Wildcats overwhelm Mizzou

Football

Well, that was fun!

On a wild and crazy day of college football, Kansas State managed to avoid the chaos, dominating Missouri 40-12 on a wet day at The Bill.

Playing aggressive, assignment-sound and ball-hawking defense, the Wildcats stifled Missouri’s run game (94 yards off 35 attempts), confused the Tigers’ quarterbacks (15/31, 128 yards, 4 INT), and controlled the entire tenor of the game. For 60 minutes, the defense kept Missouri out of the endzone (and I’m not even going to count the touchdown scored on an untimed down in garbage time against the Wildcats’ third string defense). Although Missouri had a successful opening drive that ended with a field goal, the defense stiffened and then held up strong for the rest of the contest.

For all practical purposes, the defense played like it was the late 90s and Missouri was just in Manhattan to take its biannual beating from Bill Snyder.

On the other side of the ball, for much of the first half the Wildcats moved the ball at will on the ground, kept Missouri out of the red zone, and tacked on the obligatory special teams score to run up an unassailable halftime lead. The second half was a different story altogether. Playing in tough weather conditions, Kansas State’s offense struggled a bit. Although the running game chugged along like usual, with Deuce Vaughn scoring two touchdowns while gaining 146 yards (his 8th straight game with at least 100 yards), the passing game never really got going. There are a number of possible explanations for why Adrian Martinez went 9/20 for just 101 yards, but for now, let’s just assume that Kansas State didn’t need much passing offense to put this game away.

Credit where it’s due, however. Eli Drinkwitz and Missouri contributed to a lot of Kansas State’s defensive success yesterday. This, for example, is art:

So what’s next for the Wildcats? Well, Kansas State is still not ranked in the AP or Coaches Top 25 polls, and with Tulane coming to town next weekend it is unlikely polls will pay attention to our Cats until the Oklahoma game.

Meanwhile, Chris Klieman is among several names mentioned as potential replacements for Scott Frost, just fired at Nebraska.

Hold on tight, EMAW family. The season might be a bumpy ride.

Soccer

It was Senior Day at Buser Family Park, and Kansas State celebrated the day by beating Yale 1-0. It was the first meeting of the two schools, and the first-ever matchup against an Ivy League opponent in program history.

Andra Mohler scored the lone goal of the match in the 38th minute. Goalkeeper Alaina Weeremeyer made four saves and posted the third shutout of the season.

Next, the Wildcats will host Colorado State at 7 PM on Thursday.

Volleyball

At the Rambler Challenge in Chicago, the VolleyCats swept newly minted Division I St. Thomas 25-12, 25-15, 15-16. Elena Baka and Shaylee Meyers led the team with 11 kills each, with Meyers also notching seven digs and three blocks. Mackenzie Morris led the team with 12 digs, her 10th straight match with at least 10 digs, and her 50th match overall with double digit digs. She was named to the all-tournament team along with teammate Sydney Bolding.

Up next, Kansas State heads to Kansas City for a midweek matchup with the Roos. First serve is set for 7 PM on Wednesday at the Swinney Center.