Photo Credit: Nick Smith/PrepsKC 
Blue Valley head coach Allen Terrell had a simple message for his team after the Tigers’ 17-0 win over Olathe East on Friday in the second round of Class 6A playoffs.
Keep pounding.
The Tigers (6-4) have some bigger goals in mind, but they pounded their way to a regional championship against an Olathe East team that had won six straight coming in.
“Effort is never a problem with our kids,” Terrell said. “They never do their own thing and had a mindset of really executing the plan tonight. We did it in all three phases.”
The Blue Valley defense led the way by never letting Olathe East get inside the red zone and only allowing one first down in the second half. Patrick Dennis and Maguire Richman halted two Olathe East drives in the first half by coming up with interceptions.
“We’re really fast defensively and we kept the game plan really simple because they’re super talented at their skill positions. And their offensive line is massive,” Terrell said. “In order for us to play as fast as we could, we just kept the game plan simple. Our kids executed the simple plan well, which allowed them to play really fast.”
Richman also accounted for the lone points of the first half. His 23-yard yard field goal with 26 seconds to go in the half gave the Tigers a 3-0 lead. Gerard Reed III’s 32-yard return to the Blue Valley 48-yard line on the ensuing kickoff gave the Hawks a shot to potentially answer Richman’s field goal, but the do-it-all junior quickly made sure that wouldn’t happen by picking off Jack Cornell.
“He kept rolling around and chucked it up,” Richman said. “Gimme that. Picked off.”
As the Blue Valley defense kept pounding the Olathe East offense, time of possession kept mounting in the Tigers’ favor. That set the stage for John Price to do the pounding in the ground game for the Tigers in the second half. The Blue Valley running back caught an 8-yard touchdown pass from Chris Aiello with 3:56 to go in the third quarter and then rushed for a 14-yard touchdown on the third play of the fourth to push Blue Valley’s lead to 17-0.
“It was a big Week 2 in the playoffs,” Price said. “Last year, we lost in Week 2. To come out and win this one just let us know we’re going in the right direction.”
Winners of four of their last five, the Tigers will take their keep pounding mentality into the state quarterfinals against Olathe North (9-1). The Eagles defeated Blue Valley West, 35-14, on Friday.
“Their coaching staff does such a good job and they’re always such a powerhouse,” Terrell said. “But we’ll have a plan, and we’ll go after it.”
The winner of Blue Valley and Olathe North will advance to the state semifinals to play the winner of Gardner-Edgerton (9-1) and Blue Valley Northwest (6-4).
