Maize stuns Derby behind game-winning drive, 7 TDs by K-State QB recruit Avery Johnson
For the third consecutive season, the Derby-Maize game found a way to exceed the hype.
Friday’s showdown had the promise to be the must-see game of the Kansas high school football regular season and it delivered even more theatrics than that in a game that saw Maize escape with a 52-51 win in the final minutes.
In a game between two of the best teams in the state and a possible AV-CTL Div. I league title on the line, the two heavyweights combined for 103 points and more than 1,000 yards of total offense.
It was the third straight year the rivalry game has been decided by a single point (Maize won 36-35 in 2020, then Derby won 42-41 in 2021).
With his future college head coach, Chris Klieman, in attendance, Kansas State quarterback recruit Avery Johnson finished with 531 total yards of offense and seven touchdowns to help erase a 20-point deficit and lead the game-winning drive in the closing moments.
Derby had its own heroics, as quarterback Brock Zerger produced 310 total yards and four touchdowns, while Notre Dame commit Dylan Edwards totaled 192 total yards and a pair of scores and Iowa State defensive end Samuel Same forced a fumble that was returned for a touchdown.
Here are the three key sequences of Friday’s game that allowed Maize to remain unbeaten at 6-0 and make its claim as the best team in Class 5A.
K-State commit Avery Johnson finds the right connection
In the biggest regular season game of the year, it wasn’t a coincidence that Maize quarterback Avery Johnson targeted senior receiver Justin Stephens the most.
Stephens had the best receiving game of his career, hauling in nine of Johnson’s passes for 209 yards and two touchdowns. The connection between the two childhood friends has been growing since they were junior football teammates.
“Me and Ave’s connection has been crazy ever since we started playing with each other,” Stephens said. “We just have ‘it’ and I don’t think it will ever go away.”
That’s why when Maize, trailing 51-49 with less than four minutes left, was faced with a 3rd-and-16 from the Derby 46-yard line, Johnson knew before the ball was snapped who he was going to with the game potentially on the line.
“I watched a ton of film before this game because I really wanted to win this one,” Johnson said. “When I saw what coverage (Derby) was in, I knew that Justin had the 1-on-1 matchup with the safety.”
There were no spoken words between Johnson and Stephens in the huddle before the play, but both knew where the ball was going when the play was dialed up for Stephens to run a wheel route down the right sideline.
Sure enough, the defender bit on the out route and Stephens turned upfield with a step of separation. The offensive line shielded Johnson long enough for him to hit his back drop, step up in the pocket and rocket a 40-yard rope to the opposite side of the field to connect with Stephens in stride for a gain down to the Derby 6-yard line.
“If you’re not a quarterback, it’s hard for people to really understand how big of a role that connection can play in a game,” Johnson said. “Every time I put the ball in the air, he seemed to come down with it. He’s so good at feeling out where I want him to be in certain situations and we’ve been on that same brain length for a long time. We’ve been doing this for years.”
Stephens said he knew a perfect spiral was headed his way as soon as he turned his head around.
“You can just sense it,” Stephens said. “We usually don’t even really say anything. When you feel it, you feel it. It’s just a connection thing and it’s just chemistry from playing with each other for so long. It’s love.”
Johnson hopes Stephens’ game-breaking performance against Derby will start to attract Division I scholarship offers.
“He’s a Division I talent, so these college football coaches need to get on him,” Johnson said. “He has the body, he has the physique, he has the hands, he has all of the intangibles. I really hope somebody offers him because if they don’t, I’m going to be pushing for him to come walk on with me at K-State.”
Maize’s sophomore kicker becomes the hero
A pit had formed in the stomach of Mason Teague since the second quarter when he dropped the snap to him as the punter and Derby recovered for a touchdown to put the Eagles in a 20-point deficit.
“I really hope we don’t lose this game because of that touchdown,” Teague remembers thinking.
The sophomore tried to erase that bad memory from his head watching on the sidelines as Avery Johnson worked Maize, trailing 51-49, into field position to potentially take the lead late in the fourth quarter.
Teague began kicking into the net with his holder, Drew Kemp, when the offense reached midfield. But the nerves didn’t really set in until Johnson connected with Justin Stephens for a 40-yard pass down to the Derby 6-yard line with less than three minutes remaining.
“My heart was racing,” Teague said. “I had a lot of adrenaline flowing.”
Maize coach Gary Guzman never lost confidence in his sophomore kicker, even with the mistake earlier in the game.
Rather than turning Johnson loose to try to score the go-ahead touchdown, Guzman played it conservatively: calling three straight hand-offs up the middle, forcing Derby to use its final two timeouts, and draining the clock down to less than 90 seconds in the process.
“Mason is a weapon for us and he’s only going to get better. He’s young,” Guzman said. “But absolutely, we knew at that range, he was going to hit it. The only concern was about (Derby) bringing the house and blocking it.”
Teague found confidence in sticking with his routine: setting his mark, taking three steps back and two steps to the left.
The snap by Stephens, the hold by Kemp, and the kick by Teague made the 20-yard field goal look as routine as they would hope in such a pressure-filled moment.
“I just had to clear my mind about that dropped punt and put it through the uprights,” Teague said. “The biggest part for me was my follow through. I shanked one right (against Andover Central) because I didn’t have a good follow through. I made sure to have that follow through, so it went right through the uprights.”
After worrying for most of the game about costing his team a victory, Teague ended the night being mobbed by teammates who chanted his name as the hero following the win.
“That felt really great,” Teague said. “I love my teammates and I love the game of football. That was a lot of fun.”
The Eagles make one final defensive stop for the win
As a 3-year starter and all-state defensive tackle, Caden Miranda has seen a lot of snaps in his career at Maize.
When Derby lined up on the right hash with four receivers split wide and a running back in the backfield on a 4th-and-7 play with 45 seconds left and the game on the line, Miranda had a hunch what to do next.
“I guessed,” Miranda said sheepishly.
The Eagles only rushed three and dropped back eight into coverage, but Miranda’s educated guess that Derby would roll out quarterback Brock Zerger to the open side of the field proved correct.
Derby’s play never had time to develop because Miranda beat the center off the snap, snuck by the guard and applied pressure on Zerger within seconds.
“I was shocked because I was busy watching the back half of the field to make sure nothing was leaking out,” Maize defensive coordinator J.J. Milanovich said. “And then I glance back and there’s big, old number 47 barreling through like a free rusher. I’m still trying to figure out how he got back there so fast.”
Miranda swallowed up the Derby quarterback before he could make a desperation heave, sending the Maize sideline into hysterics.
“I was so tense because you want to get him so bad,” Miranda said. “I was sprinting as hard as I could and then I got him and I was honestly shocked. I was speechless.
“Then I came to the sideline and everyone was smacking me on the helmet. I think I have a concussion now.”
Milanovich stressed to his defense to not to become demoralized giving up touchdowns to Derby because the game could be decided by a single stop in the end. Sure enough, the Eagles finished the game with two straight defensive stands.
“I’m not going to sit here and tell you giving up 51 points is a fun time,” Milanovich said. “I’ve never given up 51 and been happy about it before, but going against a team like Derby, especially with a player as talented as Dylan Edwards, every play you just hold your breath and hope your guys rally.”
This story was originally published October 8, 2022 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Maize stuns Derby behind game-winning drive, 7 TDs by K-State QB recruit Avery Johnson."
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