Football Recap: Mill Valley Falls Short of St. James Academy in the Playoffs + How To Watch

It's hard to turn regular season success into postseason wins, a fact Mill Valley can now relate to. They fell 45-41 to the St. James Academy Thunder on Friday. The Jaguars were given a dose of their own medicine in this game as the Thunder apparently hadn't forgotten their loss the last time these teams played back in September of 2019.

Mill Valley's defeat came despite a true team effort from the offense with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Blake Jay, who rushed for 229 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 9.5 yards per carry, and also threw for 101 yards and one TD on only eight passes. Max Piva also helped out as he racked up 195 rushing yards.

St. James Academy was led to victory by John Hornback and Jake House. Hornback rushed for 101 yards and one score, while House gained 112 total yards and four touchdowns. The dominant performance also gave Hornback a new career-high in passing yards (308). A healthy portion of that aerial production (160 yards to be exact) went to Alec Jett, who also brought in a receiving touchdown.

Jaguars

Previous 5 Games

11/14/25 @ St. James Academy	41-45
11/07/25 vs Saint Thomas Aquinas	28-27
10/31/25 vs Blue Valley	35-26
10/24/25 vs Shawnee Mission North	49-14
10/17/25 @ Olathe Northwest	63-28

The loss snapped Mill Valley's winning streak at four games and leaves them with a 8-3 record. As for St. James Academy, the victory was the ninth in a row for them, bringing their record up to 10-1.

Mill Valley does not have any more games scheduled as of now. As for St. James Academy, they will take on Basehor-Linwood at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. That matchup will pit two of the most dominant signal callers against one another: Hornback and Carson Dixon.