On a roll

Jeff Stead/PrepsKC

By Brian Spano PrepsKC senior Writer
Posted: October 12, 2012 - 10:28 PM



It’s probably safe to say that Raytown South has turned its season around. After starting the 2012 campaign 1-3, the Cardinals have rattled off four straight victories to improve to 5-3.
 
The latest victim was Class 6 Lee’s Summit in a home game Friday night, and this one was all Raytown South, 38-13.
 
“We knew we needed to come out and perform well,” Cardinals head coach David Allie said. “We’ve been stalling drives and turning the ball over year. So, luckily tonight, we had no turnovers, which was one of the big goals for tonight. We tried to run some power on them and tried to run some fades and were able to convert. I thought the defense executed their game plan too.”
 
The Cardinals struck first when quarterback Devin Hannah scored on a one-yard run that was set up by a Justin Turner interception at the Tigers’ 42-yard line.
 
Hannah did it on the ground and through the air, hooking up with senior wide out Landon James-Wilson and junior Malcolm Bowden in the first half. He threw for 239 yards on 10 of 16 passing and three touchdowns.
 
“It’s my quarterback,” James-Wilson said of his two touchdown catches. “I just love running flies because I’m so fast. He just throws it to me, and I catch it. I usually catch them in practice. He just decided to throw it to me, and I make plays. Without our quarterback, we’d be nothing.”
 
Hannah knew coming into this game he and his teammates had something to prove. Coming off a big overtime rivalry win last week against Raytown, and wanting to keep momentum going into the final weeks of the season, he knew he could rely on the sure hands and speed of James-Wilson to help carry the team.
 
“Our coach gave us a great game plan all week,” Hannah said. “Since they were a (Class 6) team, we wanted to perform and show them what we were about, and I think we executed the game plan, and we came out with a W.
 
“We became more of a team these last couple of weeks. We had to struggle through the first half, and then we wanted to show teams what we were really about, and in order to do that, we had to bond together, and I think that’s what’s led us to our success.”
 
The Tigers (4-4) were banged up coming into the game, and sophomore quarterback Drew Lock was returning after missing the last two games because of an illness. He was just five for 17 for 52 yards and a score.
 
The Cardinals defense put all of their focus and effort on junior running back Casey Slaughter all night, and it paid off for much of the game. He finished the night with 147 yards and a score, but that came late in the game, and the majority of his yards were in the second half.
 
“We dug ourselves a really big hole in the first half,” Lee’s Summit head coach Eric Thomas said. “We had some dropped passes, we had some touchdowns called back, but really, we weren’t consistent at all offensively all night, and they were keying on Casey and on Colin Aubuchon. We’ve done some things with them the last couple of weeks that have been pretty good.”
 
It won’t get any easier for either team as they head into the final week of the regular season. Lee’s Summit hosts Blue Springs, who looks like they have a lock on the No. 1 seed in their district. Raytown South travels north to battle Platte County with an opportunity to improve its district standing and an outside chance of possibly winning the Suburban Small Six Conference.