Dusty Bannister started at quarterback (12) for Wellington for the first time Friday evening. Malachi Rogers was moved to receiver and running back. (Photo by Eric Rinehart).

by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — The 2021 Wellington High School football season pretty much ended in the third quarter when Andover Central turned a 14-0 lead into a 48-0 rout. Wellington’s season ends at 2-6 with many questions going into the off-season.

With 8:18 to play in the third quarter, Jaguar back Jackson Rees ran in from the 3 to give Andover Central a 21-0 lead. From that point forward, it was a demolition.

Andover Central would score four touchdowns in a matter of 10 minutes concluding with a 57-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown. Andover Central will go on to play Towanda Circle. The Crusaders now set their sights on basketball season.

Oh, those fumbles. Wellington turned the ball over four times and that didn’t include the three fumbles they recovered.

Although Wellington cut down on the penalties, it was still not a cohesive performance for its offense as the Wellington coaching staff jostled a lineup that was short on numbers.

Perhaps the most controversial move was inserting freshman quarterback Dusty Bannister to start the game against the Jags and moving Malachi Rogers to runningback. It was his first start of the season. He was 7 of 16 for 51 yards and one interception. Rogers rushed for 73 yards, 20 more than Wellington’s total as the other three backs combined for -20 yards.

Wellington’s offensive line opens a hole for Rogers.

The Crusader offense could not get on track accumulating 104 yards for the game against the stout Andover Central defense.

Whether the roster changes helped or hurt is anyone’s guess. Ultimately, it would have been a colossal upset for Wellington to knock off Andover Central, the third seed in the Class 4A-West and ranked No. 2 in the Class 4A Kpreps.com poll.

The Crusaders did make it competitive for a half, thanks to some key defensive stops and great punting. Andover Central built a 14-0 lead thanks to a 55-yard touchdown strike from Kai Kunz to Cooper Tabor in the first quarter. Kunz then got open on quarterback keeper for a 57 yard score in the second.  Other than that, the Jaguars weren’t seeing a lot of success offensively. Twice, the Crusaders pinned Andover Central inside the 5 with great punts by Bannister and Rogers.

Wellington then survived a last-second bid by Andover Central to score before the half.

Wellington’s Hagen Wright with a big sack in the first half.

The Crusaders opened the second half promisingly when it recovered a fumble on the Andover Central kickoff giving themselves a great opportunity to cut the Jag’s lead to seven. But on the first play offensively, Bannister threw an interception and Andover Central drove the rest of the way to set up the onslaught of scoring.

Wellington finished the year getting two wins against Labette County and Rose Hill. But after building a 2-2 start, Wellington could not find its footing thereafter losing four games. To be fair, five of Wellington’s losses came against the top two teams in 3A, two of the three teams in 4A, and Mulvane, which is sitting just outside the top five. Wellington’s only loss to a team with a losing record was El Dorado.

Crusaders lose seven seniors, who will be missed. But they do bring back a slew of promising underclassmen including six freshmen who saw significant playing time this season on Friday night.

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