Friday’s Kansas HS football games included St. Thomas Aquinas-Blue Valley West shootout

Here’s a recap of some of the top Kansas high school football action around the Kansas City metro on Friday night.

The top games included a 99-yard drive, a historic win by Blue Valley Southwest over Blue Valley and a shootout between St. Thomas Aquinas and Blue Valley West.

Blue Valley Southwest 33, Blue Valley 19

The Timberwolves ended their winless streak against district rival Blue Valley in style on Friday night.

BV Southwest, which had never beaten the Tigers in 13 previous matchups, upended Blue Valley 33-19 at BVHS home field. In the previous 13 games, Blue Valley had outscored the T-Wolves 502-134, but not on Friday.

Tied 13-13 at halftime, the Timberwolves (1-0) found themselves against their own end zone after a Tiger punt inside the BVSW 1. But from there, senior quarterback Dylan Dunn and Southwest engineered a 99-yard drive, which was capped by a 13-yard touchdown pass in the right side of the end zone to senior wideout Emmitt Peters for a 20-13 lead.

After a stop, Southwest took over and Dunn hit fellow senior Tate Everard for two long passes to the Blue Valley 23. Dunn then connected with Alex Parks in the same area of the end zone for a 21-yard strike and a 26-13 margin.

Blue Valley (0-1) came back with a touchdown in the final two minutes on a John Price reception, but Southwest showed no mercy, lobbing up a 55-yard pass over the middle to Parks, who trotted into the end zone the final 20 yards, and the victory was sealed. Parks finished with 139 yards on 11 receptions, including the two scores.

Dunn finished with four touchdowns and 299 passing yards on 23-of-30 passing in the win.

St. Thomas Aquinas 49, Blue Valley West 42

Back and forth the Saints and Jaguars went, but in the end, St. Thomas Aquinas’ ground game and one defensive stop made the difference.

The Saints, ranked No. 4 in the 810 Varsity Top 25, outlasted Blue Valley West 49-42, fueled by Gianni Rizzi’s 175 rushing yards and four touchdowns — none bigger than his four-yard score to the right side to break a 42-42 tie in the final minutes.

Blue Valley West drove out to its own 37, but a long pass on fourth down was deflected to seal the game.

Elzie Slaughter added 87 yards on the ground and a 20-yard score, which gave Aquinas an early 13-7 lead. From there, the game buoyed back and forth with ties at 21-21, 28-28, 35-35 and 42-42.

Junior quarterback Tate Nagy threw for 277 yards and three scores for the Jaguars.

“Anyone who knows this league knows how hard it is to get a win any Friday,” Aquinas coach Randy Dreiling said. “We gave up a lot of points, but we still found a way to win.”

Tonganoxie 34, Basehor-Linwood 20

Though they haven’t been league rivals for years, Tonganoxie certainly enjoyed a win over nearby foe Basehor-Linwood — and taking home the Eight-Mile Showdown trophy.

Tongie pulled away after leading 14-13 just before the half. The Chieftains took over at midfield with 3:12 to play in the second quarter, and senior quarterback Trevor McGraw connected with fellow senior wideout Isaiah Holthaus for a 36-yard bomb, which set up a Colton Brusven 1-yard touchdown plunge three plays later.

Tonganoxie took a 21-13 halftime lead.

Tongie, ranked No. 7 in the 810 Varsity Class 4A state rankings, went to the air again after the intermission. Facing a 3rd down at the Bobcat 30, McGraw went deep again on the left sideline, finding a wide-open Todd Brown for a 30-yard scoring strike and a 27-13 lead. McGraw finished with three touchdown passes in the win.

Both Tonganoxie and Basehor-Linwood were long-time members of the now defunct Kaw Valley League, but THS is now in the Frontier League, while BLHS is in the United Kansas Conference.

For more scores, stats, rankings and features, visit 810Varsity.com.