After wins in the opening round of the playoffs on Tuesday three area teams continue their quest for a State title on Saturday competing in the second round of the playoffs in Class 3A or 8-Man. Both Nemaha Central and Sabetha are back into the second round of the playoffs this year and Hanover started another run in 8-Man football this year in Division II. 

Playoff Games to be Broadcasted Saturday: 
(Pregame starts 5:45pm & kick 6:00pm for both games)
103.9 KNZA & Sabetha Channel –
     Rossville at Sabetha (click here to listen) & (click here to watch)

92.1 KMZA – Nemaha Central at Silver Lake (click here to listen)

Nemaha Central (10-0) at Silver Lake (10-0)
A matchup worthy of a deeper playoff match even a State Championship worthy contest and it's only the second round of the Class 3A playoffs that a battle of Top five and two of the four unbeatens meet up as Nemaha Central travels to Silver Lake. Both teams are simaliar in many ways setting up a big time clash between 3A heavyweights. 

The Thunder rolled past Pleasant Ridge 61-6 in the opening round of the playoffs and were efficient in doing so especially offensively compiling 587 total yards of offense and even scored touchdowns on plays of 90, 85 and 55 yards on three of the teams first five offensive plays in the game. Nemaha Central has a plethora of playmakers and using that to average 49.5 points per game and 251 yards rushing and 157.2 yards passing per contest. The balance is eye popping on offense and Ryan Hasenkamp leads the attack with 1,184 yards passing with 13 touchdowns (2 INTs) and adds 500 yards rushing with 11 touchdowns. Speedster, Jacob Koelzer is close to 1,000 yards on the year with 967 yards rushing on 80 carries with 23 touchdowns, while Mitchell Henry has contributed 799 total yards of offense and plenty more in the return game as Nemaha Central does have five punt return touchdowns on the year. Defensively Nemaha Central is giving up a measily 9.6 points per game and have allowed only two teams this season to score more than twice in a single game. 

Silver Lake continues to win under Coach CJ Hamilton who won his 400th career game with the Eagles 50-0 rout of Mission Valley in the first round of the 3A playoffs on Tuesday. Eagles are soaring high on offense with 43.5 points per game on 225.2 yards passing and 184.5 yards rushing per game this year. Quarterback, Dalton Dultmeier leads the Eagles with 1,888 yards passing with 18 touchdowns (2 INTs) and adds 580 yards on the ground with 10 touchdowns. While also in the backfield Garrett Huske and Mason Jones have added a combined 964 yards with 13 touchdowns and in the passing game Ryan Wagner has 850 yards with eight touchdowns and Wyatt Heiman adds 585 yards with nine scores. The Eagles defense has been solid all year too giving up just 10.3 point per game with only three opponents scoring more than twice in a single game against them. 

The winner of the contest earns a Sectional round matchup against the winner of Wellsville and Galena, but also gets a huge win to perhaps put them as one of the favorites in 3A to make a run at the title. 

Rossville (9-1) at Sabetha (9-1)
It’s the third football game in ten days Saturday between perennial playoff contenders in Class 3A as Sabetha and Rossville meet for the first time since 2012, when the Bulldogs prevailed in a 28-27 thriller. After winning back-to-back undefeated State 3A Titles, Rossville is 9-1 on the season with a loss to Silver Lake 36-28 in week five.  The Eagles are the only team to beat Rossville since 2011. Sabetha is 9-1 this year as well with a 20-14 defeat against their rival Nemaha Central in week seven. The Bluejays beat Rossville in 2008 (22-15) and in 2006 (45-7), which was the last time Sabetha had a 10-win football season.  

Senior backs Trae Snyder and Blake Plattner continued to lead a powerful Bluejay rushing attack that is averaging 373 yards per game. Both backs ran for more than 170 yards in Tuesday’s Bi-District win 62-28 at MH-MA. They combined for 7 more touchdowns, which runs their total to 42 total rushing scores on the season. The 28 points were the most surrendered by the Sabetha defense all year, although 14 points were scored in the final seven minutes against backups and the Jays are allowing a mere 10 points per outing this season. The Jays, making their eighth consecutive post-season run after beating Silver Lake and advancing to the elite eight last year, have turned the ball over only five times this season, (including once on Tuesday with the second team offense) and they are now plus 16 in takeaways.    

Rossville beat the only common opponent these teams have this year, as they dominated Perry Lecompton 41-14 on Tuesday. Sabetha topped Perry in Big 7 League play 28-7 in week five. The closest contest for the Bulldogs this year wa a 27-20 opening night win against Marysville. They are led by senior quarterback, Jacob Bradshaw who has completed 88 of 122 passes (72 percent) for 1,260 yards and 17 touchdowns, while also rushing for 1,706 yards and 24 scores. With that, he averages 297 yards of offense per game and Rossville is putting up nearly 450 yards total yards per contest. Perry Foster has added 582 yards rushing for the Bulldogs, who are even with 11 turnovers and 11 takeaways this year.       

The winner will face with face either Osage City (5-5) or Caney Valley (7-3) next week in Sectionals.  

Hanover (9-0) at Hutchinson-Central Christian (9-1)
For the fifth straight year the Hanover Wildcats picked up a first round playoff victory but it didn't come in as dominating fashion as many of their wins throughout the season had, winning 38-12 over St. John's-Tipton. It marked just the second full four quarter game played this season for Hanover and first since week one and Coach Matt Heuer said after the game that the teams discipline and efficency has to get better to be able to make the run back to the State title game a place that Wildcats have been the last two years. Hanover might not be putting up state record offensive numbers this year like last year but there is multiple reasons for that not having played many full games but the offense has still been good with quarterback, Will Bruna leading the charge as the team is averaging 48.5 points per game and has plenty of playmakers. The Wildcat defense as been stingy all year giving up just 44 points and until the game against St. John's-Tipton had basically kept all their opponents to under 100 total yards of offense or not much over that mark. 

Hanover will need a strong defensive performance on Saturday against Central Christian who is the highest scoring team in the State at 67.8 points per game. The Cougars won 108-62 in their first round game against Lebo (a team Hanover beat 22-0 in week one of the regular season) and have their lone loss to a team in Hartford who is also in the second round of the 8-Man DII playoffs. Quarterback, Nate Heneha leads the Cougars and totaled 420 yards of total offense with eight touchdowns in the first round playoff win. While the Cougars can score they have given up some points giving up 27.4 points per game this year and 60+ points twice this season. 

A win for Hanover gets the Wildcats to the Sub-State round of the playoffs for the fifth consecutive year. The winner moves on to the Sub-State round and draws the winner of the Hartford at Pike Valley game.