Looking to redeem themselves after their loss against Blue Valley North, head coach Clint Rider said the Huskies worked on their fundamentals in preparation for the game against Blue Valley West. 

“After coming off a loss, we had two weeks to kind of stew on that and get back to the fundamentals,” Rider said. “Offensively it was making sure that we were able to put some longer drives together and defensively just cleaning up some things from the North game.” 

In terms of improving defensively, the Huskies defense did not allow the Jaguars to score at all in the first half, which junior Zach Yates said was part of their strategy. 

“We were trying to not let them have a single yard on defense, our defense was locked down 100 percent,” Yates said. 

On the offensive side, junior Mikey Pauley ran in one touchdown in the first quarter, and junior Gavin Biancalana added the extra point. This would be the only score for the quarter, putting the Huskies on top, 7-0. 

In the second quarter, Pauley ran in another touchdown. He also completed a pass to sophomore Grant Stubblefield for the third and final touchdown of the half. For both touchdowns, Biancalana added the extra point, helping secure Northwest’s 21-0 lead at halftime. 

At halftime, Pauley said Rider encouraged the team to look to run the ball more and work for a quick second half. 

“We looked to run [the ball] more because our linemen were doing great and [keep] the clock rolling to get through that second half as fast as we could,” Pauley said. 

Although the Huskies started off the third quarter with junior Nick Cusick scoring a touchdown off a pass from Pauley, it would be the Huskies’ only touchdown of the quarter. The Jaguars would then go on to score two touchdowns of their own, making the score at the end of the third quarter, 28-14. Yates said this happened due to mental mistakes made by the defense.  

Pauley agreed with Yates, saying the offense also had a few mental mistakes but were able to turn it around in the fourth quarter. 

“We came out and had a couple [of] mental mistakes. We just figured it out [in the] fourth quarter and we finished out strong,” Pauley said. 

With 6:43 left in the fourth quarter, Stubblefield ran in a touchdown and Biancalana added the extra point, making the score 35-14. Stubblefield attributed his successful running game to the offensive line. 

“Our O-line was making holes for me and everybody was blocking. They were just working,” Stubblefield said.  

The Huskies and Jaguars would then go back and forth for a while, with Northwest fumbling the ball and West throwing an interception. 

After the interception, caught by senior Isaiah Smith, Pauley would run in the fifth touchdown for the Huskies with 1:19 left in the game. Biancalana added the extra point. Quickly following this, the Jaguars would score the last touchdown of the night with 21 seconds remaining. The final score of the game resulted in a win for the Huskies, 42-21. 

In preparation for the playoffs, Rider said the Huskies need to be prepared to face their first-round opponent and come with a desire to win each game. 

“Whoever we have in the first round we need to make sure we are fully prepared, and we can’t look past a team just because of their record,” Rider said. “It is going to be a tough road, but these guys have risen to the occasion over and over, and our mentality is to go 1-0 each week and we are going to come to play to win.” 

Yates added to Rider, saying his mentality will be to focus on each game individually and prepare to win. 

“[Have] a one game at a time mentality, not look too much into the future and get ready for our next game,” Yates said. “It’s playoff time.” 

Securing the win, along with wins from Olathe East and Shawnee Mission Northwest, places the Huskies as the fourth seed and guarantees them a first-round home game against Shawnee Mission East, Thursday, Oct. 29.