Friday night lights: Lee’s Summit North tops West & other Missouri HS football highlights
With seemingly half of Lee’s Summit in attendance or watching on TV or online, Elijah Leonard picked a good time to come up with one of his biggest plays in his tenure at Lee’s Summit North.
The senior and Missouri State commit at quarterback scored the go-ahead touchdown with 2:47 left in the fourth quarter to help the No. 1-ranked Broncos rally for a 28-21 win over Lee’s Summit West on Friday.
It was a battle of unbeaten squads, and it lived up to the hype surrounding two state-ranked foes playing for city bragging rights.
Leonard came up with several big plays on the final scoring drive. He hit Isaiah Mozee for a third-down conversion and then a 15-yard pass to Tanner Howes that moved the ball into the Titans’ territory.
A fourth-down attempt fell incomplete, but pass interference kept the drive alive and got the Broncos to the Titans’ 17-yard line.
A 10-yard run by Howes — who had 20 carries for 110 yards — got the ball to the 2.
Then Leonard had the go-ahead score from the 1 on a keeper, and a second-effort dive put the ball across the goal line for Lee’s Summit North (8-0)
Lee’s Summit West (7-1) had a chance to forge another tie but came up short. The Titans quickly got to midfield after a penalty, and a second penalty on North negated an interception.
After that, though, four of the next five plays resulted in negative yardage and the game ended.
The win was the fourth in a row for North over West, and it was only the second one-score contest dating back to 2012 between the foes.
Quincy Torry had 115 yards and three touchdowns for West, scoring a pair in the first half and then one in the fourth that helped tie the score at 21-all with 8:19 to play.
Leonard passed for 214 yards and a pair of touchdowns to Mozee. The duo connected before half on a 24-yard screen pass for a 14-14 tie at intermission, then another screen pass from 14 yards out for a 21-14 lead with 11:11 left in the game.
The Broncos, who all but wrapped up the top seed in their district, will play at Park Hill next Friday, while Lee’s Summit West will face No. 2 Liberty North (7-1) next week.
Platte County 24, Park Hill South 21
It’s about playoff time, and that usually means Platte County is on a roll.
Such is the case after the Pirates notched a 24-21 win against Park Hill South on Friday — the third win in a row for the Pirates (6-2 overall).
Rocco Marriott accounted for all three of Platte County’s touchdowns, as the 6-foot-4 sophomore had an 8-yard touchdown run in the first quarter and added a 1-yard keeper in the third quarter. Marriott ran the ball 22 times for 55 yards.
Between that, Marriott threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to Dawsen Mizell. The signal caller threw for 174 yards on 18-of-38 passing. Adam Gisler snagged five catches for 82 yards and added 95 yards on 23 carries for Platte County, ranked No. 19 in the 810 Varsity Top 25.
Park Hill South (1-7) got three touchdown passes from Drew Paulakovich, who threw the ball 40 times with 11 completions to go with two interceptions. Chance Taylor added a pair of scores for the Panthers, a 72-yarder in the second that tied the game and a 4-yarder in the fourth that pulled Park Hill South within a field goal. Said Mukhtar notched a 35-yard touchdown catch as well for Park Hill South.
Platte County took a 17-7 lead into halftime after a 25-yard field goal by Jackson Goodale.
Platte County wraps up the regular season next week on the road at William Chrisman, while South will try to snap its skid with a road game at Lee’s Summit.
Oak Park 44, St. Joe Central 43
Oak Park survived a scare on the road to keep its perfect season intact, thanks to some heroics in the final seven minutes at St. Joseph Central for a 44-43 win.
The Northmen, No. 6 in the 810 Varsity Top 25 with an 8-0 record, fell behind the Indians 43-29 with 7:21 left after a fumble and Gabe Fields touchdown for the Indians (6-2).
The comeback started with a touchdown run by Travon Pankey, and Evan Braxton ran in the conversion attempt with 4:20 left to pull the Northmen back within six points.
Oak Park held Central and got the ball back and with 1:13 left, Braxton added a touchdown for the tying points. Matthew Solorio’s extra point provided the final margin in the outcome.
Central had the ball one last time but couldn’t rally for the win. Fields finished with four total touchdowns in the loss.
Liberty North 38, Raymore-Peculiar 0
Ground-and-pound was Liberty North’s recipe for success in blanking Raymore-Peculiar on senior night at Liberty North.
In a 38-0 win, Eagles running back MicahJo Barnett took over primary rushing duties — fellow tailback Jacorey Love missed the game — and rushed for four scores. North scored on drives of 95 and 99 yards to build a 14-0 lead by halftime. A pair of rushing touchdowns in the third doubled the lead to 28-0.
North, ranked No. 2 in the 810 Varsity Top 25, then scored twice on special teams to cap the scoring. A blocked punt in the final minute of the third quarter was returned by the Eagles for a touchdown. A field goal with less than two minutes to play capped the scoring.
“Last week we got challenged and it showed us some things we need to work on,” North head coach Andy Lierman said. “This group of kids is incredible. I’m super excited about the opportunities going forward.”
Next week’s opportunity will be at No. 7 Lee’s Summit West (6-1). Ray-Pec closes the regular season at home against Blue Springs.
For scores, stats, recaps, rankings, broadcasts and more, visit 810Varsity.com.
