Friday night lights in Kansas: BV West, St. Thomas Aquinas, Louisburg earn wins

Here’s a look at highlights from some big high school football games around the Kansas City metro on Friday night.

Blue Valley West 35, Blue Valley 34

Just when Blue Valley looked poised to pull off another thrilling last-minute victory, BV West quarterback Tate Nagy said hold my Gatorade.

After the Tigers scored what could’ve been the game-winning touchdown with 44 seconds left, Nagy led the Jaguars 80 yards for the decisive TD drive.

Following an incompletion, Nagy dropped back and heaved a 45-yard pass to junior Kian Lammers down the right sideline. That brought Nagy and company to the 35 with 31 seconds left.

Nagy’s 19-yard pass to Tyler Peterson moved BV West to the 16 with 13 seconds to go. Then he rolled to his right and hit Quin Myers at the 1.

After a timeout — and with just seven seconds on the clock — Nagy lobbed a fade to the 6-foot-7 Peterson in the back corner of the end zone. Peterson made the grab with four seconds showing, and Joey Svoboda hit the extra-point kick to win it.

Blue Valley (5-1) had stopped the Jaguars on fourth and 3 at the BV 23 with 1:41 left. From the BV 20, the Tigers proceeded to go on an 80-yard TD drive of their own, capped by an 18-yard strike from QB Chris Aiello to fellow senior Jackson Hopper with 44 seconds left.

The extra point was blocked to make it 34-28.

A week earlier, it was the Tigers who’d prevailed 27-21 at BV Northwest by scoring a game-winning TD with 40 seconds left.

Blue Valley West, ranked No. 10 in the 810 Varsity Top 25 — and currently the top seed on the Class 6A East side — will play host to St. James next Friday. Blue Valley wraps up the regular season at Bishop Miege.

St. Thomas Aquinas 49, Blue Valley Northwest 14

The host Saints (7-0), ranked No. 2 in the 810 Varsity Top 25, stayed perfect in Eastern Kansas League play with an easy win against No. 13 Blue Valley Northwest.

Cal Arndt opened the barrage with two of his three first-half TDs. The first capped an 80-yard drive. Then, Arndt’s 43-yard run set up his own five-yard TD to make it 14-0 with 9:11 remaining in the first half.

Aquinas went to the air for an Elzie Slaughter touchdown pass to Brett Yankovich, followed by a Slaughter TD keeper that made it 28-0 with 1:28 to go until halftime.

But the opening-half scoring wasn’t done, as the Huskies coughed up the ball at the Saints’ 9 on their ensuing possession. Arndt scored from three yards out to make it 35-0 at the break.

St. Thomas Aquinas will play host to Blue Valley North next Friday, while the Huskies play host to Blue Valley Southwest.

Louisburg 17, Ottawa 7

Louisburg went to upset-minded Ottawa and ground out a victory in typical fashion.

The Wildcats, ranked No. 1 in Kansas Class 4A and No. 14 in the 810 Varsity Top 25, used a methodical drive in the final minutes to beat No. 25 Ottawa on Friday night.

After clinging to a 10-7 lead for most of the game, Louisburg took over following an Ottawa punt at its own 39 with 1:31 left in the third period. The Wildcats put together a 14-play march that consumed 8 minutes, 40 seconds.

The drive included the conversion of four third downs before Ashton Moore took a pitch to the right side for a three-yard TD. And that score made for the final points of the evening with 4:51 to go.

Louisburg (7-0) will play host to Spring Hill next Friday night, while Ottawa travels to Tonganoxie.

For stats, recaps, online broadcasts and more, visit 810Varsity.com.