The Blue Valley Tigers have the luxury of staying home for another week and will welcome the St. James Academy Thunder at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both teams took a loss in their last game, so they'll have plenty of motivation to get the 'W'.
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. The team also got some help courtesy of 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.
St. James Academy might have lost, but man, Tyson Beashore was a machine: he 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. The bulk of those rushing yards came from one huge play: a run that gained an incredible 62 yards. Another player making a difference was Sam Niesen, who picked 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. Does Blue Valley have another victory up their sleeve, or will St. James Academy turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
