Photo Credit: Steve Bubalo/PrepsKC 
Coaches will look for any weakness, any edge they think they can find on an opponent. It might not look like much, but anything they can exploit.
Kearney head coach Logan Minnick did just that Friday night on the opening kickoff against Fort Osage. He called an onside kick, his players ran it to perfection, gaining the recovery, and less than a minute later the offense was in the end zone for a 7-0 lead as they rolled to an impressive 39-17 win.
“It was just a feeling thing,” Minnick said on when he decided to call the onside. “We liked the alignment that they had on their kick return team. We did reps all week. We told the guys all week, if the look is there, we’re going to run it. They executed it perfectly. It was a great way to get momentum.”
The touchdown came with some trickery, too, as wide receiver Manny Linthacum took a pitch but instead of running it, threw it to Bryce Page for a 44-yard touchdown.
Three plays later the defense intercepted a Greg Menne pass, as it appeared he was trying to throw the ball away under duress. Instead, Landon Goepferich caught it before falling out of bounds, setting up the offense at the Fort Osage 29.
Five plays later, Zach Grace plowed into the end zone from a yard out and less than 6 minutes into the game, Kearney had a 14-0 lead.
“To get the momentum early was so big,” Minnick said. “To go up 14-0… it forces them to play a kind of game they don’t want to play.”
Fort Osage head coach Brock Bult said the same thing. The early deficit forced his offense to switch gears and be more pass heavy. The Kearney defense realized this and had Menne running for his life much of the game.
“They knew we had to pass, so they just pinned their ears back,” Bult said of the Kearney defense, which had six sacks on the night and countless other pressures. “They smacked us in the face, and it took us an entire half to react. We got on our heels and got behind and that took us out of our game plan.”
“We tried to get him (Menne) a little flustered,” Kearney defensive back Luke Noland said. “It was well executed by our D-line and our stunts.”
Kearney sprinted out to a 29-3 lead at the half, which is when Fort Osage briefly woke up and started to make the game interesting. To begin the second half, they recovered a Kearney fumble on the first play and scored four plays later on a Ryver Peppers 8-yard run.
After the defense forced a three-and-out, the offense started its drive on the Bulldog 44 with the chance to cut into the 29-10 deficit. Those hopes were quickly dashed on the first play when Luke Noland picked off a Menne pass along the sideline and took it 60 yards for a touchdown and a 36-10 lead.
“My job was to play man-to-man,” Noland said. “I knew if I was next to my man, I could take a peek (back at the quarterback). I took a peek, and the ball was coming right to my chest.”
Added Minnick, “It was huge. They had the momentum. Luke’s our dude defensively. He’s a great player and he made a great play.”
The first half was a classic Kearney, smashmouth football game.
After a Fort Osage field goal made it 14-3, the Kearney offense responded right back with a 67-yard scoring drive, 58 of the yards coming on the ground. Grace capped this drive with another touchdown run, this one from 3 yards out for a 21-3 lead.
Just before the half, the Bulldogs tacked on one more score on a 6-yard touchdown run from Cameron Emmons. The two-point conversion made it 29-3.
For the game, the Bulldogs had 40 rushes for 212 yards, as the offense leaned on the physicality of its players up front.
“The biggest thing we’ve preached is getting back to KHS football,” Minnick said. “We want to turn every game into a fist fight in a phone booth. We want to match the other team’s physicality.”
They’ve done that so far, as they improved to 2-0 in Minnick’s first year at the helm and will play their first home game next Friday night against defending 4A state champion Smithville. Fort Osage, now 1-1, will travel to Belton.
