Big plays keep Blue Valley Northwest rolling in quarterfinal victory over Olathe North

Football is often all about the big plays. Blue Valley Northwest was full of them Friday night.

In fact, the big plays only fell the Huskies’ way as they defeated the Olathe North Eagles 56-27 in the Kansas Class 6A sectional round of the high school football playoffs.

The Huskies (10-1) will host Blue Valley West (7-4) in the state semifinals on Nov. 19.

The Huskies have pulled off a pretty outstanding turnaround in recent years. When head coach Clint Rider joined the program in 2017, Blue Valley Northwest had endured years of sub-.500 seasons.

“These seniors were eighth-graders when I got here. We talked about coming together and building something special,” Rider said. “They stayed together, they believed in each other, and I think that’s what you’ve seen play out, and obviously their belief has filtered down to our younger classes.”

The game was billed as one of the top showdowns in the metro this weekend, pitting Eastern Kansas League champion Blue Valley Northwest against Sunflower League runner-up Olathe North — two teams known to run the football. Blue Valley ranked fifth in 6A in rushing yards with 2,558, while Olathe North (8-3) had 2,201.

Aside from a roughing-the-kicker penalty that gave Blue Valley Northwest 15 yards and an automatic first down, neither team managed to move the chains until the second-to-last play of the first quarter. That’s when Eagles quarterback Noah Palmer connected with Brandon Shields on a 19-yard slant underneath.

On the back end of Olathe North’s second three-and-out, a punt from deep in Eagles territory was blocked and picked up by Blue Valley Northwest’s Gavin Biancalana, who made it to the Olathe North 4-yard line. One play later, Blue Valley Northwest’s Grant Stubblefield was in the end zone, the first of his four touchdowns Friday.

It was also the first of eight rushing TDs by the Huskies.

“That blocked punt just juice-started everything and got everything going,” Rider said.

After another Eagles three-and-out, Stubblefield ran 91 yards for a TD on the first play of Blue Valley Northwest’s ensuing possession. That made it a 14-0 without Blue Valley Northwest needing a first down.

“My O-line really stepped up and made really big holes for me to run through, and when I get open field I was hard to stop,” Stubblefield said.

In the second quarter, Huskies quarterback Mikey Pauley connected with Stubblefield for a 34-yard gain, then ran in a 19-yard touchdown. Two more TD runs by Pauley and a 51-yarder by senior receiver Max Muehlberger put the game to bed by halftime, 35-0. Pauley scored Blue Valley Northwest’s other four rushing touchdowns.

Palmer threw three touchdown passes for Olathe North in the second half. It was the final game for Palmer and fellow senior Jacob Parrish, who caught North’s first touchdown.

“Those guys have been great leaders for us over the last three years,” Olathe North coach Chris McCartney said. “They’re going to go on and do great things somewhere else, and we’ve got some young guys coming up that are going to have to fill into their shoes and can’t wait to have that opportunity. Life goes on, and this is what we do.”

On the other side of the field, Blue Valley Northwest celebrated and looked forward to next week’s semifinals.

“It feels really good,” Stubblefield said. “This is a goal that we’ve had since we were in the weight room in eighth grade together, so two more to go.”

This story was originally published November 12, 2021 at 10:41 PM.