.
While the final score didn’t reflect it, the Indians had their work cut out for them early. It took Andale just a couple of ticks over six minutes to score their first touchdown, a 3-yard punch-in by senior quarterback Sam Harp. It was Andale’s only score of the first quarter.
Harp scored a total of four rushing touchdowns on the night, the others coming on runs of 7, 6 and 2 yards in the second and third quarters. He led the Indians’ ground attack with 110 yards on 18 carries.
“He’s one of the best football players in the state of Kansas,” said Andale Coach Dylan Schmidt. “He’s absolutely a stud. We’ve ran the clock in every game we’ve played so far. If we didn’t, he’d have 2,000 yards passing and 2,000 yards rushing.
“His leadership’s been incredible. I couldn’t be more pleased with everything he’s done. He’s such a weapon whether it’s throwing it or running it, punter, safety, kickoff returner—just one of the best players in the state of Kansas, no doubt.”
Harp also threw for one touchdown when he connected with senior Jack Horsch on a 30-yarder in the second quarter. Harp was 2-of-5 on the night in passing for 59 yards.
Horsch also found the end zone in the second quarter on a 3-yard run, and again in the third quarter on a 9-yard rush. He had 73 yards on 13 touches on the night. Horsch also led Andale’s receivers with one catch for 30 yards while sophomore Cruz Kaiser caught one pass for 29 yards.
Senior Sam Kuepker came up big defensively for the Indians with two interceptions, the first one 4:23 in the first quarter. That gave Andale the ball on Pratt’s 22-yard line, but a holding penalty backed the Indians up 10 yards and they ended up giving the ball to the Greenbacks on downs.
Andale made good on Kuepker’s second pick with 1:05 to go in the first half, though, when Horsch hauled in the touchdown pass from Harp a little over 30 seconds later to send the Indians into the locker room with a 30-0 lead.
“Sam’s (Kuepker) been a guy for us that we knew would be a stud,” Schmidt said. “He’s just been dinged up over the years. He’s a senior for us, an absolute stud. I was so happy for him to make some big plays in a big-time game and really get his due.”
That rapid turn of events seemed to get the Indians on track. “We were 22-0 and get that late interception by Sam in the first half and Jack Horsch wide open for a TD reception,” Schmidt said of the momentum-seizing plays.
“Time was a little bit of factor. So, we thought, ‘Let’s take a shot and see if we don’t get it, we’ll try to pound it out.’ But we did and Sam made a nice read. Jack’s one of the best running backs and best kids we got, so he ran wide open and that was a good play,” Schmidt said.
Andale picked up the third quarter where they left off in the second, with a pick by Horsch at 11:06, giving the Indians a short field on the Greenback’s 28-yard line. Despite another holding call marring the drive, Andale scored two and a half minutes later on Harp’s final score of the night that put the Indians up 36-0.
“What an impressive performance to get the three takeaways in their territory, which gave us short fields, so I was really pleased,” Schmidt said. “We felt like Pratt was the real deal and was going to give us everything we wanted.
“Our talk was, ‘Hey, we can wear them down.’ They’re playing a lot of guys both ways. Our depth, I think, was a factor late. We knew it would be a ballgame,” he said.
The Indians’ defense forced a three-and-out by the Greenbacks on their next possession, and two plays later sophomore Noah Stanley ran a 14-yard gauntlet for a score at 6:52 in the third quarter for a 44-0 score.
Following a Pratt penalty that was assessed on the kickoff, Andale tried a successful onside kick that gave them the ball on the Greenbacks’ 30-yard line. A Pratt facemask call moved the ball to the 14-yard line, and Horsch went on to muscle his way in for the score from the 3-yard line to make it 51-0 at 4:06 in the third quarter.
As if they needed more of an edge, Schmidt said he and the Indians players were fired up to avenge a 21-19 semifinal loss against Pratt from 2018. “I think about it every day,” he said. “That was one of the team’s that beat us during that run. Mason (Fairchild) was part of that. He’s on our staff now. He played in that game as a senior.”
Although now longer eligible to take the field for the Indians, Fairchild played a role in Andale’s preparations for the Greenbacks. During practice leading up to the game the 6’5” 250-pound former tight end at the University of Kansas played the role of Pratt’s all-purpose offensive weapon Arley Morrell, a 6’6” 220-pound tight end.
It worked. Morrell picked up just 21 yards rushing on two carries and 14 yards on three catches. However, he ran for 61 yards on two kick returns. Pratt had a total of 73 yards on the night, 57 on the ground.
Andale, meanwhile, had a total of 401 yards, 342 of it rushing.
Pratt finally got on the scoreboard in the third with their only touchdown with 32 seconds to go in the third on a 4-yard run by Caleb Strong.
Playing with a running clock the rest of the way, Andale found time for one more touchdown in the fourth quarter, a 5-yard run by sophomore Emmett Eck to complete the night’s scoring.
“It was a total team effort, and we got it rolling a little more offensively,” Schmidt said. “We did some good things on special teams—we get the onside—defensively we were lights out and three takeaways, which was big.
“We capitalized on their mistakes. They got us stopped a twice in the first, but good teams are going to stop us from time to time,” Schmidt said.
Looking ahead to Friday’s semifinal game against St. George-Rock Creek, Schmidt said, “We played them a few years ago, and they’re a good team. It should be a great battle.”