Photo Credit: PrepsKC Staff 
For the first five games of the season, it had been the Ty Williams show for the Grain Valley football team on offense.
Coming into Friday’s Suburban White Conference against Belton, the senior running back had 1,102 yards rushing and 16 TDs with an average of 220.4 yards per game. He also had eight catches for 243 yards and three touchdowns through the air.
He still had a sparkling performance against the Pirates as he rushed for 191 yards on 18 carries and a score, but there were other Eagles that joined the party on Senior Night.
Senior quarterback Sal Caldarella had a standout performance and backup running back Tyler Wyzard got in on the action with a touchdown of his own as the Eagles used a complete team effort to thump Belton 43-7 at Moody Murray Memorial Field.
“The defense did such a great job tonight, so it allowed us to get more kids involved in the offense,” Grain Valley head coach David Allie said. “We did a great job of hitting the open guys we thought we could get. Ty ran the ball effectively and Tyler got his carries.”
Caldarella led the offense by completing 7 of 9 passes for 143 yards and two scores and he also ran the ball five times for 29 yards and two more TDs. He connected with five different receivers and threw accurate passes from all ranges Friday night.
He hit tight end Eli Monrian for an 11-yard TD pass in the back of the end on a play action pass at the 5:33 mark in the first. With 6:40 left in the first half he scored on a 2-yard run on a run-pass option play to put Grain Valley up 14-0. That score was set up by a 40-yard strike from Caldarella to senior Jaxon Anderson.
Belton scored with 1:14 remaining in the first half on a 1-yard scoring run from senior running back Javon Minor to narrow the gap to 14-7.
But after that, it was all Eagles as Caldarella continued his stellar night by throwing a deep pass to junior wide receiver Aaron Barr, who made a leaping TD grab from 27 yards out with a defensive back all over him to put the Eagles (5-1) up 21-7 going into halftime.
“It was awesome to see that,” Caldarella said of Barr’s TD grab. “I have been putting more trust into my non go-to guys over the week. He came down and made a great play on the ball.”
Caldarella capped his special senior night with a 5-yard TD run on another run-pass option play with 11:27 left in the game.
Williams did his thing earlier in the third period when he scored on a 71-yard jaunt after breaking a tackle, making one cut, and outrunning the Belton defense. But he wasn’t the only running back to shine as Wyzard had eight carries for 36 yards and had a 3-yard scamper into the end zone as he earned a season-high in touches.
“It felt great,” Wyzard said. “I am glad I am getting more reps. I have been definitely been working really hard.”
While the offense continued to hum for the Eagles, the defense is coming together. In the last three games, the Grain Valley defense has held its opponents to an average of 16.3 points per game. The run defense has especially made some strides as Grain Valley held Minor to just 62 yards on 24 carries.
“That’s their bread and butter, they like to run the ball,” Grain Valley senior safety Gabe Storment said. “Everyone on defense just honed in. When we stopped the run, we made them throw the ball. When they threw it, we forced them into mistakes.
“It was an overall dominant performance from the defense.”
The Pirates had only 165 total yards and committed four turnovers. Senior cornerback Braylon Harden had a ball thrown right to him from Belton quarterback Cooper Shrum for an interception late in the first, Storment picked off Shrum twice and sophomore recovered a fumble forced by junior DJ Harris late in the contest on a run from Kyron Tharp.
Storment nearly had his first career pick-six when he caught a wobbler from Shrum at the Grain Valley 31-yard line and took it all the way to the Belton 5 before getting tackled.
“I saw everyone running and I was just trying to make some cuts,” Storment said. “I got inside the 4 and I thought I was going to get there but their quarterback was just sitting there squatting.”
