Jaguars terrorize Tigers in Halloween matchup
Playoffs
There was a monster on the field at Jaguars Stadium on Halloween night and his name was Larry Jones.
Jones terrorized Blue Valley in the opening round of the 5A playoffs with four sacks. But his biggest moment came in the fourth quarter as the Tigers tried to rally. On fourth and one, Blue Valley dropped back to pass. As the quarterback released the ball, Jones knocked it out of the air to give Mill Valley possession, and the Tigers nightmares.
The Jaguars would win the contest 35-26 and advance to the second round of the playoffs.
“[Larry] played lights out tonight,” said Jaguars head coach Joel Applebee. “I’m very proud of him. We needed that out of him.”
Jones was all smiles after the game. He said that he was getting off the snap quickly and did a good job of using his hands to get past the Blue Valley tackles.
Applebee praised the entire defensive line for their effort.
“Hayden Heller played well. Barrett Carbajo came in and played really well. Easton [Englehart] — that dude, he’s a plugger. He did a great job,” Applebee said.
Jaguars defensive end Larry Jones collects one of his four sacks on the night.
While the defense was making life miserable for the Tigers offense, the Mill Valley offense was humming along behind the running of quarterback Blake Jay and running back Max Piva.
Jay ran for 296 yards and three touchdowns while Piva rushed for 117 yards and two touchdowns.
“Max and Blake are both very dynamic players, so you can't really key on one,” said Applebee. “That's the whole key of that offense. They were keying on Max to where Blake was able to read and keep the ball.”
Jay gave credit to his success to his offensive line for the success of the running game by controlling the line of scrimmage.
“Those boys up front executed like no other,” he said. “Every block was there. I had a path, a gap to run it every time. The receivers were doing a great job blocking., Piva's just hard to bring down, and he's always there for us.”
The Jaguars offensive line dominated the line of scrimmage allowing Blake Jay to rush for nearly 300 yards and Max Piva for over 100.
The first half was a back and forth contest that saw the Jaguars go into the locker room with a slim 21-20 lead.
Blue Valley received the second half kickoff. But they moved backwards instead of forwards and were forced to punt.
“Defensively, I think we made some really good adjustments at halftime and that really helped out a lot,” said Applebee. “The whole second half, I thought our entire defense played very well.”
The offense also played at a high caliber in the second half. The Jaguars took their first possession of the second half and turned it into seven points. They would score again later to make it 35-20. The Tigers would score in the fourth quarter to make it 35-26 to close the gap. But the Jaguars defense put the clamps down and made big play after big play to shut down Blue Valley the rest of the way.
Mill Valley will advance to play longtime rival St. Thomas Aquinas next Friday at Aquinas in what could be the final matchup for two programs that have dominated 5A football in Kansas for the last decade. Mill Valley will move up to 6A next year while Aquinas will drop down to 4A.
“I told the kids, obviously, it's a special rivalry. I would think Aquinas might say the same thing. But in the end, the focus has got to be on us all week long,” Applebee said.
Jay said the Jaguars will be ready for next week’s matchup which will have all eyes on it.
“We know they're a great team. We know they're a great program,” Jay said. “But nobody's beating us, nobody's ever going to stop us. We have momentum. We have the guys. We have got the team for it, and nobody's going to stop us.”
