When the Northmen played against Fort Osage last season they suffered a very disappointing loss at the DAC 14-21. It was the same night we witnessed Phil Corbin have one of the biggest games of his high school career with 186 rushing yards, and a touchdown on 28 attempts, however the Fort Osage offense had all the luck, and the ball just seemed to bounce their way, literally. '20 RB/WR #5 Dominic Myers fumbled the ball on the 1yrd line, and the ball bounced foward into the endzone, and Myers fell on it to win the game. The Northmen Defense did a great job of limiting the Indains who had 247 yards of total offense, but fell one drive short at the end of the game. It was heartbreaking.
Flash forward to 2019, and the (3-1)Northmen are on the same collision course with the (2-2) Indians in a very pivotal time in the season. It cannot be overstated For Osage has an extremely good football program they are coming off of a State Championship in 2015, and who have produced talented football players in the last 10 years. (Skyler Thompson '14 is the starting QB at K-State and top 10 QB in all of NCAA football currently) The rest of the city is trying to put their thumb on this year's Fort O team. They've lost a lot of seniors heading into the 2019 season, and the biggest lost might of been an elite 11 quarterback ('19 Ty Baker, Missouri State). Kansas City is not used to seeing a Fort Osage team at .500, but then again, Oak Park in the win column and riding a 3 game winning streak is new to this generation as well. Things change...
The Northmen defense has been dominant this year allowing only 574 total yards this season, total. '20 LB Colton Tisthammer leads the team in tackles and complimented by '20 LB Phil Corbin who seem to trade making the big plays. Jeffrey Banks has been a welcomed sight on the field after missing Wk 1 & 2 due to injury. Last year we saw a lot of bodies on the D-Line, but this year it seems to have solidified to '20 Cory Warren, '20 Taylor Vincent Buenaflour, and '20 Jacob Mustard who are consitantly making huge plays on the D line and doing a great job keeping Tisthammer and Corbin clean to make some plays. The secondary has been Oak Park's biggest surprise these last few weeks, as '21 Adrace Hughes, '21 Logan Willmann, and '21 Logan Linard, and '22 Jett Sutton seem to get better and better each week and will need to impact on the Fort Osage passing game.
After watching the Indians first four weeks it's easy to see they'll be looking to catch the Northmen out of position and play a numbers game. They have one dynamic player on offense, and the Northmen know him well. #5 Dominic Myers (5'6 155lbs) might be small, but he is not easy to get ahold of. Myers had 147 rushing yards against conference opponent North Kansas City last week, and the Northmen will need to know where he is at all times.
This will be a great battle for the Oak Park Offense. Fort Osage may have one of the best Defensive lines the Northmen will face all year. It should be a lot of fun to watch these two units go at each other tonight, and the winner here might determine the outcome of this game.
Remember, this game was moved to 9/26 due to the weather impact expected on Friday and Saturday. This is Homecoming week for the Indians, which should provide some motivation for Fort Osage to turn their season, on the flip-side, this Oak Park team may not be the team you want to schedule for Homecoming anymore. Given the short week to prepare and the way this Northmen defense has been playing, I say advantage: Oak Park.
