‘Immortality for Cheney’: How Andale’s 57-game winning streak was ended by Kansas team

A dream had just been realized and Jack Voth wasn’t sure what to do next.

The Cheney senior had never really thought about what came after in his vision of scoring the game-winning touchdown to beat Andale and end the nation’s longest high school football winning streak at 57 games.

Hours after scoring the sudden-death touchdown in overtime to lift Cheney to a 36-30 win on Friday over the No. 1 football dynasty in Kansas, Voth couldn’t remember how he celebrated the most significant victory in the state this season, but he could tell you exactly how he felt.

“There’s no other way to describe it other than a dream come true,” Voth said. “You can only imagine being in a situation like that and then being lucky enough to get the ball. I guess everything else took care of itself. Right now it’s starting to sink in and I’m going to try to embrace the moment of the memory that we just made.”

The memory for Cheney will last forever, but its origin can be traced back well before Friday evening, when history was made.

‘Once you hear something so much, everyone starts to believe it’

On the day after the season ended with a loss to Clay Center in the Class 3A playoffs, Cheney’s group of would-be seniors already had a target in mind for next fall.

Andale hadn’t even finished its fourth straight run to a state championship yet — that inevitably became reality two weeks later when Andale polished off a title run where it outscored opponents 220-6 — but Cheney already had its rallying cry.

“We knew they were going to be the team to beat,” Cheney senior Colter McDaniel said. “You’ve got to beat the best to be the best, right?”

During every day of summer conditioning, the same roar echoed the walls inside the Cheney weight room.

“We know how hard Andale works, so we figured if we are going to beat them, we’re going to have to outwork them,” Voth said. “So we put Andale on a pedestal and said to our guys, ‘Look, this is how much harder we have to work every single day.’

“Every day we’re screaming, ‘We’re beating Andale. We’re winning state. We’re making history for our program.’ That really started on Day 1 of weights and I think once you hear something so much, everyone starts to believe it.”

‘The exalted will be humbled, the humbled will be exalted’

Bonds forged in sweat equity during the summer were put to the test on Friday when Cheney fell behind 22-0, usually a death knell for an Andale opponent.

It would have been easy to give in when Andale’s Gage Prosser returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown and when Sam Harp converted two fourth downs and a third-and-18 to put Andale up by three scores. Memories of last year’s 32-0 loss surely flickered in the back of the minds for Cheney’s players.

It would have been easy to become Victim No. 58.

“You never know how kids are going to respond to that kind of adversity until you’re facing it, but I was not surprised to see we dug deeper and found that extra bit of toughness in us,” Cheney coach Shelby Wehrman said. “It’s unbelievable how resilient these kids are to battle back like that time and time again against an Andale program that is so relentless.”

After Cheney rallied to score a touchdown just before halftime to trim the deficit to 22-6, the team’s vocal leaders, Kason Messenger and McDaniel, injected confidence in their teammates with passionate locker-room speeches.

“We are a family and we pick each other up and build each other up and support each other,” McDaniel said. “We’re a team that puts our full trust in God and that’s something we hold dear to us. We believe a team that plays for his honor and glory will have doors opened that no one can shut. Coming into the locker room, Andale had some words to say, so I just stood up and said, ‘The exalted will be humbled, the humbled will be exalted. So let’s get to work and let’s eat.’”

“I don’t think anybody in that locker room lost the faith,” Messenger said. “I know I never did because I know how hard we worked during the summer. We put in so much work this summer just to get to this place.”

‘One-hundred percent an emotional rollercoaster’

In the end, all that will matter to Cheney is that it successfully engineered a 22-point comeback against the four-time defending state champions.

What will make it even more improbable upon review is how many mistakes the Cardinals made along the way.

In the second half alone, the following happened to Cheney:

• A fourth-down sneak where the ball was ripped out of the ball-carrier’s hands for a lost fumble.

• A special teams blunder, running into the punter, to give Andale a new set of downs after it had punted.

• A bizarre play where a receiver was sprinting down the left sideline carrying the ball for a potential 94-yard touchdown when the ball inexplicably squirted free without a hit from a defender and ended in a lost fumble.

• A dropped pass in the end zone that could have potentially tied the game, but instead gave Andale the ball back with an eight-point lead and less than five minutes left.

• A thrown interception deep in Andale territory in the final seconds of regulation to wipe away a potential chance to kick a game-winning field goal.

“It’s easy to put your head down when you make mistakes,” Wehrman said. “But these kids never did.”

Despite losing the turnover battle 4-0, Cheney negated its mistakes with a supreme defensive effort from leaders like Voth, Messenger, McDaniel, Grady Ditgen and Jack Gregory.

Andale is accustomed to winning games in the trenches, its secret sauce of sorts that had its offense humming to the tune of 66.5 points and 334 rushing yards per game this season. On Friday, Andale could only muster 146 rushing yards on 48 carries and finished 3-of-15 on third downs and 3-of-6 on fourth downs.

“We talk a lot about trying to win every down,” Wehrman said. “The game is made up of a bunch of plays, so you can’t worry about the last play. You’ve got to try to win the next play. Our kids took on that mentality.”

Cheney tied the game at 30-30 with 1:35 remaining in the fourth quarter when Voth broke free on a slant pattern over the middle for a 7-yard score, then quarterback Josh Burdick connected with Gavin Maass for the game-tying two-point conversion.

After Cheney’s defense logged its second straight three-and-out, the Cardinals came close to winning in regulation. Cheney had the ball on Andale’s 38-yard line when Andale’s Sam Harp stepped in front of a Cheney receiver for an interception with 12 seconds left to extinguish the threat and force overtime.

“It was 100% an emotional roller coaster,” Messenger said.

‘In those situations, there are no second chances’

Andale was 2 yards away from the end zone on fourth down of the first overtime possession when the offense lined up in a T formation.

With everyone expecting a run, quarterback Sam Harp rolled out to the right and, to much surprise, cocked back to throw a pass for the potential go-ahead score.

Whether or not the pass would have found its mark will never be known because Voth, containing the edge at outside linebacker, batted the ball down with his left arm to force the turnover on downs.

“When they line up in that formation, most of the time they’re running a sweep,” Voth said. “I definitely thought it was a run, so I was flying up to defend the run. And when he pulled back to pass, I just put my arms up and was lucky enough to hit it.”

Andale coach Dylan Schmidt has an unimpeachable record when it comes to play-calling, as his program has racked up 80 wins and suffered just its third loss (first in the regular season) since he took over in 2017.

But that fourth-down play call was one he will tussle with for at least Friday night.

“The thing as head coach and offensive play-caller is you go over and over, back and forth, back and forth in your head: ‘Should have done this, should have done that,’” Schmidt said. “I’m going to watch film and I’m probably going to do it even more. That’s probably the toughest thing. In those situations, there are no second chances.”

‘Immortality for Cheney’

Less than 60 seconds of real time after batting down the game-saving pass, Voth was lined up in the backfield about to score the game-winning touchdown.

A star receiver committed to New Mexico State, the 5-foot-11, 180-pound senior received the handoff and tried to jump over a pile of players at the line of scrimmage. A hand from the pile had hold of his ankle and, as two linebackers converged on him, Voth looked like he was about to be swallowed up for no gain.

“My mindset before the play was, ‘I’m going to score this and we’re going to end it right here,’” Voth said. “When I got the ball, it was like, ‘Jack, you’re not going down here.’”

Voth broke the grasp of the defender on the ground holding his leg, evaded the two linebackers with a side step, then twisted to his left for a spin move that left the charging safety grasping for air. He dove across the goal line past one final defender to deliver a game-winning touchdown fit for the occasion.

“It felt like time just froze there for a second,” McDaniel said. “You try to take in a moment like that. You’re in shock, almost in tears. We’re finally reaping what we’ve been sowing.”

Messenger was the first one to greet Voth in the end zone, as pandemonium was set off on Cheney’s home field. Messenger was about to join in, but noticed a fallen Andale player, Cooper Marx, face down at the goal line.

Before joining in on the celebration, Messenger walked back to check on Marx.

“I’m not really sure why, I guess because it was such a well-fought battle,” Messenger said. “They played such a good game too and that kid played really hard, so I just wanted to make sure he was OK.”

On the broadcast for KCMC Sports, play-by-play announcer Cameron Birney was prepared for the historic call.

“Immortality for Cheney!” Birney screamed when Voth scored. “It’s over, Cheney’s done it. They’ve knocked off the team that was unbeatable.”

In total, Andale’s 57-game winning streak lasted from Nov. 16, 2018 to Oct. 13, 2023 and saw Andale outscore opponents 4,086 to 613 for an average margin of victory of 42 points. Only one game (Cheney in 2019) was decided by less than 19 points during the span that included four straight Class 3A state championships.

Cheney’s win on Friday clinched the District 7 championship and ensured home-field advantage if the two teams should meet again for what would be a rematch in the Class 3A semifinals in November.

“I know our kids aren’t happy with the result, but I tried telling them that this is why you play football, so you can play in these types of games,” Schmidt said. “There were some tears and it was a pretty somber bus ride home, but our goal here has always been to win state championships and that’s still there. So we’ll regroup and work on how we can get better and hopefully we can take care of business and maybe get another shot at them.”

Cheney had spent the better part of the past year talking about beating Andale.

Apparently once wasn’t enough to satisfy the dream.

“This is probably the most exciting night of our lives so far, but this is just the start,” Messenger said. “We’re coming for the state championship. We’re still coming with a chip on our shoulder. We’re going to stay hungry and stay humble.”