Improving its record to 5-1, 5-0 in conference play, the Jaguar football team defeated Piper High School on Friday, Oct. 5. The team became Kaw Valley League champions with the 56-18 victory over the Pirates.

Senior running back Kendall Short was pleased with the team’s performance.

“[My favorite part was] knowing that we secured the KVL title and celebrating with our teammates,” Short said.

Short led the Jaguars in rushing with 99 yards, while senior receiver Staton Rebeck led in receiving with 77 yards.

As a team, the Jaguars recorded four sacks on the Pirate quarterback, two coming from junior defensive back Tyler Willard and one each from senior defensive backs Andrew Campbell and Ryan Bath.

Piper, a team that averaged 30.6 points per game, was only able to score 18 against the Jaguar defense.

“[As a defensive unit] we started off a little [rough] but as the game progressed we really picked it up and finished pretty solid,” senior defensive lineman Tim Thomas said. “But we want to improve as much as we can over district play and come into the playoffs playing the best we have all year.”

Senior quarterback Skyler Windmiller, who threw for 226 yards, completed four touchdown passes and rushed for one touchdown, is optimistic about the rest of the season.

 “It was definitely a goal of ours at the beginning of the season [to win league] and it’s always good to accomplish our goals,” Windmiller said. “But our ultimate goal is to win state. To do that, we need to take it one game at a time.”

Rebeck agrees, and thinks that the end of this year could set a precedent for years to come.

“Our goal is to win district and advance into the playoffs,” Rebeck said. “[We also need to] prove to the underclassmen that winning playoff games is possible because it has never really been done here before. We need to set the standard.”