Lee’s Summit North notches first win of football season

You won’t find many people more thankful for the halftime break than Lee’s Summit North coach Ty Kohl was Friday night.

After struggling through a sloppy first half, the Broncos took command and beat North Kansas City 40-25, picking up their first win of the season and saving homecoming in the process.

“Thank God there’s a halftime,” Kohl said. “We needed to get in the locker room, make some adjustments and talk some things over.”

After picking up just 90 yards of offense in the first half, Lee’s Summit North, trailed 12-7 going into the third quarter and 18-7 after North Kansas City’s Develle Baldwin returned an interception 25 yards for a touchdown on the second drive of the half.

But that’s when the Broncos, powered by Chase Overton, began to take over.

After a seven-play drive — capped by Chase Swisher’s 10-yard touchdown run — cut the lead to 18-13, Overton tipped a Hornet punt to give the Broncos prime field position.

Three plays later Swisher, who already had 102 yards rushing in 17 carries, went to the sideline with a tweaked ankle. Overton took over the backfield, helping the Broncos take a 19-18 lead after Nathan Webb’s 6-yard touchdown pass to Nolan Lamb on fourth down.

Overton scored on a 9-yard run one play after the Hornets botched a snap on a punt attempt and then scored on a 2-yard run on the next drive. He then capped off his night with a 23-yard fumble return for a touchdown that made it 40-18.

“My teammates did all the hard work,” Overton said. “They blocked for me and on that fumble, they knocked it loose and I just picked it up and ran. We knew we needed to get this win and turn things around.”

All told, Overton scored three touchdowns, blocked a punt and recovered a fumble for the Broncos, 1-2.

“That’s just the kind of player Chase is,” Kohl said. “He’s been our leader on defense the last two years and we knew he could come in and give us what we needed on offense too.”

The Hornets, 0-3, showed promise, especially running the ball. Junior running back Chris Elizondo gained 142 yards in 20 carries while senior quarterback Fasil Kassahun rushed 24 times for 96 yards. But Elizondo and a handful of others on offense played all game defensively too and it began to show in the second half.

“Their depth started to hurt us,” Hornets coach Leon Douglas said. “I’m proud of our kids. They need to see what they did in the first half. We did some good things to give ourselves a lead. But we wore down after a while.”

This story was originally published September 5, 2014 at 11:14 PM.