Photo Credit: Jeff Stead/PrepsKC 
After one superb half of football, Lee’s Summit looked prepared to flip the script on what had lately become a lop-sided crosstown rivalry.
Then Lee’s Summit North did some flipping of its own.
Lee’s Summit North, relying on a ground game that suddenly became almost unstoppable, rolled up 20 unanswered points over the final two quarters and rallied for a 36-28 victory in front of an overflow crowd Friday night at Lee’s Summit’s Bud Hertzog Memorial Stadium.
“This one really hurts,” Lee’s Summit coach Todd Miller said. “It stings, as it should. We had a really good team on the ropes, and we couldn’t quite put them away.”
North, 9-0 and ranked No. 3 in Missouri Class 6, appeared headed for its first defeat when Lee’s Summit (7-2) rolled out to a 28-16 lead by halftime. While the Tigers’ execution seemed almost flawless, the Broncos struggled with penalties and other mistakes.
But in the third quarter, it was the Tigers who started making miscues while the Broncos, behind quarterback Mickhi Mitchell, wide receiver Isaiah Mozee and running back Quade Chatmon, started grinding out the yards.
Mozee started the comeback midway through the third quarter with a 2-yard run off a direct snap for his fourth touchdown of the game. He set up the score with a 47-yard Wildcat run, but the Tigers stopped him on a two-point conversion try and still led 28-22.
Lee’s Summit, which had its first drive in the half end with an interception, turned the ball over on a fumbled snap shortly after Mozee’s score. From there the Broncos drove 59 yards, all on the ground, and took a 29-28 lead early in the fourth quarter with a 3-yard TD run by Chatmon and Noah Kent’s point-after.
And after Lee’s Summit went three and out on its next drive, North went on a 15-play, 63-yard march that lasted almost five minutes and ended with Mitchell walking in untouched from 7 yards out with just over a minute left in the game.
“We were close, but we just couldn’t get them off the field,” Miller said. “And those big kids wear on you. The toll of just getting hit over and over wears on you. Our defense just stayed on the field too long and our offense just didn’t help them.”
Lee’s Summit’s offense helped itself to a 7-0 lead on its first possession of the game on a 6-yard pass from quarterback Brayden Layman, who threw for all four of the Tigers’ touchdowns, to wide receiver Karsten Fiene.
North tied it with a 13-yard TD pass from Mitchell to a wide-open Mozee on its next drive, and the Tigers took the lead back with a perfectly executed 59-yard hook-and-ladder from Layman to Brock Gordey to Preston Hatfield, who streaked untouched into the end zone.
Kent kicked a 34-yard field goal that pulled North within 14-10 late in the first quarter, then Layman upped the Tigers’ lead to 21-10 with a 6-yard TD toss to Hatfield early in the second quarter.
Mitchell connected with Mozee for another TD pass late in the second quarter that made the score 21-16, but Layman closed out the quarter by lobbing a 12-yard TD pass for a 28-16 Tigers lead.
A lead that wouldn’t hold up in the second half.
With the regular season complete, Lee’s Summit North and Lee’s Summit await the start of Class 6 District 6 play. Both teams have first-round byes – Lee’s Summit will play host to Rockhurst in two weeks while North will face the winner of the first-round game between Raymore-Peculiar and Lee’s Summit West.
