By SEAN BOSTON
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — For the first time since 1982, Sterling will run out for a state championship game, carrying an undefeated record, a record-setting rushing attack and a defense that is peaking at the right time.
The Black Bears will not have to go far for the biggest game in school history. From Sterling High School to Gowans Stadium in Hutchinson, the trip is just 22.4 miles, a short drive for a town that has spent the week planning a Friday afternoon at the 1 p.m. Class 1A state championship against Rossville.
“It is basically a home game for us,” Sterling head coach Brent Schneider said. “We talked going into the year about how important it would be with the new setup if we could host our way out, then just have that short trip to Hutch. Our fans are going to travel. They are excited and hungry for this.”
Sterling enters at 12–0, with numbers that read more like video game totals. The Black Bears have rushed for 4,257 yards and 73 touchdowns on 403 carries, averages of 354.8 yards per game and 10.6 yards per carry.
They opened with 379 rushing yards against Sedgwick and 330 against Moundridge, then exploded for 454 against Inman, 326 against Ellinwood and 278 against Medicine Lodge. October brought 462 rushing yards on only 21 carries at Conway Springs and 531 on 24 carries at South Sumner County, followed by 308 against Trinity Catholic, 300 on just 14 attempts against Herington and 415 against Marion.
Even in the rematch with Trinity Catholic, they went for 344 on the ground before last week’s grind-it-out 130 yards in a mud-soaked 14–6 semifinal win over Smith Center.
“Our offense is built on patience and physicality,” Schneider said. “We celebrate three and four yard gains early because we know what they turn into later. Sometimes it is like swinging a sledgehammer at a boulder. You do not see it break at first, but inside it is starting to crack.”
The leading edge of that sledgehammer is senior running back Zane Farney, who has carried 188 times for 2,047 yards and 39 touchdowns. He averages 170.6 rushing yards per game and 10.9 yards per carry. Wyatt Newberry has been just as explosive, adding 1,034 rushing yards, 14 touchdowns and averaging 14 yards per carry. Jace Darnauer has contributed 435 yards and seven scores, Deryn Maxwell 201 yards and two touchdowns, and senior quarterback Logan Isaac 403 rushing yards with 10 touchdowns. Sophomore Jacob Lewis and several underclassmen give the Black Bears additional depth in the backfield.
The passing game is used selectively but efficiently. Isaac has completed 8 of 17 passes for 209 yards and two touchdowns. Newberry leads the team with 152 receiving yards and one touchdown. Porter Anderson and Lewis each have a touchdown catch as well. In total, Sterling has completed nine passes for 226 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.
Last week against Smith Center, Sterling needed its defense more than its fireworks on offense. On a sloppy Smisor Stadium field that neutralized speed and footing, the Black Bears held the Redmen to six points and forced three fumbles in a game that never allowed them to pull away. Lewis turned in one of the great defensive performances of the season. The sophomore finished with 16 tackles, one tackle for loss, three fumble recoveries and a 30–yard reception on Sterling’s only completion of the night.
“Jacob is an animal,” Schneider said. “He is an athletic freak who has a nose for the football. Whenever there is a play to be made, he finds it. We moved him to middle linebacker, and he just took over the game.”
That stat line was a snapshot of a season–long impact. Lewis leads Sterling with 156 total tackles, an average of 13 per game, and has 15 tackles for loss, three sacks, an interception and five fumble recoveries. Newberry has 98 tackles and eight tackles for loss. Myers has 90 stops and seven tackles for loss. Maxwell sits at 74 total tackles, and Farney adds 61 tackles and two tackles for loss from his spot at linebacker. Isaac has 38 tackles and four tackles for loss, while Morris, Link, Krone, Thomas, Schweizer and Ploutz have formed a deep, relentless front that has combined for double–digit sacks and more than 100 tackles for loss yards.
As a unit, the Sterling defense has compiled 1,051 tackles and 74 tackles for loss across 12 games. The Black Bears have intercepted 10 passes and recovered 20 fumbles, with 12 forced fumbles and multiple players who can flip a drive with a single hit. Newberry has four interceptions, while David Myers and Farney have two picks each.
“We take a lot of pride in our defense,” Schneider said. “That was a big point of emphasis coming into the year. We wanted to be physical. We wanted to get hats to the football. We wanted to tackle well in space. To hold Smith Center to six on that kind of field says a lot about our kids.”
But what makes Sterling’s appearance in Friday’s state championship even more remarkable is how quickly the program has risen under Schneider. When he took over in 2019, the Black Bears went 4–5 in his first season, then dipped to 2–7 and 1–8 through the COVID-era seasons. Sterling did not post a winning record in any of Schneider’s first four years and reached a low point at 1–8 in 2021. Since then, the climb has been dramatic: 4–5 in 2022, 6–4 in both 2023 and 2024, and now a perfect 12–0 heading into Friday’s title game.
Schneider said the players who endured the early years deserve as much credit as the ones lifting trophies now.
“I give a lot of credit to a lot of the kids in those times, because we had some pretty rough seasons, and we still had great kids,” he said. “We talked to them about setting a foundation, and just we wanted to build a winning culture. It’s one thing as a staff, we talked about, let’s just build this culture to what we want it to be.”
He added that he never felt pressured to cut corners during the rebuild.
“I didn’t feel like my job was on the line or anything like that, and I could be comfortable in building a culture,” he said. “As we end up getting 40 and 50 kids out year after year, and we’re able to have full schedules and play competitive football, those wins are really coming.”
Now his program sits at the doorstep of history, less than half an hour from home.
On the other sideline stands Rossville, a program Kansas fans know well from its championship runs at the 2A and 3A level. The Bulldogs have five state titles, two in 2A and three in 3A. They arrive at 11–1 with a balanced, explosive offense and an aggressive defense that lives in opponents’ backfields and passing lanes. Together, Sterling and Rossville have combined for more than 7,200 rushing yards this fall.
Rossville has thrown for 1,637 yards and 18 touchdowns, completing 66.3 percent of its passes with only one interception. Senior quarterback Canann Mitchell is the catalyst, hitting 109 of 164 throws for 1,578 yards and all 18 touchdowns. His favorite targets include Cameron Miller, who has 32 catches for 523 yards and eight touchdowns, and Jack Donovan, who has 38 grabs for 453 yards and three scores. Landen Lewis, Cael Horgan, Cale Horak and Andre Johnson all add explosive receiving threats.
It is not just a passing show. Rossville has also rushed for 3,006 yards and 51 touchdowns on 386 attempts, averaging 250.5 yards per game and 7.8 yards per carry. Mitchell has 1,013 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns, making him a true dual–threat. Bush, Johnson, Lewis and Donovan round out a deep backfield.
“Rossville is athletic and very fast,” Schneider said. “Their quarterback can run or throw, and he throws a really good ball. They have receivers who are tall and can go get it. Defensively they fly to the football.”
Their most recent win, a 21–18 semifinal victory at Jackson Heights, showed that the Bulldogs can grind too. Mitchell carried 22 times for 92 yards and a touchdown and completed 8 of 12 passes for 104 yards and two scores. Horgan caught five passes for 81 yards and two touchdowns. Horak came up with the game’s only interception.
The matchup Friday will pit Sterling’s bruising, big–play ground attack against a Rossville defense that has been opportunistic, and a Rossville offense that can hurt teams with both run and pass against a Sterling defense that is used to tackling in space. On one side, a Sterling program chasing its first state football title in 43 years and trying to surpass the 12–0 record of the 1982 champions. On the other, a Rossville team more accustomed to this stage and one that expects to contend every November.
For Schneider, the moment is equal parts football and relationships.
“It means the world to me,” he said. “I believe football is a tool to build relationships with these young men. I love the game, but it is about the relationships. I needed that growing up. I had high school and college coaches who changed my life. I would not be where I am without them. I hope we can do the same for our kids.”
As Sterling heads 22.4 miles down the road to Gowans Stadium, that bus will carry an unbeaten record, a senior class that helped transform the program, a defense that refuses to back down and an offense that can take over a game in a few snaps.
The Black Bears have an opportunity to win their second state title in 2025 for a boys sport. The boys basketball team claimed the Class 2A state title over Moundridge back in March in Manhattan.
"It's a really cool thing," Schneider said. "We talk about that often, how our kids are pretty calm and collective and business as usual because of that."
Everything points toward a classic on Friday afternoon, with the Class 1A championship, history and a short trip home on the line for the Black Bears.