Blue Valley turns slim third-quarter lead into 35-14 victory over Blue Valley North

In 12 seconds, Blue Valley transformed a nail-biter into a comfortable victory in the Kansas Class 6A quarterfinals.

With its 35-14 home win over Blue Valley North, Blue Valley moves on to a perfect 11-0 record and cements its spot in the semifinals next week.

The Tigers held a narrow 14-7 lead with time winding down in the third quarter. But riding a drive that had crept over 7 minutes, Blue Valley doubled that lead with a Matthew Dercher 22-yard touchdown pass to Harrison Van Dyne, who was wide open in the end zone.

On the ensuing kickoff, Blue Valley North muffed the return — just as Blue Valley head coach Eric Driskell had planned it.

“We didn’t design it to bounce like that, but we decided we were going to pooch one up in the air and kick it to one of their non-returners, and see if we got a good bounce,” Driskell said. “And we did.”

The Tigers jumped on the ball, and Dercher scrambled in for a 23-yard touchdown on the first play of the possession.

Just like that, in 12 ticks, Blue Valley was up 28-7 with 2:28 remaining in the third quarter, and the Mustangs’ confidence was waning.

“That’s a backbreaker,” Blue Valley North head coach Andy Sims said. “We had a blown assignment, and then you have a takeaway and you get another one right on top. That’s what good teams do; they take advantage of those types of mistakes on you.”

The Mustangs would add a garbage-time touchdown to pull within 35-14 with 5:22 to play off a Tony Bragulla 9-yard run. But at that point North had gone 39 minutes of game action without scoring.

To kick off the night, Blue Valley fumbled on its first series, a mere three plays into the game. That giveaway gave Blue Valley North the chance to string together a Cole Chapman to Payton Thielmann 45-yard bomb and a four-yard touchdown run from Bragulla. The Mustangs took a 7-0 lead off that drive with 9:08 to play in the first quarter, but it was the last time they would score.

But touchdown passes from Dercher to first Gus Gomez, then Alex Totta, righted the ship for Blue Valley.

“Nobody panics,” Driskell said. “Nobody pointed fingers when things weren’t going well early.”

Meanwhile, the Mustangs end their season at 7-4, the loss on Friday snapping their six-game winning streak.

“This isn’t a magical season anymore; this is to be expected at Blue Valley North,” Sims said. “Now we’ve got to start finding a way to get over the hump. That’s the next phase of our program, trying to find a way to win these types of games.”

This story was originally published November 11, 2016 at 10:31 PM with the headline "Blue Valley turns slim third-quarter lead into 35-14 victory over Blue Valley North."