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Photo Credit: Nick Verbenec/www.nickverbenecphotography.com

Complete Box Score and Stats

Holden Artzer had company in his postgame interview. Unplanned, of course, too. The senior defensive back, coming off the game of his life, had plenty of support from his peers. St. James coach Tom Radke was even in the spirit.

Artzer, a senior, was attempting to unravel his thoughts during a postgame chat, but it didn’t take but 10 seconds before Radke interjected to embrace the game’s defensive MVP. Then, not too much later, senior receiver Ty Claiborne came rushing in to kindly interrupt the interview, holding up four fingers before providing a love tap on the back of the interviewee’s head on his way out of the picture.

Why the commotion? Artzer had just corralled four interceptions in the second half alone to help No. 8 St. James Academy to a convincing 35-7 victory in a highly anticipated Class 4A regional final at No. 1 Basehor-Linwood Friday night.

“I mean,” Artzer said, “I don’t know how it happened … But it happened.”

Yeah, that’s one way to describe it. Or, in another way.

“I told him he’d get three picks and he got four,” Radke said. “It was unbelievable what he did out there tonight. He’s a ballhawk and he makes our other defensive backs look really good. Just an incredible player.”

Artzer had never had more than one interception in one game in his football career and had two picks on the current season heading into Friday night. But he was quick to credit his teammates.

“It comes down to our offense working with our defense every day,” Artzer said. “They put us to work and we give it back to them. That combo works out perfectly.”

Aidan Janatello also got in on the fun with an interception of his own, officially making it five interceptions on the night for the Thunder -- all occurring in the final two quarters.

The St. James offense certainly did its part, too, scoring on its first three possessions to help the visitors jump out to a 21-0 lead midway through the second quarter. After Claiborne got the scoring started with a five-yard run, Thunder junior quarterback Jackson House connected with Niesen for 63 yards and Claiborn for five yards.

Then, after punting for the first time late in the second quarter, Basehor-Linwood scored its lone touchdown on a Brady Garrison 2-yard TD pass to Chants Nelson with 13 ticks remaining in the first half.      

St. James (6-4) added to its lead when House found Niesen for a touchdown for a second time on a 17-yard connection, making it 28-7 with 8:30 left in the third. Tiave Watts rushed in a score from four yards out to wrap up the scoring with 5:03 remaining in the third.

House, a junior, completed 18 of his 23 passes for 248 yards and three TDs, connecting with Niesen on eight occasions for 160 yards and the two touchdowns and Claiborne for seven catches, 66 yards and a score. House also rushed for 64 yards on 19 carries.

“It felt great. We went up against a great defense in Basehor-Linwood,” House said. “Really, our offensive line played great -- they tackled a big D-line -- and the receivers went up and got the ball and made my job easy tonight.”

Niesen, a 6-foot-3 target, opposite of the 6-3 Claiborne, said his signal caller and line contributed most to the success in the passing game.

“Jackson was making great plays and the line was blocking really well and it was a great team win for St. James,” Niesen said.

Bobcats running back Zack Sisemore rushed for 106 yards on 25 attempts. Aside from the interceptions, quarterback Brady Garrison passed for 189 yards and a touchdown. Ty Hofer led the home side in receiving with four catches for 64 yards.

For Basehor-Linwood, it was a heartbreaking loss after an unblemished regular season, a Frontier League title, and a playoff opening thrashing of Labette County.

“I don't think we started the game with the intensity we needed to be successful,” Bobcats’ coach Rob Stallbaumer said. “Obviously (the loss is) not ideal. Our goal is to win a state championship regardless of our opponent. … It’s tough because we had really high expectations, the coaching staff did, the kids did, and our community did, too. So it was really tough.”

“It's just a great group of guys,” Stallbaumer said of the seniors. “They've been through a lot of battles. They played very key roles from sophomore year on. They contributed a lot to this program, got us through some rough patches and matured a lot in the process. You hurt for them and they’ve invested a lot.”

Meanwhile, with the win, the defending state champion Thunder march on as region champs and head to Piper, 27-20 winners over Paola, next Friday.

“It’s a great atmosphere over there,” Radke said of Piper, his former employer. “I had a great time there so it’ll be fun. We’re looking forward to another challenge. They have a really good football team over there.”