Rockhurst is team no one wants to play

Source: The Star

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KEITH MYERS | The Kansas City Star

Liberty had trouble stopping Rockhurst’s Noah Pearl, who ran for two touchdowns in Friday night’s game.

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The most dangerous team in the state began this season with new faces in glamour positions while its best player — a pint-sized tough guy — walked around the practice field in street clothes. At that time, its head coach laughed at the thought that he might be a sadist for enjoying being around these guys so much. Then two games in, this team goes to Hutchinson and gets the blue and white kicked out of it.

Those qualifications don’t exactly strike fear in opponents. And certainly not the beginning you would have expected from tradition-rich Rockhurst. But flash ahead to Friday night — the Hawklets look nothing like the team they were a couple of months ago. While blowing out Liberty 35-14 in a Class 6 sectional playoff game and setting up a classic Rockhurst-Blue Springs grudge match, the Hawklets looked like the team they grew to be: the most dangerous team in the state.

By the week-10 state rankings, voted by a group of sportswriters, Rockhurst reigned atop Class 6. So the Hawklets are known as the best team in the state, but let’s go a bit deeper. This is the team, above everyone else, that should be avoided at all costs. Think about it. No other team in the state has a resume like the 9-2 Hawklets. No one has played a schedule like theirs. And no one has enjoyed this caterpillar-to-butterfly transformation like them.

“No matter what happens with this team,” coach Tony Severino said, “it has just been a joy to watch them develop.”

Severino looked like a proud grandpa, wrapping his large hands around junior quarterback Frank Arbanas’ neck and looking him straight in the eye to tell him how great he played. After leaving the locker room, senior wide receiver Cooper Beckett also got some Severino love, and it should be no surprise that these two players — Beckett and Arbanas — hooked up for the play of the game.

In the second quarter, with the score tied at 14-14, it appeared that Rockhurst and Liberty were evenly matched and a shootout was on its way. That was until Rockhurst hit back with an Arbanas touchdown and junior Noah Pearl’s second rushing score. Then, with 3 seconds remaining in the half, Arbanas lofted a jump ball to the 6-foot-7 Beckett in the end zone. Of course, Beckett outreached the smaller Liberty defensive backs, and that 27-yard catch gave Rockhurst three unanswered touchdowns for a 28-14 halftime lead.

Arbanas throwing touchdowns to Beckett. Pearl running hard for two touchdowns. Once, there was a time when these kids were earmarked for their potential, but now they’re true Hawklets.

“Coming into the season with a lot of young players, of course we had some question marks,” senior Sal Belfonte said. “But we always seem to find guys.”

“I knew with our tough schedule, that would make us a better team.”

Belfonte is the voice and soul of the Hawklets. When he missed the game against Kansas 5A defending champion Hutchinson because of a hamstring injury, Belfonte felt awful watching his teammates lose 55-27 because he felt they had given up. But in week three, the Hawklets faced the then-No. 1 team in the state in Blue Springs — and won.

“We were coming in there with no confidence,” Arbanas said. “But that Blue Springs game turned our hopes around. (We thought) ‘We are Rockhurst and we can beat the best teams in the state.’ ”

Rockhurst twice beat state-ranked Jefferson City, dominated on its way to another district championship and plastered a first-round playoff opponent by three touchdowns.

Now they should hang a sign outside Dasta Memorial stadium … Enter at your own risk. Danger Ahead.

- 2009-11-06 23:20:02