Jason Lawrence
Special to The Citizen
With a share of a conference title and district seeding ramifications at stake, the Park Hill football team treated Friday night’s regular season finale against Blue Springs like a playoff game.
For the first 24 minutes, it certainly felt like a playoff game.
Each team went three-and-out on their opening possessions, then after another punt by the Wildcats, the Trojans (5-4) struck first, marching 81 yards as senior quarterback Ryan Graves took the 15th play of the drive across the goal line for a 3-yard touchdown.
“Our kids knew that this was an important football game and we were going to throw everything at them,” Park Hill head coach Josh Hood said. “We didn’t want to leave anything behind.”
The Wildcats (6-3) answered with a 10-play drive, capped by a 27-yard field goal by Fredy Romero. After a Trojan punt, Blue Springs took a 10-7 lead on an eight-yard run by Aveion Bailey — his first of five on a night when the senior tallied 221 yards on 23 carries in a 36-23 victory.
“They’re maulers up front. We tried to match it with speed,” Hood said. “That kid runs hard, we knew that. We’ve seen him several times now. Kudos to their team and what they did in pounding the football.”
Like the heavyweight battle it was, Park Hill came right back with a haymaker of its own. Graves found senior receiver Davis Suppes, who shrugged a Blue Springs defender, streaking up the far sideline on the first play of the ensuing drive for a 54-yard score. And a 13-10 advantage after the extra point attempt was blocked.
“This football team is in a position now where we feel like we can play with anybody in the state,” Hood said. “That play just put us back where we felt like we were in striking distance again.”
With 11 seconds left in the half, Bailey found paydirt again, this time on a 2-yard run to send the Wildcats into the locker room up 17-13, a lead they ultimately wouldn’t relinquish against a Park Hill squad that was without injured junior defensive starters James Gore and Mikey Miles in addition to seniors Ethan Smith and Seth Garrison, who have been out the majority of the season with injuries.
“It could be the worst game to be depleted against, and our forces were a little bit depleted,” Hood said. “Those guys are doing everything they can to get back. It hurts us, and we definitely need them next week, but we got some good experience from some other kids as well, so now we feel like that might help our depth a little in this playoff run.”
Momentum seemed to be shifting even further in Blue Springs’ favor after the Trojans turned the ball over on downs inside Wildcat territory and Bailey ripped off back-to-back runs to get inside the Park Hill 30. Junior Javion Gathrite, however, stripped Bailey and fell on it give Park Hill the ball back.
However, momentum officially shifted when Blue Springs was able to fall on a bad snap on the punt. The Wildcats took over at the three at Bailey punched it in to push the lead to 10 after senior defensive back DeShaun Powell blocked the point-after try.
“There were a couple plays that went in their favor and that kind of changed the momentum there in the third and fourth quarter,” Hood said. “We just didn’t execute on that punt, we had a bad snap. That was the worst time to have it happen, but we’ll just make sure it never happens again.”
A 21-yard field goal by senior Jackson Austin cut the Wildcat lead to 23-16 with 5:09 to play. However, Bailey sandwiched 69- and 5-yard touchdown runs around a 4-yard touchdown run by junior Eric Carey, who ran for 132 yards on 28 carries, with 2:26 to play.
“Eric brings it, he just runs hard,” Hood said. “If he continues to run hard and downhill like that, he’s going to bring a much-needed aspect to this offense. He really drove us tonight.”
A turnover on downs with 41 seconds to play allowed Blue Springs to go into victory formation and win its third game in four tries over the last three seasons against the Trojans, and deny them a share of the Suburban Gold Division crown which was ultimately split by Lee’s Summit West and Lee’s Summit North.
To open the Class 6 District 4 playoffs, Park Hill, which drew the No. 5 seed, will see another familiar opponent, traveling to face fourth-seeded Liberty (6-3).
“I don’t know if one seed is any better than another in this district that we’re in,” Hood said. “At the end of the night, we just know we’re going to matchup with somebody and both teams are going to start with zeros on the scoreboard.
“We’ve seen this before and been through this gauntlet before. We’ve got three tough football games against three opponents that are hard-nosed, well-coached and teams that want it as much as we do.”
The Blue Jays, who wrapped up the regular season with a 31-7 win Friday night, beat the Trojans 24-21 back in Week 2, aided by four Park Hill turnovers.
“We were really young and that was one of the games we turned the football over a lot,” Hood said. “That’s a football team that proved tonight (against Staley) that they don’t need any help at all. We gave them a lot of help in Week 2. They’re playing wonderful football and have beat some really good football teams in the last several weeks. We’re excited about getting that opportunity again with Liberty.”