Defending state champ Blue Valley North gets by Shawnee Mission South

If Blue Valley North was superstitious, then the start of Friday’s Class 6A regional playoff game against Shawnee Mission South was ominous.

The Mustang kick returner was brought down by nothing but the brand new turf at Shawnee Mission South District stadium, and the team was forced to start its first drive in the shadow of its own goal post.

As it turned out, Blue Valley North had nothing to worry about. The Mustangs raced to a four-touchdown lead on way to a 56-21 victory.

Shawnee Mission South (7-3) was the team to make the miscues that hurt. The Raiders fumbled twice in their end of the field, and Blue Valley North turned both those turnovers into touchdowns.

The Raiders also came up empty on two trips into the red zone, including getting stuffed on a 4th-and-1 at the Mustang 2-yard line.

That was all the room Blue Valley North (7-3) needed. The Mustangs added a pair of long touchowns — a 61-yard scoring run from Amauri Pesek-Hickson and a 60-yard reception from Erik Roberts to build a commanding lead.

Blue Valley North quarterback Graham Mertz, who is committed to Wisconsin, put up his usual gaudy numbers, throwing for nearly 300 yards, three touchdowns and an interception, and he ran for a score.

He was grateful for the short fields to get the offense jump-started.

“Yeah, defense balled out. How many turnovers, like five turnovers. We needed that. They bailed us out a couple times,” Mertz said.

Mertz is also grateful for the development of Pesek-Hickson, who ran for three scores and had over 200 yards from scrimmage.

It’s Pesek-Hickson’s first season of football, and Mertz had to convince him to come out for the team.

“He wasn’t going to play at the start of the season. I convinced him to play, and I think he’s glad I did,” Mertz said with a smile. “You can see it tonight. He’s a baller. I just told him ‘You’re going to get free tuition for playing this sport.’ He was like, ‘Alright, I’ll do it.’”

Pesek-Hickson adds a powerful running element to an already potent passing game. Shawnee Mission South had to pick which part of the BV North offense to defend, and Pesek-Hickson was able to capitalize when the Raiders tried to play coverage.

“He’s got a lot of upside,” Blue Valley North coach Andy Sims said. “He’s still pretty raw with some different things, but the one thing you can’t substitute for is athleticism and effort, and he gave us both of those tonight.”

BV North, the defending Class 6A state champion, started this season with a three-game gauntlet of Bishop Miege, Blue Valley and Pittsburg.

Blue Valley North lost all three, and had to climb out of a hole before it could even begin to think about another state title.

But that was then. The Mustangs have righted and cleaned up the ship in advance of next week’s sectional showdown with undefeated Gardner-Edgerton.

The Mustangs are in a familiar place. They entered last year’s playoffs at 4-4 before embarking on their championship run.

“I think we just stayed the course,” Sims said. “It wasn’t any drastic changes. We talk about it all the time, it’s not how we start. We’ve always been a second-half-season type team. The guys are starting to understand as long as we can get in a groove and start playing our best football at the end, that’s what matters.”

The road back to Emporia won’t be easy, but it’s one Blue Valley North has already traveled.

“We’re brothers. We get through everything together, and we just ended up hitting our stride at the right time,” Mertz said.