Kearney’s offense was all relentless precision as the Bulldogs (13-2) overpowered Hillsboro 68-28 to win the state Class 4 football championship Dec. 2 at Faurot Field in Columbia.
The victors from northeast of Kansas City scored on 10 of their first 11 possessions and came within one point of tying Lamar’s state record for points in a championship game. This is Kearney’s fifth state title and its first since 2015, while Hillsboro (12-2) was making its first-ever appearance in a state final.
The two days of state football championships featured a dizzying array of record-setting offenses. Kearney had a slight edge in total yards (508-488) over Hillsboro, with each team averaging 9.2 yards per play. They nearly surpassed the state record for combined total yards (1,070) set the night before in the Class 2 final between Seneca (13-1) and Park Hills Central (11-3). The Rebels won 48-34 and with 629 total yards, fell just short of De Smet’s record of 635 in 2005.
Following the Class 4 final, Lamar (13-1) beat Valle Catholic of Ste. Genevieve (12-2) 35-28 in overtime to capture the Class 2 championship, its ninth state title, and deny Valle its 16th.
“To be honest, we didn’t see it going quite the way it went,” Kearney head coach Logan Minnick said. “We’ve been really efficient offensively all year, so we knew if we got into a game where we had to continue to score – because we knew offensively they were very good – we were confident we could move the ball. We wished we’d done a little better job of taking time off the clock in between scores, but we’ll take a 40-point win.”
The glaring statistic for Hillsboro was its five turnovers – two interceptions and three fumbles – that short-circuited any hope of keeping pace with the Bulldogs, who were turnover-free.
Hillsboro got off to a promising start. On the second play from scrimmage, senior running back Payton Brown caught a pass from his younger brother, junior quarterback Preston Brown, and sprinted 79 yards to the Kearney one-yard line before junior safety Grant Noland hauled him down to prevent a touchdown. But the Hawks couldn’t punch it in and turned over the ball on downs at the two-yard line, a huge early momentum shift.
Thirteen plays and 98 yards later, Kearney senior running back Cameron Emmons scored the first of his four touchdowns, en route to leading the Bulldogs with 96 yards on 20 carries. Kicker Jacob Dillon made eight of nine extra-point tries and his first gave Kearney a 7-0 lead with 3:00 left in the first.
“Anytime you get near the goal line, you’ve got to come away with points,” Hillsboro head coach Bill Sucharski said. “We knew how good they were up front on both sides of the line. That (first) possession (is) where we’ve got to punch it in. But they got the stop and leaned on us with their O-line and it was hard for us to stop them all day.”
Minnick noted Noland’s key tackle.
“That’s something we preach all the time: make them snap it again,” he said. “Grant ran 80 yards across the field for the tackle and the defense got the stop.
“Our defense played big when they needed to. They have confidence in our offense. Grant had a broken collarbone all the way until week 10. He’s got fresh legs to run people down.”
Payton Brown finished with 169 yards rushing and receiving and wound up No. 2 in the St. Louis area to Park Hills Central running back Jobe Bryant in touchdowns (37-34). The Brown brothers combined for 2,749 rushing yards on the season.
“I started veering to the left because I haven’t been running my best; I’ve been battling a butt and groin injury, so I knew somebody would catch me,” Payton said. “I should have just kept running straight.”
On the first play of Hillsboro’s second series, Bulldog senior lineman Tyler Jarrett stripped the ball from Preston Brown and Kearney senior linebacker Daniel Stansbury recovered at the Hawk 34. On the next play, senior QB Casey Rooney lofted a 34-yard touchdown pass to senior wideout Manny Linthacum, and after the missed PAT try, the Bulldogs led 13-0 with 2:40 left in the first quarter.
Hillsboro finally responded on its next possession, with Preston Brown completing a third-down pass to senior wide receiver Chase Sucharski, the coach’s son, for a key first down. Then Payton rumbled 55 yards for a TD with 44 seconds to play in the first. Senior kicker Nick Marchetti, who was four-for-four on PAT attempts in the game, finished with 63 extra points for the season.
Rooney tossed TD passes of 34 yards to Linthacum and 36 yards to senior tight end Bryce Page as Kearney’s lead swelled to 27-7 in the second. Needing a score to stay within range, Preston Brown completed a 35-yard pass to junior wide receiver Keiten Pipkins on third-and-12, before firing a 34-yard scoring pass to Sucharski that cut the lead to 27-14 with 5:52 left in the half. Sucharski and Pipkins each caught four passes for a combined 197 of Brown’s 266 yards through the air.
Emmons scored the Bulldogs’ next three touchdowns, sandwiched around a six-yard TD burst by Preston Brown, and the Hawks couldn’t recover. Senior receiver Dalton Ross scored Hillsboro’s final points of the season on a 28-yard TD pass from Preston with 33 seconds left in the third to make it 47-28.
“We could do what we wanted,” Emmons said. “It seemed like every play call was perfect. Every alignment was perfect. You could flip a coin and pick any of the five (skill position) guys and they made plays. The O-line was getting pushes and we weren’t getting touched for five yards.”
Minnick had been an assistant coach at Kearney in 2015-2016 and left, then returned to take the head coaching job in 2022.
“When this job came back open, I probably applied before it was posted online,” Minnick said. “I walked into an unbelievable group of kids. I like to think I’m a decent coach, but it’s about the kids.
“You’re not going to find a better football town than Kearney, Missouri. That’s from top to bottom. It’s 100 percent a football community. If they had an election next week, I could probably run for mayor and get that thing, too.”