Miege, BV North bring home state titles

Winning state football titles is becoming old hat for Bishop Miege.

Not so for Blue Valley North.

The Stags won their fourth straight Class 4A, Division I championship Nov. 25, when it beat Andale 47-7 in Topeka.

Meanwhile, the Mustangs became a first-time state champion by outlasting two-time defending state champ Derby 49-42 during the Class 6A title game in Emporia, Kan.

Miege (13-0) won its latest title under the guidance of senior quarterback Carter Putz, who threw four touchdowns passes and rushed for another score.

When Andale pulled within 12-7 with a touchdown in the second quarter, Putz responded with a TD pass to Peyton Hamrick and connected with Daniel Jackson for a 66-yard TD strike to start a 35-point run.

The title is the seventh overall for Miege in 11 state championship-game appearances.

The Stags have won 25 straight games since losing to Blue Valley in the 2016 season opener.

BV North (9-4) had a tougher time securing its first state title.

The Mustangs needed a 15-yard touchdown run from quarterback Graham Mertz with 57 seconds left to win the back-and-forth game.

Mertz, a Wisconsin commit, completed 24 of 30 passes for 462 yards as BV North racked up 561 yards of total offense.

Dylan Freberg had 222 receiving yards, while Nijel Roberts caught three touchdown passes and Alex Garcia made a 20-yard TD catch for the Mustangs.

The win capped a remarkable turnaround for BV North, which had won only four playoff games in its history before this season.

Miege and BV North made the Eastern Kansas League 2 for 3 in state title games.

St. Thomas Aquinas came up short in the Class 5A final, falling to Bishop Carroll from Wichita 38-28 in Pittsburg, Kan.

This story was originally published November 27, 2017 at 2:32 PM with the headline "Miege, BV North bring home state titles."