Cair Paravel routs Maranatha Christian to close regular season

The Cair Paravel Latin School football team’s induction to KSHSAA membership was a baptism by fire. But the Lions have withstood the challenge.

The Lions steamrolled Maranatha Christian Academy 62-12 Friday to improve to 3-5. That record didn't qualify them for the 8-Man Div. I playoff. The Lions will instead play a season-concluding match next week against another non-playoff qualifier.

But the win-loss record doesn’t tell the whole story.

Trial by fire for Cair Paravel

The Lions didn’t just enter the KSHAA ranks this season. They were thrust into arguably the toughest district in 8-man competition. From each of the state’s eight six-team districts, only the top four qualify for the playoff field.

“What’s crazy, in our district, five of the six teams are ranked in the top 20 in the state,” CPLS coach Doug Bonura said. “One ranked team won’t even make the playoffs. Only 32 advance. So the fifth team in our district, which is considered in the top 20, would probably be No. 2 or 3 in any other district. We just came into a stacked district.”

The murderer’s row CPLS faced began week one. The Lions were pitted against defending state champion of 8-Man Div. II, Axtell.

“I don’t think many people gave us an iota’s chance of competing against Axtell and we were ahead at halftime,” Bonura said. “We competed with them for three quarters. No other team has put half as many points up against Axtell as we put up. (Axtell has surrendered just 40 points total since it allowed CPLS to score 38 in the opener.)

After picking up two victories, the Lions struggled through losses to four of the best teams in the state. Only one — a 54-8 loss to Chase County — was a blowout.

“It’s been a learning curve,” junior quarterback Evan Will said. “We see that we can compete with these top 20 teams in the state. It sucks losing. But at least we get to learn something from it.

“I think even though we lost the games, there were people who would see how we played and go ‘Whoa, they are competing with these teams. That’s not what we expected.’ That’s a good feeling.”

Part of the learning has been dealing with disappointment. Last year’s Lions featured three seniors — Carter Brian, Max Colombo and Noah Hastert — who have since gone on to play college sports. The Lions steamrolled their way to a championship in the non-KSHSAA Kansas Christian Athletic Association.

Losing was not a part of their vocabulary. This season has required a shift in their thinking.

“If you talk to Burlingame, Madison and Lyndon, they would say we competed,” Bonura said. “We’ve shown that we can compete. It is an adjustment to the reality of, ‘Yes, but you didn’t win.’ I think that’s where the growth is now. Dealing with the losses.

“We’re going to finish this with the realization that: ‘Hey, I get to play the game of football. Whether we win or not, I’m going to go hard because this is fun.’ It’s being grateful and thankful for the opportunity to play the game and say, ‘Let’s compete to the best of our abilities.’”

Two of Bonura’s sons — senior Jachin and junior Jesiah — accounted for much of the scoring in the blowout of Maranatha Christian Academy Friday. That was not out of the ordinary. Jachin leads the team with 16 touchdowns, while Jesiah has accounted for six scores.

Lions football has become a sort of family business to the Bonuras. Coach Bonura has two older sons who played football at CPLS previously.

“It’s been really fun having my brother Toby play on defense and having Jesiah as (a fellow) running back,” said Jachin Bonura. “We get to run plays together. I was on the sidelines for my older brothers because I was still in junior high, but it was fun to watch them.”

Tough takeaways in year one of KSHSAA competition

The Lions can’t help but have a bit of ‘Why us?’ sentiment regarding their district placement.

“We kind of feel like, ‘Why did that happen?’” Doug Bonura said. “We don’t get to experience that playoff feeling of one-and-done. But hopefully what we’re trying to teach our boys is that regular season games count. You have to take advantage of every one of those little moments, like against Lyndon (which ended in a 28-24 defeat).”

Coach Bonura pointed out that injuries hindered the Lions’ adjustment to KSHSAA competition. Injuries caused a shuffle on the offensive side at the start of the season. The team went with sophomore Jase Pavlik at quarterback, but slid him to receiver at midseason to make Will the starting triggerman in the team’s pistol offensive set. At that point, Jesiah Bonura, began taking the bulk of the snaps at running back.

“As this year went, our hand was kind of forced by injuries,” Doug Bonura said. “That’s played a role in this season’s wake up call. Yes, winning doesn’t come easy. But injuries have hurt.”

The Lions again feature three seniors — Jachin Bonura and linemen Tague Adams and Jude Borchers. The returners will apply what they’ve learned for next seasons.

“We’ll take a good assessment and say, ‘Here’s what we know,'” Doug Bonura said. “I’m proud of the effort our kids have given all season. Now we’ve got to finalize some of those things to not be sloppy in our technique and execution.”

Will entered the contest leading the team in rushing yards and passing yards. He has thrown 19 touchdowns to just four interceptions.

“It’s been good for us because we’ve learned, ‘Hey, it takes all of us,’” Will said. “We have all got to come out and do our jobs to succeed.”

Doug Bonura said the team has kept the difficulties of the first year in KSHSAA in perspective.

“We knew coming into this district that it was going to be one of the toughest districts in the state,” the coach said. “Axtell was a measuring stick to see where we were, and we measured up pretty well. I think that shows that our boys have been physically prepared. We’ve competed really well with all these teams, minus the Chase County game, which was really an anomaly.

“We showed that we have the ability to compete. We just weren’t ready in some aspects to finish those games off. Now what we need to do is to ask, ‘Where do we need to make adjustments?’”

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Cair Paravel football beats Maranatha Christian Academy