A&A’s Garrett Wells returns a kickoff with Alec McDaniel looking to block.

by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — Turnovers proved to be the difference Friday night and helped lift Argonia-Attica to its first state championship berth with a 70-44 victory over Axtell Friday night in the Class 1A eight-man state semifinal playoffs.

Axtell would turn the ball over four times, and mishandled a punt. And the Titan offense would make them pay every single time for those mistakes.

As a result, A&A is going to state in just its second year of existence and its first year of playoff eligibility.

The Titans will battle Victoria on Saturday, Nov. 15 at Newton-Fischer Field at 11 a.m. Victoria beat Sharon Springs 28-12 in the other semifinal game. 

A huge home crowd converged on Argonia’s home football field on a frigid, but tolerable November night.

A&A celebrate after huge sub-state win.

And like all but one of its games before it, A&A used big offensive plays to score touchdowns by the bushels to entertain the home folks. For the ninth straight game the Titans would rack up more than 50 points. In the end it would accumulate 279 yards rushing, 179 yards passing and score on every offensive possession but two.

Axtell would have its share of touchdowns as well, getting six of them in the game. But the key difference was the Eagles would shoot themselves in the foot. A&A would have none of that.

In the first quarter, Axtell came out a polished unit and immediately scored on a Colton Buessing 40 yard touchdown sweep.

A&A was stopped on fourth down on its first possession, which didn’t happen thereafter but one other time. But A&A’s defense would thwart Axtell on its second possession and forced it to punt deep in its territory. The Axtell punter misjudged the snap and the ball fell into the end zone and recovered by the Titans for A&A’s first score.

On A&A’s second offensive possession, Alec McDaniel would score from the 2 – the first of his five touchdowns in the game.

Axtell would respond with a nifty 7-yard touchdown pass in the flat on a 4th and 3 to make it 16-14 with the two-point conversion. The Titans responded with a touchdown and this game was on jarring overdrive, 22-16.

But after the Eagles returned a kickoff to midfield, A&A intercepted the ball. And the Titans would make the Eagles pay dearly again for the mistake. In three short plays McDaniels would score on a 10-yard touchdown keeper to make it 28-16. The two teams traded touchdowns before intermission and the Titans led 34-22 at the half.

Axtell scored to start the second half and would trail 34-30. But it would get no closer. A&A would follow up with a touchdown and then get another Axtell fumble. That gave the Titans a 48-30 lead.

The Eagles would fumble again and A&A took full advantage with a McDaniel to Devon Newberry 33-yard touchdown throw. It was 56-30 going into the fourth.

Kolten Koerner would snag another Axtell interception. Newberry would eventually score thereafter to make it 64-30.

Kolten Koerner with the interception.

The rest of the game was more theatrics. A frustrated Axtell photographer was ejected from the game and that led to a 15-yard penalty. The fans on both sides were getting feisty as the cold winter night set in.

But in the end, A&A would be triumphant.

This will be the first time an Attica team has gone to state since 1988. Argonia has never gone to the big game in football.

Final stats can be found here. Argonia-Attica stats  More pictures for the game can be found here.

Class 1A eight-man Division II bracket can be found here.

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