The Blue Valley West Jaguars will face the Blue Valley Tigers for the third time in their past six games.
Blue Valley West edged Blue Valley 18-17 during district competition last year before the Tigers got revenge with a 38-33 victory over the Jaguars in the Class 5A semifinals. Blue Valley went on to win the state championship.
Class 5A’s third-ranked Blue Valley West will be at 6A’s third-ranked Blue Valley for an Eastern Kansas League battle at 7 p.m. today.
The two schools, which are separated by a highway, are 2-2 in their last four games against each other.
However, Blue Valley West coach Scott Wright said this is a new game and a new season.
“Quite honestly, those games have no effect on this game,” Wright said. “The fact of the matter is that when Blue Valley and Blue Valley West play each other, it’s a good rivalry game … They can throw a rock and hit our school, and we can throw a rock and hit their school. There are all sorts of fun things with it, but none of it has anything has to do with this game. We could have played them the last five games. That wouldn’t matter. This is the game where we’ll see how much better we’ve gotten since Week 1.”
Blue Valley West defeated Lawrence 37-13 in the season opener. The Jaguars committed three turnovers but forced Lawrence to turn it over four times. West quarterback Zev Mallin passed for 181 yards and three touchdowns. Tyler Cox ran for 94 yards and a touchdown.
“They’re a really good team, and they’re always really well coached,” Blue Valley coach Eric Driskell said. “They’re very dangerous. They play extremely hard on defense. They have a lot of great athletes. They run extremely well to the football. Offensively, they have a lot of weapons.”
The game will feature two of the best offensive linemen in the state.
Blue Valley’s A.J. Harris (6-3, 297), who has already verbally committed with Missouri, is listed as the state’s No. 1 recruit in the state by ESPN Recruiting Nation and Rivals.com.
“He is all he’s cracked up to be,” Wright said. “I got to rank him as one of the better ones we’ve had around here in the past five or six years. He’s physical. He’s intelligent. On top of that, he’s a great kid … He’ll be all that we can handle. We try not to game plan for linemen. But he’s one guy where you kind of got to know where he’s at.”
Hunter Saulsbury, a 6-4 and 278-pound senior who is receiving interest from Kansas State and Kansas, anchors the offensive and defensive lines for Blue Valley West.
“Hunter is a kid that doesn’t want to come off the field,” Wright said. “He plays both ways. He’s a tough, hard-nosed kid … He’s a physical kid and a good athlete.”
Blue Valley opened with a 29-0 win against Shawnee Mission Northwest. A.J. Totta rushed for 152 yards and two touchdowns, while linebacker Dylan Smith posted 13 tackles. Junior quarterback Colton McCumber was efficient, completing 5 of 6 passes for 104 yards.
“Colton has really developed in to a really solid quarterback for us and a great leader,” Driskell said. “He did a really good job in the running game. He does a good job with the zone read. We try to keep defenses honest. He does a good job in the passing game. We’re the type of offense where we’re going to take what they give us.”
Limiting the turnovers is a focus for both teams. Blue Valley West will look to improve after committing three last week.
“There are some execution things we just have to get better at,” Wright said. “Against Blue Valley, you can’t make many mistakes. You can’t turn the ball over, for sure.”
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