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By Pat Clifton
Kansas State secured the West’s Central Division Championship this weekend with a 24-20 win over Oklahoma on Sunday. The Wildcats and Sooners were the frontrunners of the league before the weekend, with Oklahoma carrying an unblemished 4-0 record in league play and KSU just beneath them at 3-0-1.
KSU reached Sunday’s de facto championship game with a 33-0 drubbing of Oklahoma State on Saturday, and Oklahoma with a 33-17 win over Truman State on Saturday. The Wildcats strode out to an easy victory with two tries Faddy Khamis and Kenny Scott each, setting up an all-important clash with the Sooners, which would not be so easy.
“We were down 8-0 at halftime,” said KSU president Tyler Hodges. “They had a penalty and a try in the first half. There wasn’t a whole lot of offense either way, really.”
The Wildcats got on the board early in the second half with a penalty kick from Joe D’Agastino, followed up by try from wing Kenny Scott, which D’Agostino converted. OU struck back with a try of their own, but the Wildcats sealed the win with two more converted tries, one by Parker Staats and the other by D’Agostino. The Sooners scored again, but KSU’s lead proved to be too much.
“We really did well keeping the ball tight and securing our own ball and then spinning it wide after that,” said Hodges. “Kenny’s try was kind of on a breakaway and so was Joe’s. We sucked in the defenders a lot with our forward runs and then got the ball out once we had overloads, and did really well there.”
Securing the ball at the breakdown is something KSU will have to do when they face Colorado State, runners-up in the West’s West Division, on March 27. The Wildcats and Rams met in the fall, with Colorado State emerging victorious 34-20.
“I think we’ve gotten a lot better at securing our own ball at the breakdown since then, and that was an early season fall game, and that’s been an early point of emphasis for us since then,” said Hodges. “Hopefully, we’ll be better at that than we were in the fall, or else we’re in trouble.”
This time around, K-State is set to have a deeper squad when they face off against CSU. “Hopefully we’ll be healthier. That was another Saturday, Sunday weekend and we had three starters get hurt on Saturday, and that was tough for us.” said Hodges. “We had a couple guys playing new positions. They did a really good job of getting their forwards out with their backline, creating overloads, so just playing better defense on that will be big for us.”
The Rams and Wildcats will be playing for a bid into the West playoffs. The winner takes on the champion of the Texas division in the first of a two-round playoff which will award two teams a chance to compete in the National playoffs.
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