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Few people believed Basehor-Linwood High School head coach Paul Brown when he said that his team had the ability to make the playoffs, despite losing their first two games. Six victories later, the Bobcats were competing in the postseason for the first time since 1995.

Unfortunately, Basehor-Linwood's stint in the playoffs was short-lived as the Bobcats lost Tuesday night to the Eudora Cardinals, 27-6, at Kiester Field. BLHS ended the season with a 6-4 record.

"I told our kids after the game that nobody expected us to be here and nobody expected us to win a league championship," Brown said. "They persevered through some tough times early in the season. And the seniors have persevered through three different coaches (over four years).

"We've come a long way from where we started last year. For the seniors, I told them that it was a tough way to go out, but they could walk off the field holding their heads high, knowing they played the hardest they could play. They accomplished a great deal. No one can take that away from them. And I told the younger kids that this is just a start, this is just the beginning. We've got good, young guys and we're going to be even better, so they need to get ready for it."

Eudora did something few teams this year were able to do to the Bobcats. They controlled the line of scrimmage. And the Cardinals did that with speed.

"They are a real good team," said Brown. "One of the things we knew was that they were quick. We needed to execute and try to control the ball and the clock a little bit and we just couldn't get that done.

"Eudora just did a great job up front. We couldn't get any momentum going. They really controlled us."

The Cardinals offensive line broke open numerous holes for tailback Brian Harris, who sped his way to 227 yards on 28 carries and three touchdowns.

"He's very quick and he doesn't go down very easy. Their line did an excellent job giving him some space to maneuver a little bit. He gained over 1,000 yards this year and it showed. He's a good back," Brown said.

Harris scored from 10 and 16 yards out in the first quarter as Eudora opened up a 14-0 lead.

But the play that hurt the Bobcats wasn't a touchdown, it was a punt Eudora had in the early part of the second quarter.

B-L's Matt Dukes was called for roughing the kicker, despite appearing to have tipped the ball as it came off the foot of Tommy Shutt. But the officials said it wasn't touched. Four plays later, Zac Tyler scored from six yards out, giving Eudora a 20-0 advantage with 6:46 left in the half.

Harris scored his third TD of the game in the early moments of the third quarter, busting loose for a 62-yard touchdown, putting the game out of reach.

The Bobcats finally got on the board with just under nine minutes left in the game as reserve running back Jeff Lackner scored from one yard out.

The TD was set up when Joey Barlow caused John Powers to fumble after fielding a punt and Colby Reynolds recovered the loose ball. The play put the Bobcats into Eudora territory for the first and only time of the evening.

"We had horrible field position all night. Eudora did a good job of keeping us pinned down," Brown said.

"They came off the ball quicker than we did. They just out-quicked us most of the night. I don't know if they out-powered us, but they out-quicked us and didn't allow us to get off the ball and to the blocking schemes we like to get to. They had a good plan for the ball game."

The Cardinals held the Bobcats to just four first downs and 80 yards of total offense in the game, while garnering 328 yards of its own.

Barlow paced the B-L offense with 41 yards rushing on nine carries. The defense was led once again by Mike Peerson, who closed out his career with a team-high 16 tackles. Two other seniors, Jake Davis and Quentin Holmes, added nine stops each.

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