Don't tell North Dakota State it can't handle the big boys of college football.
    The Bison, picked to finish sixth in the Missouri Valley Conference, turned some heads Saturday night by knocking off Kansas 6-3 for its first win over a team in the Big 12.
    Ryan Jastram kicked field goals of 44 and 32 yards, and the Bison defense smothered Kansas to prompt a raucous celebration for the North Dakota State fans who made their way to Memorial Stadium.
    "We felt like we could beat them when we hopped on the plane," North Dakota State coach Craig Bohl said. "We came in feeling like we had a heck of a shot to win and that's not being arrogant."

Culturally and geographically it's a long, long way from the beaches of Southern California to the farms and hamlets of the Kansas Flint Hills.
    With Daniel Thomas carrying the ball, the difference in football is very thin.
    The quick, rugged senior rushed for 235 yards and scored two touchdowns and Kansas State beat UCLA 31-22 Saturday before the biggest home-opening crowd in school history.

Dodge City High School head coach Dave Foster said his team worked hard the entire game Friday night, and it showed as the Red Demons defeated Wichita Southeast 40-7 at Memorial Stadium.
    “I told the players before the game and at halftime, ‘You don’t just play to win, you play to perform as well you can as a football team,'” Foster said. “One thing I felt like we did through and through during the football game was the effort was there. We are not going to be 100 percent crisp in week one, but it leaves you something to work on. I am proud of the effort.”

Minneola High School head football coach Aaron Schilde knew the consequences of failing to stop Ashland High School running back Ben Fox.
    On Friday night, the Wildcats experienced those consequences.
    Fox rushed for 114 yards and three touchdowns on just 10 carries  — all in the first half — as the Blue Jays defeated the overmatched Wildcats 44-0.

The Elkhart Wildcats built on an early lead Friday, beating the Cimarron Bluejays 25-8 in Cimarron.
    The Wildcats picked up their first touchdown in the first quarter on Marcus Irsik's 8-yard run into the end zone, up 6-0. Irsik later hooked up with James Kelly on a 37-yard touchdown pass, putting the 'Cats up 12-0.
    Kelly scored again on a 41-yard punt return followed by a successful point-after kick, making the score 19-0.

Even though he would never have scheduled a team like UCLA in a non-conference home opener, Bill Snyder fully appreciates what a victory over the Bruins would do for his rebuilding Kansas State Wildcats.
    For one thing, it would avenge last year's 23-9 loss in Los Angeles. For another, it would provide instant credibility to a program trying to dig out from three failed seasons under Ron Prince, Snyder's successor-predecessor. After Snyder retired and Prince took over, he sought to reverse the soft scheduling philosophy that Snyder used throughout the 1990s while resurrecting the program in his first stint as head coach.

Since his days as an accomplished option quarterback at Nebraska in the 1980s right on through his college coaching career, Turner Gill has always loved the anticipation of a season-opener.
    But the excitement of all those prior openers figures to pale in comparison to what Gill will experience Saturday when he leads Kansas onto the field to face North Dakota State in his debut as the Jayhawks' head coach.
    "I will still have those little butterflies," Gill said.
    Gill, who turned 48 in August, is the man in the spotlight as he tries to give Jayhawk fans a positive first impression. He was hired in December after Kansas ended the 2009 season with seven consecutive losses following a 5-0 start and head coach Mark Mangino resigned amid accusations that he had mistreated some players.

What does Dodge City Community College head football coach Bob Majeski expect from his team Saturday at Coffeyville?
    "To go out and play to the best of our ability," he said.
    What does Majeski expect from Coffeyville, which defeated DCCC 27-6 last season?
    "To go out and play to the best of their ability," he said.

In 2001 the Dodge City High School girls’ golf team made history, becoming the first girls’ team at the school to win a Class 6A team state championship.
    “It was a pretty special season,” DCHS head golf coach Jim Mapel said. “We finished fourth at state the year before, and I knew we had a good team and we basically had everybody back.
    “We won our first tournament (of the year) and then we lost our second tournament up at Hays by about eight strokes, After that, I think the girls became a little bit more focused. They did not enjoy losing that tournament. We were able to just win every tournament from there on out. A couple of them were pretty close. It was just a pretty special season. The girls were real good competitors. They loved to compete and they loved to win and they were hard workers. They earned that state title.”

The Dodge City soccer team kicked off its season by defeating Wichita South 3-1 on Thursday.
    “We are continuously giving the message to take it one game at a time,” DCHS head coach Virgil Hutchcraft said. “To tell you the truth, South came out harder than we thought. I told the guys, ‘We have an X on our back because we went to state.’