WAMEGO — Traveling on the road to Wamego to kick off the 2025 season, the Concordia High School football team fell to the Red Raiders 40-6.
The Red Raiders took the opening kickoff down the field to start the game with a touchdown, but would miss the extra point to make it a 6-0 game. Concordia wouldn’t be able to retaliate, going three-and-out on their opening drive of the game, to which Wamego capitalized with a one-play 65-yard pass to make it a 13-0 ball game.
After a failed Panther drive, Wamego had another short drive to push the lead up to 20, with the Panthers not able to close the gap to end the first quarter with another three-and-out.
Wamego didn’t let up on the gas, with another two-play drive to start the quarter to take a 27-0 lead early in the second. But while the Panther offense couldn’t build momentum, the Panther defense tightened up and kept Wamego off the board until 24 seconds remaining in the half to enter the locker room trailing 34-0.
The Panthers came out to start the half on a better note, with Parker Jackson taking the kickoff down to the Wamego 38-yard line to put the Panthers in an advantageous starting field position. The offense would show some flash and get into the red zone, but the Red Raider defense—and penalties—would keep the Panthers off the board and forced to punt.
Wamego would take the ball on their first drive of the half down the field and score their last touchdown of the game with 3:40 remaining in the third. After getting a first down to start the following drive, and a strong run by Matthew Nieuluex, a sack would give the Panthers a third and nine on the 50-yard line. After a rushed throw to force fourth down, Jackson came up big again with a 19-yard reception. Blochlinger would find Krier for another big reception to get the Panthers back into the red zone before stalling out.
The Panthers picked up their lone score of the game on a fourth and 11 on the 50-yard line, with Blochlinger finding Liam McNutt deep downfield who forced a missed tackle to get in the end zone and give the final score of the game 40-7.
Drake Blochlinger went 9-25 passing for 129 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
Liam McNutt had one catch for 50 yards and a touchdown, Kale Schroeder had two catches for 30 yards, Parker Jackson had two catches for 25 yards and Ayden Krier had three catches for 24 yards.
Koehn Williams and Krier each had 10 tackles and a tackle for loss, with Williams adding a sack. Brody Knox and Grayson Palmgren each had two tackles for loss and four tackles overall.
