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Photo Credit: Ryan Edwards/PrepsKC

Friday night was a final dress rehearsal of sorts for the likes of Grain Valley, Truman, Lee’s Summit West and Raytown South.

The jamboree gave each of the coaches something different to look at. For Grain Valley coach David Allie, it showed him his team was capable of playing against anyone in the state, including the Titans.

“You’ve got to sustain those drives (against teams like Lee’s Summit West),” Allie said. “You try to get a big play here or there. Over the course of six plays it’s hard to take a big shot if you’re trying to drive the ball. … I felt pretty good about our offense there.”

The Eagles were able to go toe-to-toe with the Titans despite allowing two touchdowns on back-to-back plays. Lee’s Summit West’s first touchdown was scored by University of Kansas commit Trevor Kardell who made a toe-tap catch in the back of the end zone.

A play later, West was in the end zone again, this time it was A.J. Russo who scored as he hauled in a 45-yard strike from Sammy Cooper.

“You want to see your offense get a flow going,” West coach Vince Carsewell said. “I think we established that in all three of the series we had.”

ven though West wasn’t playing anyone in Class 6 on Friday, Carsewell said he still learned a lot about his team and what they need to work on before they head up north to take on Park Hill in the season opener.

“We’ve got to eliminate mistakes. We can’t make mistakes against a team like Park Hill,” Careswell said. “We’ve got to be mentally prepared (to make it through that game).”

Truman
For Truman coach Charlie Pugh, Friday night’s jamboree was a chance for him to see what his team was capable of. 

The one area of concern for the Patriots is that Pugh believes they need to become more physical in order to survive against some of the teams in the metro. 

“We’ve got to be more physical,” he said. “We just got to take it to the other team. We can’t just sit back and wait. We don’t have time versus great teams that we play in Kansas City to take any plays off. We’ve got to come out and get that sense of urgency.”

That was evident when the Patriots played against the Titans in their third game of the night. 

West dictated the tempo of the game, forcing Truman’s offense into some uncomfortable third and longs. Even though his team struggled against West, Pugh said they could learn a lot from playing a team like that. 

“The Suburban Conference week in and week out has some tough guys and Lee’s Summit West is definitely one of them,” Pugh said. “For us to go against them it gives an opportunity to see what it’s like.”