3A Championship Preview
By: Kpreps.com
Posted: November 26, 2009 - 11:30 PM

Wichita Collegiate (13-0) vs Marysville (12-1)

Over the past eight seasons, the Silver Lake Eagles, Conway Springs Cardinals, and Garden Plain Owls have dominated the 3A state title game.

Silver Lake faced either Conway Springs or Garden Plain for the state title each year since 2005, and one of the three schools has reached the title game each year since 2001.

But this season, the birds are gone.

Instead, Wichita Collegiate will make the short drive up 96 to Hutchinson to take on the Marysville Bulldogs for the 3A state title.

This year's participants had to go through those usual suspects, however, as Collegiate blew past Garden Plain 51-20 in round one, and Marysville knocked off Silver Lake 21-14 in the quarterfinals two weeks ago.

Collegiate will be looking for its third state title, and first since a 42-14 win over Frontenac in 2000. Marysville is playing for the school's first state football championship.

Collegiate features the arm of Blake Jablonski. The Spartans' senior quarterback will likely throw more passes on Saturday than Gowan's Stadium has seen all year from the local flex-bone oriented Salthawk attack.

Jablonski has completed 64 percent of his passes (224 of 350) for 3,598 yards and 46 touchdowns in leading the Spartans offense to a 45 points per game average.

He will spread the ball around to a multitude of receivers including Brett LeMaster who has caught 62 balls for 1,293 yards and 17 scores.

Tre Bailey has added 53 catches for 804 yards and 11 touchdowns, and three others have at least 20 catches.

When the Spartans do try and run the football it goes in the hands of Raymond Taylor who has averaged over eight yards per carry in accumulating 758 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Taylor had his biggest game last week with 143 yards and two touchdowns on just 10 carries in a 56-21 semi-final win at Norton.

On the other hand, Marysville's offense is of the more traditional balance.

Dual-threat quarterback Ben Malotte leads the team in rushing with over 1,400 yards, and has thrown for 1,601 yards. He has taken care of the ball also in throwing for 20 touchdowns against only three interceptions.

Running back Dave Blumer has added nearly 1,300 yards on the ground.

The Bulldog defense may very well be their strength as they have surrender an average of just 11 points per game while posting four shutouts.

Last week, Marysville gave up 250 passing yards but picked off two passes to get by a good Galena team.

Saturday, the Bulldog defense will face their biggest test in slowing down the Spartans ariel assault.