Friday night is opening night for most Kansas high school football teams.

Games in east central Kansas include:

–Junction City at Highland Park

–Shawnee Heights at Manhattan

–Seaman visiting Hayden

–Kansas City Schlagle at Topeka High

–Kansas City Wyandotte at Topeka West

–Abilene at Royal Valley

–Circle goes to Chapman

–Clay Center at Rossville

–Wamego hosts Rock Creek

–Marysville visits St. Marys

–Herington goes to Lyndon

–Solomon is at Centre

–Rural Vista ( Hope and White City ) hosts Little River

–Wakefield hosts Blue Valley – Randolph

–and Riley County visits Wabaunsee

Kansas State-Iowa State Preview Capsule
By The Associated Press
KANSAS STATE (1-0, 0-0 Big 12) at IOWA STATE (0-1, 0-0), noon (Fox Sports 1)

Line: Kansas State by 12.

Series Record: Iowa State leads 49-44-4.

WHAT’S AT STAKE

Kansas State will look to build momentum with a huge showdown at home against No. 5 Auburn looming on Sept. 18. Iowa State needs a good showing after being embarrassed by FCS school North Dakota State last weekend.

KEY MATCHUP

Kansas State’s wide receivers vs. Iowa State’s secondary. The Wildcats are deep and talented on the edge, and Jake Waters is one of the best quarterbacks in the Big 12. The Cyclones will likely struggle to get much pressure on Waters, so they’ll need their cornerbacks and safeties to make plays.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Kansas State: Waters. He grew up in Council Bluffs, Iowa, as a fan of the Cyclones, but Iowa State didn’t show much interest in him coming out of high school. Waters will finally get his shot at showing the Cyclones what they missed out on.

Iowa State: RB Aaron Wimberly is supposed to lead the Cyclones rushing attack in 2014. But he had just 38 yards on nine carries as Iowa State fell behind and leaned heavily on the passing game in a 34-14 loss to North Dakota State.

FACTS & FIGURES

Bill Snyder is 18-4 against the Cyclones, while Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads is winless in five tries against the Wildcats … Kansas State only punted once in last week’s 55-16 dismantling of Stephen F. Austin … Iowa State freshman wide receiver Allen Lazard, whose only catch in the loss to the Bison went for a team-high 48 yards, is expected to see more playing time now that star Quenton Bundrage is out for the season with a knee injury … The Wildcats ran for four touchdowns last week, including two from Waters.

 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Alex Gordon hit a two-run homer, Jason Vargas pitched into the seventh inning and the Kansas City Royals beat the Texas Rangers 4-1 on Wednesday night to finish off a three-game sweep.

Vargas (11-7) stranded four runners in scoring position before turning over a two-on, two-out mess to Kelvin Herrera, who escaped the jam. Louis Coleman gave up a run in the eighth before Wade Davis finished off the inning, and Greg Holland worked a perfect ninth for his 42nd save.

The victory along with Detroit’s 7-0 loss to Cleveland allowed the Royals to extend their lead to 1 1/2 games over the Tigers in the AL Central. They are off Thursday before a crucial trip that takes them through the wild card-chasing Yankees and into a three-game set in Detroit.

Nick Tepesch (4-9) allowed all four runs over 6 2-3 innings for Texas.

 

The Junction City Lady Jay varsity volleyball team opened their season Wednesday in a quadrangular at Topeka West.

Coach Megan Parks reported that Junction City defeated Highland Park in two games 25-10, 25-9, and Topeka West in three games, 20-25, 25-6, 25-14. The Lady Jays fell to Hayden 25-14, 25-19.

Junction City will host a triangular Sept. 9.

—

The Blue Jay boys soccer team opened the season this week in a tournament at Wichita South. They lost their first game on Monday to Wichita Heights 5-0, but bounced back to defeat Great Bend on Tuesday 3-0.

Junction City will play in the final round of the tournament Saturday against Circle. That match begins at 11 a.m.

Photos from Kansas State’s 55-16 win over Stephen F. Austin.

Photos Courtesy of Geary County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

It’s a bit unusual for Kansas State to have a conference match up in just week two of the season, but on Saturday the Wildcats will travel to Ames, Iowa to take on the Iowa State Cyclones.

Kansas State is coming off of a 55-16 win over Stephen F. Austin, while Iowa State suffered a 14-34 loss to North Dakota State this past Saturday.

Coach Bill Snyder explained Tuesday that he’s not sure there’s any significant difference to playing a conference game early opposed to in week four like normal.

“Obviously when you play one as early as we are, the end result is either you’re going to be in first or you’re going to be in last. It carries it’s own weight in that respect. I don’t know if it has any significant difference at all in our preparation,” says Snyder.

The preparation for Saturday’s game isn’t anything different as well according to DeMarcus Robinson. “No, Coach Snyder isn’t going to let us change our mindset. Just like last year when we played North Dakota State he felt like maybe we took that game a little bit for granted. Now I think the teams mindset is just like we’ve got to play each and every game like it’s a conference game.”

Kansas State is 8-3 against the Cyclone’s in the last 11 meetings and is currently riding a six-game win streak. Saturdays game is scheduled for an 11 a.m. kick off and will be broadcast live on television by Fox Sports 1.

 

The Kansas State Wildcats are ranked 20th in the weekly Associated Press college football poll.

Florida State is ranked first, followed by Alabama, Oregon, and Oklahoma. Also from the Big 12 Conference, Baylor is ranked 10th.

Kansas State, 1-0, after a season opening 55-16 win over Stephen F. Austin, will next play Iowa State at 11 a.m. Saturday in Ames, Iowa.

 

Kansas State had 11 former players make NFL teams as the league required teams to trim their rosters down to 53 players for the upcoming season.

They included:

–Arthur Brown, Baltimore

–Bryce Brown, Buffalo

–Jeromey Clary, San Diego

–Emmanuel Lamure, Cincinnati,

–Cornelius Lucas, Detroit

–Jordy Nelson, Green Bay

–Terence Newman, Cincinnati

–Darren Sproles, Philadelphia

–Justin Tuggle, Houston

–Reggie Walker, San Diego

–and Ty Zimmerman, New Orleans.

Zimmerman was placed on Injured Reserve with New Orleans, while Clary was placed on the Physically Unable to Perform List with San Diego.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Alex Smith didn’t have much choice when he was traded from San Francisco to Kansas City last year.

He had the final say when it came to staying with the Chiefs, though.

One day after signing a four-year extension that should solidify his future through the 2018 season, Smith expressed relief at being able to focus solely on football – rather than negotiations that had been going on for months, and that were threatening to bleed into the regular season.

Smith said he made it clear to his agent, Tom Condon, he wanted an agreement done before the start of the season. Chiefs general manager John Dorsey said that was also his goal.

The Chiefs open the regular season against Tennessee on Sunday.

Several Big 12 teams opened play Saturday ( Aug. 30 ).

–Kansas State 55 Stephen F. Austin 16

–North Dakota State 34 Iowa State 14

–TCU 49 Samford 14

–Texas Tech 42 Central Arkansas 35

–Oklahoma 48 Louisiana Tech 16

–Texas 38 North Texas 7

–Florida State 37 Oklahoma State 31

–Alabama 33 West Virginia 23

Baylor hosts SMU Sunday ( Aug. 31 ), while Kansas opens Sept. 6 by hosting Southeast Missouri State.