The Blue Valley Tigers will play host again on Friday to welcome the St. James Academy Thunder, where kickoff is scheduled at 7:00 p.m. Given that the two teams suffered a loss in their last game, they both have a little extra motivation heading into this contest.
Blue Valley is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Kansas' top teams: Saint Thomas Aquinas, who was ranked first in their home state at the time (Blue Valley was ranked second). Blue Valley fell 28-16 to Saint Thomas Aquinas on Friday. The loss was the Tigers' first of the season.
Although Blue Valley took the loss, they still got scores from Grady Westphal and Jackson Hopper. Another player making a difference was Christopher Aiello, who threw for 245 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 11.1 yards per attempt.
Meanwhile, St. James Academy didn't have quite enough to beat Blue Valley Northwest on Friday and fell 27-24. Despite 107 more yards than the Huskies, the Thunder couldn't convert that extra yardage to scores.
Despite the defeat, St. James Academy got top-tier performance from Tyson Beashore, who threw for 292 yards and two touchdowns while completing 79.3% of his passes, and also rushed for 98 yards and a touchdown on only 11 carries. Beashore got the majority of those rushing yards when he took off on a run that went for an incredible 62 yards. Sam Niesen was another key player, picking up 149 receiving yards and a touchdown.
Having lost for the first time this season, Blue Valley fell to 2-1. As for St. James Academy, they dropped their record down to 1-2 with the loss, which was their fifth straight at home dating back to last season.
Blue Valley strolled past St. James Academy in their previous matchup back in September of 2023 by a score of 17-3. Will Blue Valley repeat their success, or does St. James Academy have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
