The Shawnee Mission South Raiders hosted the first game of districts tonight against Blue Valley Northwest. Despite the frigid winds and chilly air, SMS welcomed a significant amount of fans for their football and band member senior night. However, the Huskies soon put a damper on that celebration with a 35-10 win.
Blue Valley Northwest came out strong, but failed to finish their drives in the first quarter. The score was 0-0 after 12 minutes.
The Raiders came out rearing to go at the start of the second quarter. Senior Chase Allen finished the drive SMS had started in the previous quarter by punching it in from seven yards out. With 10:30 left in the half, SMS led BVNW 7-0.
“For the first half, and most of the way through the first three quarters, we played the football game how we wanted it to go,” SMS head coach Ryan Lonergan said. “We thought we were doing really well."
Two drives later, the Huskies retaliated with a nine-play drive when Alexander weaved between diving defenders and leaped across the goal line for a touchdown. With three minutes left in the half, BVNW tied the score 7-7.
“I’m just happy I was able to help my team,” junior Miles Alexander said. “It was a real good game, and a good win too. That’ll help us get far in the (post-season)."
The second half started with a six-play drive by the Huskies that ended in the end zone. Alexander scored for the second time of the night by carrying the ball right up the middle and through the second level for a 35 yard touchdown. The Huskies took their first lead of the night with 10:03 left in the quarter, 14-7.
“[Alexander] is running the ball really well,” BVNW head coach Mike Zegunis said. “I attribute it to the guys up front. The fullbacks are doing a great job of blowing holes open. Our offensive line is fantastic. We feel that teams are going to get a stop here and there, but if we can stick with them then we will be able to get with it and score.”
Try as they might, SMS was unable to retaliate. At the beginning of the third quarter, the Raider offense drew just close enough for junior Christian Kelley to kick a field goal. With 11 minutes left in the game, the Huskies lead was cut to 14-10.
On the next drive, senior Jacob Rominger was featured in a quarterback keeper on a second and short as he ran over 30 yards to bring the Husky offense within five yards of a touchdown. Alexander then covered the remaining distane to increase the Huskies' lead to 21-10.
“It was important to establish some control after that field goal,” Zegunis said. “[SMS] is a good ball possession team, and they have long drives. I remember talking to our offensive line coach about what they were running and said, ‘Man we haven’t had the ball in forever.’ We wanted to get the ball back so we could try to move the football.”
On the next drive, SMS drove as far as its opponents 10 before being repelled.
“That play was huge for us,” Zegunis said. “It looked like they were going to drive the ball down and score. Fortunately we got a holding call on them that backed them up a little bit. We were able to stop them.”
Moments later, Rominger handed the ball to senior Kerrim Wilson who ran more than 70 yards for a touchdown. With 2:25 left in the game, the Huskies led 28-10.
However, the extension of their lead did not mean they were about to let SMS back into the game. After the Raiders failed to convert on their next drive, BVNW worked their way back down the field to give senior Jaquwan Stone a chance to weave and twirl between defenders for the last touchdown of the night.
“A couple years ago we missed the playoffs because of a point difference,” Zegunis said. “It was one of those deals where if you can get the points, you want to be able to get them. It looks bad and it looks like we are poor sports, but we had to do that to get the points and get some security.”
SMS played extremely well, and Lonergan said they ran the ball better than they had all year. The team played hard and put up a good defense. However, Lonergan said there are some things that need improvement.
“I want to work on finishing,” Lonergan said. “Whether it’s fourth and goal or first and goal, good teams find a way to score and find a way to punch things in. We are not doing that. We can’t lose our focus.”
Overall, Zegunis said he is ecstatic about the win. Defeating SMS puts the Huskies in a great position to make the playoffs.
“Hopefully they keep getting better,” Zegunis said. “We got the win tonight, and we are happy with it. But we didn’t play great football and we weren’t as sharp as we would’ve like to have been. You’ll have those ups and downs, and you have those times where you’re playing real well and times you aren’t. You just have to tell your guys to keep trying to get better and understanding that we aren’t the team we want to be yet. There is still a lot of work ahead of us.”
