Seaman opens Class 5A playoffs at Liberal today

By Rick Peterson

THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

LIBERAL --- Little of what Seaman sees from Liberal in today's 1 p.m. Class 5A first-round football playoff game is likely to surprise the Vikings. Or vice versa.

"When I look at them on film, it's kind of eerie because they look a lot like us," said Seaman coach Blake Pierce, whose Vikings will take a 7-2 record into today's game against the 6-3 Redskins.

"Physically they're like us, they're quick up front defensively, and they run a lot of the same plays we run."

Liberal coach Steve Warner, who coached at Burlingame and Marysville, agrees.

"There are a lot of similarities," Warner said. "They play very good defense, they're big and they play very hard."

Seaman, which is back in the playoffs after a year's absence, left Friday to start the six-hour journey to Liberal. The Vikings were scheduled to have a short practice in El Dorado and spend the night in Dodge City before arriving in Liberal early today.

While the Vikings would obviously rather be playing at home, Pierce said he doesn't expect his team to be adversely affected by the long road trip.

"I've been really impressed with this group all year, and I think that's largely due to the great senior leadership we have. That really has been a factor this year," Pierce said.

Pierce doesn't plan to change anything for today's game.

"We just have got to keep doing what we do better," he said. "That's what we're doing. We're just working on the little things, and with the extra day of practice we're having we've just worked fundamentals and worked on our base plays and try and get better at those."

Seaman senior Greg Lott was the city's leading rusher in the regular season with 1,289 yards on 205 carries. He has averaged 6.3 yards a carry and has scored 16 touchdowns.

Quarterback Stephone Stephens has accumulated 693 yards of total offense this season, while Ben Carlson has been solid at fullback and has spearheaded a Seaman defense that has allowed just 186.2 yards and 12 points a game.

The Vikings will be playing a Liberal team led by senior quarterback Mark Grande, who has passed for about 900 yards thus far. John David Willimon has rushed for 850 yards for the Redskins.

"I think right now we're playing our best football of the year," Warner said. "We lost our first two games to Ulysses and Blue Valley West, two very good teams. Obviously starting 0-2 wasn't fun around here or for any of the coaches, but I think we've gotten better.

"We lost to Great Bend along the way, but we've won six of the last seven games and feel like we're playing our best football right now."

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