Lee’s Summit North beats defending champ Ray-Pec with help of father-son trick play
The last time the Lee’s Summit North Broncos and Ray-Pec Panthers crossed paths, Lee’s Summit North stampeded to a 41-14 victory at the Bronco Athletic Complex.
That was Sept. 19. This time around, the teams met in the Missouri Class 6 district semifinals ... and it wasn’t so straightforward for the Broncos.
This one required a second-half comeback, but Lee’s Summit North (10-1) knocked off defending state champion Ray-Pec (8-3) 21-14.
“They’re a good football team,” Lee’s Summit North coach Jamar Mozee said. “... They’re defending state champs and have a lot of pride. I knew coming in that they were not going to let us beat them 41-14.”
Lee’s Summit North advances to play a district championship game against the Joplin Eagles on Nov. 12.
In some ways, Friday’s game was reminiscent of September meeting between Ray-Pec and Lee’s Summit North. The Broncos led that game by six points at halftime. This time Ray-Pec led by seven.
In the first meeting, the Broncos won with a big second half. On Friday night, it wasn’t until the fourth quarter that Lee’s Summit North finally retook the lead on a touchdown and trick-play conversion to make it 21-14.
The two-point conversion attempt wasn’t much of a surprise, as a PAT kick would’ve only put the Broncos up six points with eight minutes to go. It was the play-call that was surprising.
After junior running back Tanner Howes ran the ball in from 6 yards out to retake the lead, Lee’s Summit North lined up for what looked to be a run-of-the-mill play. But once the ball reached quarterback Tre Baker’s hands, he quickly tossed it in the flat to freshman wide receiver Isaiah Mozee.
“I felt excited,” said Mozee, the coach’s son.
With the game potentially in his hands, the freshman floated a perfect pass to junior Deauntay Frazier in the end zone. The Broncos had been practicing the play for about seven weeks but hadn’t yet tried it in a game.
“Finally to do it, and successfully do it, it was great,” Isaiah Mozee said.
Lee’s Summit North had to mount its comeback in part because of some bold play-calling from Ray-Pec coach Sean Martin. After driving the length of the field, the Panthers faced a fourth-and-goal from the 1 with 9.8 seconds remaining.
Martin opted to send in his field-goal unit. But after the snap to holder Jack Ardito, the senior bolted right and in — into the end zone with 4.4 seconds left.
Ray-Pec led 14-7 at that point.
“They had a lot of good stuff,” Mozee said. “Kudos to them. They did a good job game-planning and they hit us with some stuff that we didn’t expect.”
Panthers quarterback Zande Dombrowski completed eight of 12 passes for 204 yards, with 80 coming on one play. He passed to a wide-open Jaidyn Doss and Doss raced 80 yards for a touchdown.
This story was originally published November 5, 2021 at 10:19 PM.