Of all the weapons at Lee’s Summit North’s disposal Friday night, none were more lethal than Devin Blayney.
And on a football team as deep and talented as the Broncos, that’s saying something.
Blayney caught three touchdown passes, and all three were hard-earned scrambling catches. He even set up one of his scores with a nice punt return.
Blayney wasn’t the only star in North’s 41-14 dismantling of defending Class 6 state champion Raymore-Peculiar in front of a homecoming packed house at North, but he certainly was one of the brightest.
“It always makes my job easier when I can trust the people out wide,” Lee’s Summit North quarterback Tre Baker said. “I just look at him, and I know if it’s one-on-one I’m throwing it to him. He’s always going to be there for me and he’s aggressive and I just love having him out there,”
Blayney, a 5-foot-10 170-pound senior wide receiver, ended the night with seven catches for 61 yards. On all three scores, he scrambled and weaved enough to give Baker time to elude Ray-Pec’s defensive pressure.
His first score, a 4-yard swing pass to the right flat early in the second quarter, put the Broncos up 13-0. Four plays after a 34-yard punt return to midfield, he went full extension in the end zone to haul in a 24-yard pass from a scrambling Baker early in the third quarter.
“That was my favorite,” Blayney said. “I was down here and I was, what the heck, why not dive for it? I’ve got to give myself a chance to grab it and I came down with it.”
And with No. 8 ranked North (4-0, 4-0 Suburban Gold Conference) fully in control in the fourth quarter, he capped his night by snagging a ball in traffic after Baker escaped the No. 4 Panthers’ rush again for a 2-yard TD.
“Tre was scrambling for his life out there and he just kept finding us down field,” Blayney said. “He had a great back there and our (offensive) line was doing amazing on our pass protection on our run blocks and everything … I really couldn’t do any of that without all our guys.”
Baker completed 12 of 16 passes for 141 yards, and North moved ball on the ground as well. Quincey Baker rushed for 187 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries, spearheading a Broncos rushing attack that racked up 319 of their 460 total yards. And Baker was one of seven Broncos to carry the ball including Isaiah Mozee, who scored North’s first TD in the first quarter.
North’s defense, meanwhile, held Ray-Pec to 286 total yards and 72 yards rushing while forcing two turnovers.
“They’ve got some weapons,” Ray-Pec coach Sean Martin said. “Defensively they were very tough … they’re a very good team.”
Ray-Pec (2-2, 1-2) has weapons too, like quarterback Zander Dombrowski, who had 214 yards and two TDs on 11 for 24 passing. And when Dombrowski tossed a 30-yard TD pass to Nick Karr one play after North turned the ball over on downs late in the second quarter, Ray-Pec looked ready to make a game of it trailing only 13-7 at halftime.
But North took control in the third quarter. Blayney’s punt return and lunging catch put North up 20-7, and after Dombrowski threw an interception two plays later, Quincey Baker crashed in for his first TD on a 3-yard run for a 27-7 lead.
“I think we handled that better than we have in the past,” Blayney said. “I think we came out (after halftime) knowing we had the lead and knowing we could have kept it and we did.”
Baker’s second TD, a 24-yard tackle-breaking run, put North up 34-7 midway through the fourth quarter.
Dombrowski threw a 16-yard TD pass to tight end Tucker Miller in the fourth quarter, but it was too little, too late for Ray-Pec, which suffered a second straight lop-sided loss after starting 2-0.
“We’re just still trying to play a complete game,” Martin said. “After four weeks, we’re still struggling to play a complete game – two halves.”
There was little struggling on this night for North. Not on homecoming. Not with all these weapons.
“There can’t be a better feeling,” Tre Baker said. “41-14, you can’t beat that right there. It was a great team win.”
