Week Three Friday Night Lights Football Heroes - Part 1

Seward's Joseph Krause (Blue) is one of Nebraska prep football's finest Quarterbacks, regardless of class. *(photo courtesy of Josh Eickmeier, Mayor of Seward)

*Joseph Krause - Seward - Talk about a familiar name in Nebraska prep football. It seems as though Seward QB Joseph Krause has been the field general for the Bluejays forever. Actually, the classy senior has been the starting QB for Seward since his sophomore season, 20 games to be exact.

Krause has Coach Jamie Opfer’s troops off to a 3-0 start, the best since 2005, when Seward reeled off 7 consecutive wins before losing to Crete, 26-21. Seward is currently rated # 5 in Class B after routing Lexington 55-21 last week.

In that game, Joseph Krause hit 15 of his 24 passes for 267 yards and 4 TDs. His touchdown passes were hauled in by Brett Meyer (17, 15 yards), Reece Foreman (33 yards), and Devon Brees (42 yards). Krause also rushed 9 times for 59 yards and a TD run of 10 yards in the contest.

Check this out. The classy senior QB has played in 20 career games and never been held under 100 yards passing. Joseph was 13-22 for 255 yards and 2 TDs the first time he ever started for the Bluejays. Since August 26, 2016, Krause has logged a pair of 300+ passing games, a dozen over 200 and six over the hundred yard mark. Matter of fact, Krause has thrown for over 200 yards in all three games this year and was only under 200 once in all of 2017. He has current string of eight consecutive games where he has passed for over 200 yards and thrown a TD pass.

Joseph Krause’s career numbers; 4,649 yards passing, 44 TDs, an average of 202 yards a game. And I’ll be honest with you, the young man has not had great protection all the way through his career either. He ran for his life the last two games I attended, but still played like a Champion.

Seward has gone 8-13 thus far in Joseph’s career. No playoff appearances. Matter of fact, the last time Seward made the Class B playoffs was during Krause’s 8th grade year. This year, Mr. Consistency, Joseph Krause, is about to change all that.

***State Kick Returns in a Game Record (Tied)***

*Braden Johnson - Platteview - Good Lord! The Platteview junior returned 3 kickoffs for touchdowns in a 45-44 loss to Nebraska City. That ties the overall state record set by my former drum student Jeremy Hurt of Centura. Jeremy pulled that off way back in 1994 against Kearney Catholic.

Anyway, not only did Braden Johnson return 3 kickoffs for TDs, he also compiled a whopping 417 All-Purpose yards in the game, intercepted an Nebraska City pass and blocked a kick for good measure.

In case you were wondering, Johnson’s all-purpose yards came from; 49 rushing yards, 86 receiving, 260 on kick returns, 10 on a punt return and the remaining 20 yards on the INT return.

Can you say Renaissance Man?

*Bellevue West Defense - Came up huge in the Thunderbirds 51-16 win over previously unbeaten Papillion LV South. The Thunderbird “D” recorded an incredible 27 tackles for losses (and 4 sacks), forced and recovered a fumble and intercepted a pair of passes in the win. Jack McDonnell and Caedin Hays each had an interception, Ryan Rogers forced a fumble, David Shannon made the recovery. 6-1, 220 DL Toy Miller, a late transfer a year ago who had to sit out all of 2017, had 5 TFL and two sacks in the game. Fellow defender Logan Bird topped that with 6 tackles for losses with his terrific sideline to sideline speed.

All in all, the Bellevue West Defense had 17 different players record at least one tackle or assist during the game, part of 42 solo stops made in the contest.

*Bellevue West Offense - May as well give these guys some props while we’re at it. QB Evan Kieser had his best passing game by far in this Papio South contest. The senior completed 18 of 33 throws for 323 yards and 4 TDs. Kieser, a converted wide receiver, tossed scoring passes to Jevyon Ducker (8 yards), Zavier Betts (61 yards), Nate Sullivan (49 yards) and also connected with Lincoln High transfer Shane Smith for a 59 yard score.

Jevyon Ducker also rushed for 120 yards on 23 carries and scored a pair of rushing touchdowns covering 8 and 10 yards. The Thunderbirds jump from # 4 to # 2 in the World-Herald ratings this week.

*Cedric Case - Lincoln High - The senior sharpshooter led the Links to their first win of the 2018 season with a high powered performance over a very good Creighton Prep squad. Case blitzed the Junior Jays by completing 16 of 26 passes for 309 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Cedric found Morgan Perry for a 30 yard scoring strike, then hooked up with C J Jones for a 71 yarder. Jones, who caught three Case aerials for 98 yards, also came up with a 61 yard Pick 6 on defense.

So, after three games, the North Dakota football recruit has thrown for 912 yards and 5 TDs against a brutal schedule (Bellevue West, Grand Island, Creighton Prep). Cedric Case career numbers; 401-601 for 6,041 yards (67%), 59 TDs/12 INTs and an average of 262.7 yards passing every time he straps on the pads for Lincoln High.

*Lane Edis - Mullen - No easing up for Lane Edis in the Broncos 35-16 win over Garden County. The magnificent Mullen product rushed for 274 yards on 33 carries and accounted for every single Bronco touchdown in the game. Mullen actually trailed Garden 8-7 after the first quarter and 16-7 at halftime before reeling off 28 unanswered 2nd half points to grab the win.

Lane recorded TD runs of 10, 9, 19 and 40 yards in the big win. He also was on the receiving end of an 18 yard scoring pass from Brady Gracey, a 4th quarter score that extended the Mullen lead to 29-16 at the time.

Edis now has 764 yards on just 69 carries in three games, keeping that per carry average at a fat 11 yards a pop.

*Kaleb Canoyer - Waverly - 5-8, 165 pound Viking senior tore it up rushing the football for the third straight game. In Waverly’s 49-31 win over a good Omaha Roncalli team, Canoyer ran the ball 17 times for 202 yards and hit paydirt on runs of 69,1 and 28 yards. Thus far, the exceptionally strong Viking runner has strung together rushing games of 198, 183, and 202 yards for a t3 game total of 583 yards (8 TDs). Defenders are beginning to believe Kaleb’s bench press of 270 pounds is for for real when the dude drags 4 of them with him for 10 extra yards.

*Avante Dickerson - Omaha Westside - Fantastic freshman Avante Dickerson is now a Super sophomore and giving Westside a shot in the arm when the Warriors need it. The 165 pound speedster rushed for 101 yards on only 9 carries in a 29-14 win over Lincoln Southwest last Friday. Dickerson scored a pair of touchdowns on runs of 41 and 5 yards. Remember, this lad is also a very dangerous return man who took three kickoffs to the house in 2017.

Avante really boosted his recruiting stock this past summer, and one reason was his forty yard dash time of a sizzling 4.34 seconds, recorded at the Mega Camp in St. Louis. You can bet this kid will be bringing at least one kickoff back to the house this season. Ditto for punt returns. Electrifying football player.

*Camden Thompson - Wood River - 5-8, 135 pound running back rushed 2 times for 4 yards in the opening 42-0 loss to Doniphan-Trumbull, 25 times for 78 yards against Bridgeport, then decides to explode for 191 yards on 17 carries and TD runs of 3, 3 and 15 yards in the Eagles 53-20 frolic over Southern Valley.

What can you say except “what’s next”? As I always say, stay tuned.

*Dietrick Stoltz - Grand Island Central Catholic - 5-9, 145 pound junior place kicker may very well lead the entire state in kick scoring. Stoltz is 13 of 14 on PAT kicks and a perfect 4 for 4 on field goal attempts, totalling 25 kick scoring points. The strong legged Crusader has already booted FGs covering of 42, 47 and 44 yards in his first three games. Dietrick has also sailed 6 of his 20 of his kickoffs in the end zone for touchbacks. Big time weapon for 3-0 GICC.

*Alex Rathke - Falls City - Followed up last week’s 181 yards on 21 carries performance against Raymond Central with an even bigger one against Syracuse. In the Tigers 24-6 win over the Rockets, the tough running Rathke bolted for 258 yards on 28 carries and TD runs of 76 and 15 yards. The senior, who was injured in 2017, reeled off impressive non-scoring runs of 25, 18, 18, 21, and 18 yards in the game. This dude is good, man!

*Zach Fye - Crete - Cardinal quarterback completed just 5 of 14 passes, but those 5 completions totaled 115 yards, plus two were TD tosses in Crete’s 17-7 win over Plattsmouth. The 6-0, 180 pound junior, who threw for 1,343 yards and 12 touchdowns a year ago, also unleashed a lethal ground game to the tune of 136 yards on 23 touches. Considering that Zach Fye had only rushed for 203 yards in his career before this outing, I’d say that’s a top notch accomplishment and another weapon for that Crete offense. Stay tuned on this development too.