West is the new lord of the Valley

Nick Smith

By Jim Bradford PrepsKC Senior Writer
Posted: October 26, 2012 - 11:44 PM



Blue Valley had Conley Wilkins’ number Friday night.
 
Unfortunately, for the Tigers it was only in the second half.
 
The Blue Valley West senior running back made the Tigers look foolish in the first half, gashing the Tigers defense for 247 yards on just 11 carries helping the Jaguars cruise to a 45-21 win over Blue Valley at the Blue Valley Activity Complex.
 
The win over the Tigers is the Jags first since 2007 and gives them their first district title since that same year.
While Wilkins had a rather pedestrian 35 yards on 11 carries in the second half, he was the catalyst for BV West in the first half, scoring all four of his touchdowns as the Jags went up 38-7 at halftime.
 
“The offensive line did an outstanding job tonight and our coaches made all the right calls — like they always do,” Wilkins said. “I can’t say enough about how the line and the receivers blocked tonight.”
 
It was a game early on. West went up 10-0 on a Troy Burgett 37-yard field goal with 7:44 left in the first quarter, but Blue Valley took the ensuing kickoff down the field and was putting themselves in position to cut into the lead when their drive stalled at the Jags’ 15 yard line when quarterback Logan Brettell was sacked for a 10-yard loss on fourth down.
 
West took over on its own 25 and the next two offensive plays they ran put the game away.
 
Wilkins took a handoff from Ryan Ralston on the very next play and went 75 yards for the score.
 
After the Tigers went three and out on their next possession, Wilkins took a handoff to the left this time — again on the Jags first play — and went 73 yards to paydirt this time.
 
Just one minute into the second quarter and West was up 24-0 and Wilkins had rushed for 204 yards on just six carries and scored three touchdowns.
 
“I’ve never had back-to-back runs like that,” Wilkins said with a smile.
 
Before the Tigers knew what had happened, the game was all but over.
 
“We really like our team, offensively,” said West head coach Scott Wright. “It starts with those five guys up front. They really did a great job.
 
“We have that two-headed monster back there and they decided they were going to stop Ryan (Ralston) tonight. If you stop one, then the other will hurt you.”
 
That’s exactly what happened.
 
“Hats off to them, they wanted it more than we did,” said Blue Valley head coach Erik Driskell. “We tried to do some things in the second half, but it just wasn’t enough.”
 
The Jags didn’t need a whole lot of offense in the second half and spent most of the time just melting the clock. Their lone second-half score came on a Ryan Ralston 1-yard run late in the third quarter.
 
The Tigers got a Brettell 33-yard touchdown run on their first possession of the third quarter and then a Brettell to Andrew Reinkemeyer 8-yard scoring pass midway through the fourth quarter.
 
The Jaguars got on the board quickly, scoring on their first drive of the night, just five plays after the opening kickoff. Wilkins scored his first touchdown on a 35-yard run around the left end on a nice seal-off block by Davis Clark .
 
Troy Burgett hit a 37-yard field goal to put them up 1-0 before Wilkins popped off the 75 and 73-yard touchdown runs to put the Jaguars up 24-0 just a minute into the second quarter.
 
Blue Valley finally got on the board a few minutes later on a Logan Brettell to Reinkemeyer 15-yard scoring pass , but that just proved to be a speed bump for West as they answered with a couple more scores before intermission.
 
Ralston hooked up with Luke Curtis on a 59-yard touchdown pass before Wilkins capped his impressive first half with a 4-yard run.
 
After two quarters, Wilkins had 11 carries for 247 yards and four touchdowns. The Jags had 287 yard on the ground in the first half and another 92 through the air.
 
Wilkins finished with 282 yards on 22 carries, coming just 18 yards short of his career high of 304 that he had against Bishop Miege a few weeks ago.