Maize clinches AVCTL league title, becomes only unbeaten team in 5A

WICHITA, Kan. (Catch it Kansas) - After what was potentially the game of the year in Kansas last week at Derby, the Maize Eagles offense dodnt waste anytime carrying its momentum into Friday night. An all-angles attack for the Eagles with 5 different offensive players finding the end zone en route to them clinching full possession of the AVCTL Division I league championship.

“That’s kind of what we do,” Maize head coach Gary Guzman said. “Every game it seems we have multiple guys stepping up and scoring touchdowns for us, but that’s just expected, it’s a spread offense and we did a good job of spreading it out.”

“They were playing us a little different than other teams have -- really off the football, forcing us to take shorter stuff,” Maize QB Avery Johnson said. “We’re a really explosive team and we like to go deep and score in chunks but they made us play a different type of football tonight. I’m just happy our guys stayed disciplined.”

Last week at Derby, Avery Johnson was the big story of the Eagle’s run game, posting nearly 150 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns on foot. But tonight, the run game swung back to the Eagles’ two-headed monster in the back field: Seniors Daeshaun Carter and Tayveon Williams.

“I feel like this game was just different because I had that dawg mentality in me that I haven’t had all year,” Williams said. “I just needed to run the ball hard and get with it... Me and [Daeshaun] personally, we feel like we’re the best backfield in the state.”

With a Mill Valley loss Friday to Olathe North, Maize is now the lone undefeated team in class 5A, and right where they would like to be in the standings heading into the playoffs in two weeks.

“We can’t get lackadaisical. Just because we’re 7-0 doesn’t mean teams will just lay over for us,” Avery Johnson said. “We want to come into each game with the same mindset as we came into that Derby game. It was a really high intensity game and we don’t want to look over any of our opponents. We want to treat everybody the same and get better at practice as well.”

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