Wellington plays Collegiate in what could be an interesting homecoming battle
Wellington’s Derrick Lowe and Malachi Rogers were all smiles against Clearwater last Friday. (Photo by Jaxson Irey).
by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — The Wellington High School football team will be hosting its third consecutive home football game this Friday at 7 p.m. when Wichita Collegiate comes to town for homecoming.
Although Collegiate has dominated this series, winning 11 out of the 12 meetings, this is an opportunity for the Crusaders to get that “statement” win.
One could argue last week was that kind of game as the Crusaders destroyed Clearwater 49-18. But a win over Collegiate would most certainly get people’s attention.
But as always, Collegiate will be a difficult task. The Spartans defeated Rose Hill 28-6 and El Dorado 40-14 in the first two weeks. Against the Wildcats, Collegiate was leading El Dorado 14-6 at the half. El Dorado opened the second half with a 30-yard touchdown run and 2-point conversion to tie the game at 14. But then Collegiate would rattle off four touchdowns, including an 80-yard kick return for a touchdown and two big runs by Carson Phelps and Jaden Parker.
According to stats collected by the Wichita Eagle, El Dorado outrushed Collegiate 342 to 203 yards. Collegiate’s Wesley Fair was 5-of-8 passing for 59 yards to El Dorado’s 31. So statistically, El Dorado outdistanced Collegiate 373-262 in yardage despite losing by four touchdowns.
Interestingly, the statistical anomaly applied to last week’s Wellington-Clearwater game as well. Despite Wellington winning by 31 points, the Crusaders gained just 29 yards more than Clearwater 351-322. But the Indians also turned the ball over seven times.
Don’t expect Collegiate to be nearly as generous with the football.
Collegiate will undoubtedly be tough. They are ranked No. 2 in Class 3A. They have the horses to distribute the ball. Five different runners got the ball against El Dorado. Collegiate runs a run-based double-wing offense and has lots of team speed. They run 70 percent to pass 30 percent.
Still, this as good a chance as Wellington has had against Collegiate since beating the Spartans in 2018. The Crusaders have accumulated 288 and 351 yards in the first two games. Wellington sophomore Dusty Bannister has thrown for 178 and 215 yards against Andale and Clearwater, respectively. He has gotten the ball to five different receivers in both of those games and has thrown just one interception.
Those are the offensive stats Wellington fans haven’t seen in almost a decade.
It should be an electric atmosphere Friday night as the Crusaders crown a duchess and celebrate homecoming weekend.
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Injuries: Starting running back Jacob Lira broke a bone in his leg and will be out this Friday. The coaching staff did not know Monday what the extent of the injury was and hoped they could get him back by the end of the regular season.
Mekhi Haskins-Ybarra, who has had a shoulder injury, has been cleared to play. He won’t play against Collegiate as the state requires him to have a certain number of contact practices before he gets into a game.
