Photo Credit: Dean Backes/PrepsKC 
After building a 28-14 halftime advantage, Anthony Orrick’s Class 5A Blue Valley Southwest football team faced a watershed moment early in the second half of Thursday night’s 38-28 road conquest of Class 6A Blue Valley West.
To the delight of Orrick and Timberwolf faithful, Blue Valley Southwest refused to tuck its tail after Blue Valley West cut into its 14-point halftime advantage.
“I just kind of calmed them,” Orrick said of what he told the Timberwolves following Blue Valley West’s early second half score. “We said, ‘Hey, we’ve been here before. We just had to keep driving and doing what we’d been doing.
“They’re going to get their opportunities. They’re a good football team, there is no question. We were going to get our opportunities and they were going to get theirs. You just have to capitalize at the end of the game.”
It took the Jaguars just two-minutes, seven-seconds to cut its halftime deficit to 28-21 early in the third quarter. After taking over at its own 20-yard line, following a touchback, Blue Valley West junior quarterback Tate Nagy found Crew Myers open for a 31-yard gain to the Timberwolf 45-yard line.
Several plays later, Nagy faked a handoff before breaking left and racing 24 yards to the Southwest 3. Huffman scored from there and the home team trailed by just one score with 9:53 left in the third quarter.
Blue Valley Southwest, however, responded on its next possession when senior signal caller Dylan Dunn hooked up with 5-foot-10 senior wide receiver Alex Parks for a 41-yard scoring strike to go up 35-21 just two and a half minutes later.
About halfway through the fourth quarter, Blue Valley Southwest opened its cushion to three scores when junior kicker Max Flowers capped a 12-play, 75-yard drive with a 28-yard field goal with 7:22 left in the game to put the Timberwolves up 38-21.
Blue Valley West wasn’t finished, however. Josh Koerkenmeier’s club responded on its next possession following a touchback. Huffman raced 11 yards on the series’ first play.
Then, two plays later, Huffman and Nagy ran for gains of 10 and 13 yards respectively on back to back plays to set the Jaguars up at midfield. Nagy then connected with junior Wayne Carter for 45 yards to the 5. Three plays later Huffman narrowed the gap to 38-28 with 4:42 left in the contest.
Blue Valley West’s onside kick attempt failed. But Ben McDavid sacked Dunn at the Blue Valley Southwest 46 to force a punt.
Luke Goodale returned the punt to Blue Valley West’s 31 where the Jaguars took over with 2:19 left. Six plays later, senior Emmitt Peters picked off a Nagy pass at the Timberwolf 31 with 72-seconds left to seal the victory.
“They’re just a bunch of Warriors,” Orrick said of the Timberwolves following the game. “They’re a bunch of kids that love to compete. They go out there and compete their butts off. I think our kids are understanding what it takes to finish games.
“There’s years where Blue Valley Southwest would have said, ‘Oh no, here we go.’ They never looked back. I’m so proud of these guys.”
Drake Dombrosky opened the game’s scoring when he ran it in from six yards out with 10:17 left in the opening quarter to put the Timberwolves up 7-0.
Blue Valley West responded later in the quarter when Nagy and Myers hooked up for a 16-yard scoring strike. Myers’ heroics was set up when Nagy hit Huffman for a 23-yard gain to the Blue Valley West 17.
Dunn took the lead back for the Timberwolves by hitting Parks for 36 yards and a 14-7 advantage with 1:42 left in the opening quarter. The hosts tied the game when Nagy faked a handoff and raced 52 yards untouched for the score.
Dunn gave Blue Valley Southwest the lead for good with 4:34 left in the half when he raced 19-yards for the score. Orrick’s club then forced Blue Valley West to punt and Parks returned the football to the Jaguar 31.
Parks reeled in a Dunn aerial and raced 20 yards to the Jaguar 2. Dombrosky scored from there putting Blue Valley Southwest up 28-14 at intermission.
Blue Valley Southwest (2-1) hosts Spring Hill Friday while the Jaguars (1-2) will try to even their record on the road at 1-2 Staley (Mo.) next weekend.
