Photo Credit: Nick Smith/PrepsKC 
When the ball gets into Lee’s Summit North receiver Isaiah Mozee’s hands, good things tend to happen for the Broncos. That was certainly the case on Friday night, as Mozee hauled in three touchdown passes from Elijah Leonard to power the Broncos to a 34-22 win over Blue Valley Northwest.
“Elijah is my guy. We were working all summer, so I couldn’t ask for a better quarterback,” said Mozee, who had six catches for 163 yards. “He gave the ball to me perfectly every time. That’s really him.”
The first touchdown on the Leonard-to-Mozee connection went for 28 yards, as Mozee got behind the BVNW secondary to break up a scoreless tie with 1:05 to go in the first half. Mozee wasn’t the only receiver to have multiple touchdown catches and go over the century mark for receiving yards, though. Blue Valley Northwest wideout Trevor Garlington gave the Huskies a quick answer, snagging in a 15-yard touchdown pass from Logan Smith with seven seconds to go before halftime.
“I was talking with Trevor and told him with (tight end) Gavin (Hoffman) not playing tonight that he was going to get a lot more attention,” Blue Valley Northwest coach Clint Rider said. “He stepped up to the plate and made some big plays.”
Mozee and Garlington were just heating up at the end of the first half, but North coach Jamar Mozee knew there was another key to getting his offense going after the break. That was establishing the run game.
The Broncos did exactly that on their first possession of the second half with an eight-play, 54-yard scoring drive where they ran the ball seven times. Tanner Howes capped the drive with a 3-yard touchdown run. Howes paced the Broncos on the ground with 15 carries for 148 yards and two scores.
After the LSN defense forced a second straight three-and-out, the Broncos only needed one play to push their lead to two scores. Leonard found a wide-open Mozee thanks in part to a busted coverage in the BVNW secondary. Mozee’s 52-yard touchdown catch put LSN up 21-7.
The LSN defense remained locked in on the ensuing drive. While the Broncos allowed one first down, Michael Lane corralled an interception on the very next play to give it right back to the LSN offense. Two plays later, Howes broke free for a 43-yard touchdown run.
The 20-point second half deficit was too much for BVNW to overcome, but Rider still saw some encouraging things from his team in the loss. Along with Hoffman being out, the Huskies were also without quarterback Nate Livingston, running back Patrick White and receiver Ayden McGibboney.
“We played really well in the first half,” Rider said. “They had a stop on the 1-yard where I probably could’ve made a better play call. We put ourselves in really good situations in the first half. The defense forced a turnover and gave us good field position multiple times. Offensively, we had some really good drives and moved the ball really well with some of those guys that stepped in, whether it was Logan at quarterback or Bobby Youan or Logan Chandler at receiver.”
The Huskies snapped the Broncos’ run of 20 unanswered points when Colin Matile hauled in a 7-yard TD pass from Smith with 6:27 to play. That momentum was short lived, though. Twenty-eight seconds later, Mozee caught a quick hitch from Leonard and turned on the afterburners for a 54-yard touchdown reception.
“He’s really hard to tackle on the perimeter,” said Jamar Mozee of his son. “The deep ball is great, but sometimes our goal is just to get it to him. When you get it to him, you kind of just get out of the way. His plus skill is his ability to move in space. And he’s a lot bigger and stronger than he was last year, so you see the difference in how hard he is to tackle.”
BVNW did answer with 51-yard touchdown toss from Smith to Garlington and a two-point conversion, but that was as close as the Huskies would get. Garlington caught nine balls for 120 yards and two touchdowns to pace the BVNW receiving corps.
The win over the Huskies kept the Broncos perfect at 5-0, while BVNW fell to 2-2. LSN will take on Raymore-Peculiar and BVNW will match up against Blue Valley West at 7 p.m. Friday.
