SLATE: Wildcats pick up a big win to start the week

Football

Of course most of the Kansas State centered to start the week has been focused on Chris Klieman’s squad as we move past the season opener and get into #RivalryWeek. In case you had been living under a rock, the Missouri Tigers are in town this weekend for the first time since 2011, when Bill Snyder’s squad beat Gary Pinkel’s 24-17 in their final meeting as Big 12 foes. Missouri leads the all-time series 60-32-5, including 16 in-a-row from 1939-1954 and 12 in-a-row from 1958-1696. Of course, after Bill Snyder arrived at K-State, the Wildcats ran a streak of their own, winning 13-straight from 1993-2005.

Speaking of beating Missouri, the Wildcats won a big recruiting battle to open the week when Olathe South defensive end Jordan Allen picked K-State over the Tigers, as well as Iowa, Iowa State, and of course Kansas. Allen is a 6’4 240lbs 3-star prospect, and one of the last of the big names in Kansas’ loaded 2023 high school class. With Allen’s commit, the Wildcats again have 5 of the Top 10 (Rivals) and 6 of the Top 15 (Rivals) recruits in the state, with the lone undecided recruit of note being John Randle Jr. out of Wichita, who is suspected to be a K-State lean.

Rolling back to last week, it seems like Nebraska fans aren’t done keeping track of Adrian Martinez, enough anyway that the Omaha World-Herald, to do a feature piece on the Wildcats QB. Of course, they couldn’t help but take some back-handed jabs at K-State, noting, for example, the smaller press following of the Wildcats. The also note Martinez winning despite putting up a ton of yards, something that Kellis Robinett also wrote about, pointing out that Martinez’s K-State teammates even labeled him as a “game manager” in a bit of good-natured ribbing.

Kellis also re-watched the game, and added his thoughts on what he picked up on his second viewing. Of course he noted that Martinez’s debut was underwhelming, though he had tons of time to throw and and was very patient (often too patient) in his reads. Overall, the second-watch showed good o-line play, good rushing offense, weak passing offense, and good overall defense.

Soccer

Despite it being a good weekend in Manhattan for American Football, it wasn’t so great for the other kind of football. The Wildcats fell quickly into a 2-0 hole, with a Purdue goal in the 5th minute followed by another in 25th minute. Purdue was aided by three yellow cards assessed to the Wildcats in the first half, a season high, but was also hurt by them, with Purdue’s Sabrina Blount sent off on yellow card accumulation in the 43rd minute forcing the Boilermakers to play with 10 players in the second half.

Despite playing a person down, and K-State out-shooting Purdue 8-2 in the second half, the Cats could only manage one goal in the second period, a 25-yard blast from senior Kyler Goins in the 87th minute that snuck into the lower-right corner of the net. With the goal, the Cats have scored a goal in the first six games of the season for the first time in program history.

Just prior to Goins’ shot, sophomore Ada Anderson went up for the first penalty kick attempt of her collegiate career, and the first penalty kick taken by a Wildcat player other than Brookelynn Entz since September 2nd, 2018. Anderson’s kick was saved by Purdue’s keeper, marking the first save of a Wildcat PK since August 19th, 2018.

With the 2-1 loss, the Cats fall to 2-3-1 on the season, and 0-4-1 all-time against Big 10 opponents. Next up for K-State is a continuation of their 3-game homestand, and will welcome in Yale on Friday at 7pm for Senior Night at Buser Family Park.