It was the type of game you’d expect between North Kansas City Schools Oak Park and Staley.
The Northmen rallied from two touchdowns down to beat the Falcons 28-21 on Friday night at North Kansas City Schools District Stadium.
“We made a lot of mistakes in the first half, but those lessened in the second half, and we got it done,” Oak Park head coach Ken Clemens said.
Both teams turned the ball over on downs in the fourth quarter with Oak Park doing so at the Staley 19 with just 1:29 left in the game.
Just when it looked like the game was headed for overtime, the Northmen forced and recovered a fumble at the Falcons’ 22.
A few plays later, Travon Pankey broke free on an 8-yard run for the game-winning touchdown, his second TD of the game.
“My team relies on me to make big plays whenever I can,” Pankey said. “Coming into the second half everybody’s mindset changed. It was no longer this is our first game. It was, we’re going to come out here and play our game.”
The Falcons gained the early advantage with a fumble recovery on the opening kickoff at the Oak Park 22.
On their first snap of the season, a 22-yard touchdown pass had the home team up 7-0 just 13 seconds into the game.
Oak Park put together a 3:44 scoring drive, capped by a 7-yard TD run by Antonio Johnson Jr. to tie the game at seven.
The Falcons took control in the second with a pair of scoring drives.
At 8:39 of the quarter, Draivyn Colvin punched it in from six yards out to put Staley back up by seven.
Staley then forced a turnover on downs at their own 44 with 4:38 to play in the half.
With less than three minutes left in the half, the Falcons converted a 4th-and-1, moving the ball to the Oak Park 3.
Colvin scored his second rushing TD of the quarter and Staley took a 21-7 lead into the half.
The Northmen cut the deficit in half at 5:39 of the third on a Pankey touchdown to make it 21-14.
Johnson Jr. scrambled in from seven yards out with just 25 seconds left in the third and it was 21-all.
“The kids are resilient, it’s a lot of the same kids that had a lot of wins like this last year,” Clemens said. “I think Staley was more prepared for this game than we were and that’s on me 100%. I think we’ve got some special kids and some really good athletes.”
Oak Park (1-0) will travel to Lees Summit West next week.
Staley (0-1) is at Lees Summit North in week two.
