HANOVER - Powered by an ultra-efficient effort on offense and a similarly sweltering showcase on defense, District 3 #1 Hanover (9-0) obliterated District 4 #4 Osborne (3-6) 58-6 in the first round of the 2025 Kansas 8-Player DII Football postseason on Thursday night in Hanover. 

The Wildcats staked their claim as one of the very best teams - once again - in this classification of high school football in the state of Kansas by defeating fellow heavyweights Axtell at home two weeks prior, and Hanover certainly made a statement in the first round of the postseason with this authoritative victory in a game that only lasted two quarters due to Kansas' football mercy rules. 

Hanover scored on its first seven possessions of the game and also tallied a defensive score to blow out to Bulldogs. That was the explosive part of the 58-point outburst. But the Wildcats were also exceedingly efficient: on nearly all of those seven drives, they got into the end zone on three, two, or even one play. They barely possessed the ball in the contest and were still able to score at will en route to the lopsided win. 

Two plays and 40 seconds was all it took for Hanover to get the scoring started off a 29-yard catch-and-run from Kadrick Cohorst to Hunter Kiekhaefer. Osborne put together a strong drive in response and steadily worked it across midfield, but Landxen Stallbaumer intercepted Tate Tiernan and two plays later Cooper Bruna scampered into the end zone to make it 12-0 less than four minutes into the game. 

And the Wildcats were far from done. Cooper Bruna ran for two more scores, Jack Bruna and Alec Jueneman added one each, Cohorst threw one more to Brody Sedlacek, and Eli Heiman put an exclamation mark on a resounding first quarter with a pick-six. With 9:32 left on the clock in the second quarter, Hanover led 58-0. 

With some backups in for the Wildcats, the Bulldogs finally made their first defensive stop midway through the second quarter, and then the Osborne offense followed immediately with a long touchdown pass from Tiernan to Donovon Holloway, a pair of star freshmen who will likely help the Bulldogs win a lot more games in years to come. They were unable to help them win on this occasion however, because though the Bulldogs threatened to score again - which could have cut the deficit to under 45 and forced the game into the third quarter - the Hanover defense got a stop and a couple of first downs later in the second quarter to ensure the contest ended early, and ended in a 58-6 first-round win for the home team. 

The Wildcats will return home to host the second round of the DII postseason against 6-3 Burlingame, the #2 team from District 2, which beat Waverly in the first round by a very similar scoreline, 54-8. That second-round tie is scheduled for 6 PM on Friday, November 7 in Hanover - the game will be broadcast live on 99.5 FM and online at olred995.com.

OSBORNE (3-6) 6:   0 | 6 | X | X

HANOVER (9-0) 58: 36 | 22 | X | X