Blue Springs takes down Liberty North

By Jimmy Gillispie

BLUE SPRINGS — The Wildcats have now won back-to-back games in a series that was lopsided for years.

The Wildcats defeated Liberty North, 31-24, on their home field Friday night. Their 27-14 victory last year ended a nine-game losing streak to Liberty North.

“Obviously, winning is a big deal. We just continue to have way too many penalties,” Blue Springs coach Jed Paulsen said. “That’s putting us in bad situations, and we have to clean those up.”

Blue Springs (3-1) scored first and never trailed in the home win. The Cats jumped out to a 10-0 lead before both teams traded scores during the remainder of the game.

The Wildcats drove 72 yards in 11 plays to begin the second quarter. They capped the drive with a one-yard TD on a quarterback sneak from senior Wyatt Erickson.

Liberty North quickly responded with a four-play drive of its own. Senior quarterback Brennan Smith completed all three of his passes for 62 yards on on the drive, including a 22-yard touchdown to senior Xavier Scott.

Following a Blue Springs interception, Liberty North added a field goal, trimming the Wildcats’ lead to one point, 10-9. However, the Wildcats wasted little time in adding another score.

On the first play of the ensuing drive, Erickson connected with senior Traice Collier on a deep pass, Collier caught it near the Blue Springs sideline and sprinted down field, scoring a 77-yard TD.

“We caught them in a Cover 2 and had a Cover 2 beater called,” Paulsen said. “Our quarterback threw a great football and Traice finished the catch and took it to the house. That’s what Traice does. The kid is just electric.”

After stopping the Eagles’ opening drive of the second half, Blue Springs lost a fumble on its first play of the half. The Eagles capitalized, going 22 yards in three plays. A four-yard run by senior tailback Grayson Smith and a conversion run by Smith tied the game at 17 midway through the third quarter.

Again, Blue Springs answered back. A five-play, 80-yard drive was aided by a 16-yard from sophomore Trey Turner. Erickson also broke a 28-yard run where an Eagles’ personal foul added 15 yards. Erickson found Collier for another TD on a 13-yard toss to the sideline, where Collier caught the ball over an Eagle defender.

Leading 24-17, Blue Springs marched down the field and scored an important touchdown to go up two scores. It was an 80-yard drive in 10 plays that began with a 23-yard run by Turner.

A 24-yard TD run by Erickson was even called back for a holding call on the Wildcats. Four plays later, senior Brock Banker put the Wildcats up 31-17 on a two-yard TD run.

“That’s the big thing there – finishing drives,” Paulsen said. “We sputtered here and there, but when we can finish drives and hold on to the football, we are a hard team to beat. When we turn it over, we get close football games. That’s something we’ve got to clean up.”

Liberty North wasn’t done yet, though. The Eagles drove the field and scored a one-yard TD run with 2:10 left on the clock.

However, their onside kick was recovered by Blue Springs, which ran out the remaining time and earn the win.

“We practice that every week,” Paulsen said of the onside kick recovery. “I think we spend more time on special teams than anyone in the nation. We were prepared for it, we caught it and that was great.”

Blue Springs will travel to Lee’s Summit West (2-2) which just lost a 34-28 game at Ray-Pec on Friday. Meanwhile, Liberty North (2-2) will return home to play Staley (3-1), which suffered its first loss Friday, falling to Blue Springs South, 37-6.