Freshman football rolls past Topeka High, to stay undefeated

Adam Wollenberg, Staff Writer

The Manhattan High School Freshman football team (1-0), took on Topeka High’s freshman football team and dominated Topeka 47-0 on Monday. 

On the first possession of the game, which belonged to Topeka, Manhattan’s defense forced the fourth down. On the fourth down punt, the Topeka kicker fumbled the ball in the endzone, and freshman Ke’lonnie Patterson recovered the fumble for a touchdown.

That touchdown gave Manhattan the only points they would need to beat Topeka High. The Manhattan High defense continued to dominate the Topeka High offense. Topeka had three fumbles. Two of those fumbles resulted in immediate touchdowns for Manhattan. Topeka also had a punt blocked and only got one first down the entire game. The leading tackler for Manhattan was freshman Tate Hoover with five tackles. 

“Every practice our team puts in hard work you know, we execute every play, we execute every practice you know it starts in practice. We just have to execute at practice and doing what we need to do on the field to get it done,” Patterson said after the game.

Manhattan’s offense was also dominating the Topeka defense. Manhattan had four offensive touchdowns and was only scoreless on two drives. Of the two scoreless drives, one drive resulted in a turnover on downs and the other was a failure to score a touchdown on the last possession of the game. 

All of Manhattan’s points came within the first half. Freshman running back Braxton Frey started the offensive scoring. With a one yard touchdown run, which capped off a two play 21 yard scoring drive to put Manhattan up 14-0 with 3:21 left in the first quarter, set up with the play before a 20 yard run from Frey. Frey continued to play well as he finished the game with three rushes for 43 yards, and two touchdowns. 

 “Our team did pretty good. We got our blocking, right,” Frey said. “That’s what opens up the holes for me to run through. We work our butts off in practice, [and] always put in hard work.”

Freshman quarterback Keenan Schartz was two for two on passes for a combined 62 yards passing/ One pass to freshman wide receiver Luke Brickei for 13 yards, the other pass was a dump off to freshman running back Jaxon Bowles who then exploded up field for a gain of 49 yards. Schartz also had one rushing touchdown.

Overall, with Manhattan’s 47-0 win over Topeka High, the Manhattan Freshman football team moves to (2-0) on the season. They will look to stay undefeated with their game next Monday at Seaman.