Aquinas is to much for Blue Valley Northwest

Dion Clisso/PrepsKC

By Dion Clisso PrepsKC Managing Editor
Posted: September 24, 2010 - 12:35 AM



There wasn’t much revenge for Blue Valley Northwest Thursday night against St. Thomas Aquinas.

The Huskies were outmanned by one of the best teams in Class 5A as the Saints jumped out to a 28-0 lead at the half on their way to a 35-7 win at the Switzer District Activities Center.

The loss moves the Saints to a perfect 4-0 on the season heading into a showdown with rival Bishop Miege next Friday at Aquinas. Northwest falls to 1-3 and will try to regroup in time to host Gardner-Edgerton next week.

The Saints left little doubt they weren’t looking past the Huskies to next week’s matchup on their first drive of the night. Richard Davila hooked up with Shane Nachbar on a 56-yard touchdown pass just three minutes into the game. Davila would toss two more touchdowns before the half and Dagan Reed would run a score in to give the Saints a 28-0 lead at the break.

Even though Northwest came into the game with a 1-2 record, Aquinas coach Mike Thomas felt the Huskies were a team to take seriously.

“I thought they were a little bit better than people were giving them credit for,” Thomas said. “I noticed they were able to move the ball in their previous games and I knew we needed to do a good job of not letting them in the end zone.”

The Saints gave up some yards in the first half but stiffened once the Huskies got close to their 20-yard line. Aquinas’ defense had a good overall game holding the Huskies to just one score, but they still gave up 324 yards though it came on 77 plays.

“I thought we lost a little focus in the second half,” Thomas said. “We played pretty well defensively in the first, but we could have been better in the second half.”

With Miege looming on the horizon the Saints were able to avoid a trap game against Northwest. The game was especially significant since Aquinas was the only team to beat Northwest in the regular season last year.

“I overheard some of my kids talking about Miege this week and I wasn’t real happy about that,” Thomas sad. “We all know what followed this game but we needed to take this game seriously.”

Now that Aquinas sits at 4-0 it will face its toughest stretch of the season. The Saints will go to Bishop Miege, come home for Missouri Class 4 power Webb City before going on the road to Blue Valley and Gardner-Edgerton.

“I thought I heard one of my players say ‘now the real season begins,’” Thomas said. “We’ve got four of our toughest games right in-a-row. I thought when our season started our season split into these two sections. I thought Blue Valley North and Blue Valley West were good teams I just think we are playing really well on offense right now and we had good wins. It will get tougher from here.”

Davila had an almost perfect night for the Saints. The senior quarterback finished 13-15 for 250 yards and three touchdowns. Dagan Reed led Aquinas in rushing with 86 yards and two rushing touchdowns.

Marlon Mitchell scored the Huskies touchdown and finished with 79 yards on 24 carries.