Kansas Class 5A East
No. 7 St. Thomas Aquinas 30, No. 6 De Soto 14
Sean Carroll scored three touchdowns to lead the visiting Saints to their seventh consecutive state semifinal.
Carroll finished with 104 yards on 21 carries, leading all players in a game that had just 469 yards of combined offense.
His second touchdown, at 11:03 left in the game, covered 29 yards and made the score 24-0. He sealed the game with a 7-yard touchdown with 2:35 left, establishing the final margin.
Before that, De Soto (6-4) got a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns on back-to-back drives to give the Wildcats some life. Ethan Schultze connected with Brandon McIntosh for a 12-yard score; Bryson Brummer followed with a five-yard run.
Jack Forge added a 21-yard touchdown for St. Thomas Aquinas (7-4), which won its fifth in a row after a 2-4 start to the season to set up another Sub-State meeting with Mill Valley with a berth in the state championship game on the line.
The two have played in the semifinals in five of the past six years, with Mill Valley (10-1) winning in 2020, 2019, 2016 and 2015 -- and claiming the state title in each of those years after defeating the Saints.
This year’s rematch will be played at Mill Valley.
Kansas Class 4A East
No. 10 Bishop Miege 21, No. 6 Eudora 6
Behind 265 total yards and three touchdowns from Jaylen Burch, the visiting Stags extended their season and set up a chance to avenge recent losses to No. 8 St. James Academy.
Burch scored on runs of 49, 18 and 5 yards to help Bishop Miege (5-6) overcome the first-quarter deficit.
Eudora (6-5) led 6-0 after the first quarter thanks to a 2-yard run from Octavius Lyles, who rushed for a team-high 131 yards.
But the Cardinals couldn’t keep up once Burch got going, hurt further by a pair of turnovers and going 0 for 4 on fourth down.
The Stags next get another crack at the Thunder, who won their Eastern Kansas League game 45-28 on Oct. 22.
Memorably, St. James Academy (7-4) won last season’s Sub-State game 36-35 in overtime on the way to their first state title -- ending Miege’s run of six straight in the process.
Missouri Class 3 District 8
No. 1 St. Pius X 31, No. 2 Chillicothe 6
The Warriors won their second consecutive district championship, powered by touchdowns by four different players.
Quarterback Jack Mosh threw touchdown passes to Jayshawn Ross (63 yards) and Reed McCann (24 yards), while Robbie Sharp had a 32-yard touchdown run and Shane Dorian added a 19-yarder as St. Pius X (10-1) responded to a 6-0 deficit late in the first half with 31 unanswered points.
Mosh finished with 180 yards passing from nine completions to five different receivers. Sharp led all rushers with 89 yards.
The Warriors, Class 2 state runners up a year ago, next host Pleasant Hill (7-5) in the state quarterfinals as they try to get back to the state final -- this time in Class 3.
