It’s week 2 of the high school football season as Kansas schools join the party. Let’s take a look at this week’s RE/MAX Big 3 Games of the Week.
We start in Kansas with an Eastern Kansas League matchup as St. Thomas Aquinas hosts Blue Valley West. These teams open the season playing each other for the third straight season. West is coming off a .500 season, but the Jaguars bring a lot of talented players back including standout quarterback Tate Nagy. The Saints enter the year as the defending Kansas 4A champs, but they graduated many of the players that led Aquinas to that title. These teams are in different classes, but this game could have an impact on the EKL title down the line.
The next RE/MAX Big 3 game is at Basehor-Linwood as the Bobcats welcome Leavenworth to open the season. The Pioneers hit the road looking to improve on a two-win season from a year ago. Leavenworth brings back some good players on both sides of the ball so it should be an improved squad. The Bobcats are young on offense after graduating multiple starters from last year. Basehor-Linwood will need to rely on a defense that has experience and should be a strength all year long. This is a great United Kansas Conference game to start the season.
Our final Kansas RE/MAX Big 3 game is Olathe North at Shawnee Mission Northwest in a battle of Sunflower League programs. The Eagles hit the road riding a four-game winning streak over the Cougars dating back to 2015. Olathe North lost another good group of seniors but that hasn’t stopped the Eagles from making deep playoff runs the last few years. Northwest has been young the last few seasons, but those players have grown up and big things are expected for the Cougars. Friday either the streak will continue, or Northwest will get its first win over Olathe North since 2011.
Let’s start with a rivalry game for the first RE/MAX Big 3 game on the Missouri side as Liberty hosts Liberty North. The Eagles bring the Missouri Class 6 state championship to their rivals looking to win yet another game in the rivalry. North survived against Blue Springs South last week and will be facing a Jays team that struggled in a loss at Lee’s Summit. Liberty will need to be focused on this game and not looking back on last week’s loss if it wants to get its first win over the Eagles since a regular season victory in 2020. This should be one of the best rivalry games of the year.
The next RE/MAX Big 3 Game is a matchup of schools who know each other well as Platte County travels to Grain Valley in a matchup of Missouri Class 5 powers. The Pirates take a dominating 58-0 victory over William Chrisman to a place their season ended last year in the quarterfinals. Last year the Eagles were the veteran team and Platte County was filled with younger players. This year the script is flipped, and Grain Valley is breaking in new players and Platte County has the experience. As in years past this could just be the first of two meetings of these two teams this year.
Our Final RE/MAX features teams who had two of the bigger wins in week one as Lee’s Summit hosts Blue Springs. The Wildcats hit the road fresh off a 37-0 win over Lee’s Summit West. It’s the best win for Blue Springs in a while and the Wildcats look to build off that win against a Lee’s Summit team that handled Liberty 40-27. The Tigers had control of the game throughout, and that result gets the tenure of new coach Todd Miller off to a roaring start. This early season showdown could set the winner up for a bounce back season.
Remember you can find the RE/MAX Big 3 every week on PrepsKC.com and the PrepsKC YouTube channel.
