Photo Credit: Jeff Stead/PrepsKC 
With the game on the line, Oak Park head coach Ken Clemens and his coaching staff, noticed a hole in the Grain Valley defense.
The Northmen had the ball at the Eagles 2-yard line with 22 seconds while down 31-26. They saw the Grain Valley defense was focused on stopping the run up the middle so timeout was called to design a play.
Oak Park senior quarterback Aiden Hinkle got the edge on the left side and waltzed into the end zone for 2-yard touchdown run with 19.7 seconds left as the Northmen took a 32-31 thriller at Moody Murray Memorial Field in Grain Valley.
“They were really pinching and playing the inside run,” Hinkle said. “We called a timeout and on the iPad, we saw they were all crashing in, so we knew we could get to that edge.”
Prior to the winning touchdown, Grain Valley was trying to preserve their five-point lead with a little less than three minutes left. On a third-and-11 play from the Eagles 40, senior quarterback Sal Caldarella tried to hit wide receiver Noah Olah along the left sideline on a deep pass but Oak Park junior cornerback Donovan Ross intercepted the pass and returned the ball Grain Valley 29-yard line with 2 minutes and 31 seconds left.
“They stopped a route that we hit earlier for a big gain,” Grain Valley head coach David Allie said. “(Ross) sat on it.”
From there, the Northmen did what was working the entire game – run the football. Junior running back Travon Pankey ran the ball 34 times for 173 yards and a score, Hinkle ran the ball nine times for 54 yards and three TDs and senior wide receiver Evan Braxton had 56 yards on seven carries.
When Oak Park needed big yardage or a first down, it went to its “pitch rich play.” It’s an option run in which Hinkle could decide to keep the ball and run it himself or pitch it to Pankey. The play was effective against the Eagles as there were multiple moments in which Hinkle held onto the ball until he had a defender in his face before pitching it to Pankey for a big gain.
“We have a motto, we want to run the ball up the middle,” Hinkle said. “If we get four yards, it’s a successful play. We also want to pitch rich because that’s where we get our money. That’s where we get out touchdowns.”
Oak Park overcame a 31-20 deficit with 9:40 left in the third period. Caldarella used a run pass option and blown coverage by the Northmen led to senior wide receiver Jaxon Anderson to be wide open for a 19-yard pitch and catch to put the Eagles up 11.
Oak Park responded with drive that lasted 5 minutes and 57 seconds and ended with 5-yard TD run to the left side by Hinkle on an option play to narrow the gap to five points.
From there, the Northmen defense tightened up and began to bottle up Grain Valley senior running back Ty Williams, who had two games with more than 170 rushing coming in. After having a big first half with 128 yards and two TDs on 11 carries, Williams was limited to 37 yards on nine carries in the final 24 minutes.
For the last 21 minutes of the game, the Northmen figured out the puzzle to an explosive Grain Valley offense that has averaged 42 points per game. Grain Valley’s last four possessions resulted in two punts and two interceptions, which included a fourth-and-1 play from the Eagles in Northmen territory, which resulted in a false start penalty and forced them to punt early in the fourth.
“They have a heck of a scheme,” Clemens said of Grain Valley. “Allie is really smart in his play selection and manipulating a defense with his formations. He had just had us lining up wrong a lot early there.
“It took us a little while to figure out what he was doing. We got it figured out after a while.”
The Eagles looked strong early on as they went into halftime up 24-20. Grain Valley scored on a 47-yard run from Olah and TD runs from Williams of 32 and 22 from Williams. Ben Drinkwater also added a 21-yard field goal.
Oak Park had a 5-yard TD run from Hinkle, a 1-yard plunge from Pankey for a score and a trick play in which Hinkle pitched the ball to tight end Eric Garnett, who connected with a wide-open Braxton for a 37-yard touchdown pass.
Williams led the Eagles offense with 165 yards on 20 carries, Olah had 101 total yards and a touchdown and Caldarella connected on 13 of 23 passes for 180 yards and touchdown and two interceptions.
