Before a crowd of loyal fans braving freezing rain and snow at Hummer Sports Park in Topeka, the Stags wasted no time in decimating a badly overmatched Andover Central team in the championship game, handing the Jaguars a dispiriting 68-12 loss and earning their second consecutive state title.

The win capped a season in which the Stags outscored opponents 742 to 209, with their only loss coming to Blue Valley, which played for a class 6A title against Derby over the weekend.

“They wanted to prove the doubters wrong,” said head coach Jon Holmes of his team’s dominating season. “The kids read social media and see what people say about us.”

Running back Dawson Downing, who had been considered a borderline Division I college prospect through much of his junior and senior years, put together one of the best performances of his career in the title game. Downing scored three touchdowns in the first quarter alone en route to a six touchdown, 209-yard performance.

“I didn’t even realize he had six touchdowns until the game was over and you look at the stats,” Holmes said. “It was unreal.”

Holmes said Downing appeared to have made the case that he can play at the highest levels in college.

“Just because of all the way that he can get you yards,” Holmes said. “He showed this year that he can beat you with his speed, and that’s something a lot of the scouts wanted to see.”

Despite Miege’s dominance over opponents during the past two seasons — the Stags went a combined 25-1 in 2014 and 2015 — the team won’t be facing stiffer competition from higher class schools in the playoffs anytime soon. Miege isn’t currently among the top three 4A-1 teams in terms of enrollment, and Holmes said the team will stay in the division for at least the next two seasons.

“There’s some talk of reclassification after that, but for now we’re where we are,” he said.