ELIZABETH KUHLMANN, BLUE VALLEY NORTHWE
Prep2Prep Student Contributor

September 7, 2013

OVERLAND PARK, KS - The Blue Valley Northwest High School football team kicked off its season with a 27-14 non-league win over visiting St. Thomas Aquinas Friday night in Overland Park.

The host Huskies scored two late-third quarter touchdowns to pull away. After being held scoreless in the first half, STA tied the score 7-7 on a pass from senior quarterback Danten Cosentino to senior Ryan McNellis. However, the Huskies retaliated with a pair of quick scores to take control.

“In terms of our guys giving great effort and fighting, I was really proud of them,” said Blue Valley Northwest coach Mike Zegunis. “First game of the year, that’s tough. Everybody’s emotions are high and their adrenaline is high. You just aren’t in the football shape you need to be in. I think that’s something that we will get better at, get in a little bit better condition, and clean up some of those mistakes we had tonight.”

With 2:34 left in the third quarter, BVNW senior quarterback Jacob Rominger stood in under pressure and threw a long pass to senior Dante Starks for a touchdown. Moments later, senior Kyle Harrison intercepted his second pass of the night and ran it back for a touchdown, making the score 20-7.

“I read the play and had some great blocks on the way to the touchdown,” Harrison said. “The defense really made some good plays for me that led to that.”

Harrison’s first interception of the night led to the Huskies’ first score of the season. After a series of completions from Rominger and some effective runs by junior Miles Alexander, BVNW scored its first touchdown on a long pass from Rominger to senior Jaquwan Stone to take a 7-0 lead.

“I knew we had a mismatch immediately with Jaquwan,” Rominger said. “I knew he’s a very speedy guy. There was a linebacker on him so he got by the linebacker, and I threw it up there and let him do the rest of the work. He caught it and scored.”

Despite the loss, STA coach Michael Thomas was pleased with his team’s effort.

“The highlight of the game was even though we were down, we kept playing hard,” said Thomas, who believes his team will be fine once it cuts down on mistakes. “That’s all I can ask from them, I’m extremely happy with that. I told the guys, this game doesn’t affect down the road and we just keep trying to affect every game. I think there is a lot of improvement we can make so we can just get better.”

STA made it close in the fourth quarter, as Cosentino hit senior Joel Edwards for a touchdown to make it 20-14. But Rominger answered with a touchdown on a keeper to put the game away for the Huskies.

“I think I did well,” Rominger said. “There’s always room for improvement. I would have liked a higher percentage passing for tonight’s game, but we came away with a win and that’s all that matters.”

With a win over the defending Eastern Kansas League champions, Blue Valley Northwest is encouraged, but not completely satisfied with his team’s performance.

“I think penalties were the big thing,” Zegunis said. “Apparently there were some holds and some pushes in the back, so we have to clean that up. “

Harrison, the defensive hero on the night, was happy with the win, but agrees that the Huskies need to sharpen things up a bit.

“I think it went really well,” Harrison said. “Of course we had our ups and downs but I thought we fought through the adversity well. There’s room for improvement, but I’m definitely proud of the way we played.”