Hard-work and dedication is the key factor in any game no matter the opponent, and in this season alone North Kansas City High School has not been a stranger to it, against Park Hill High School, NKC came away with a 69-51 win. On September 26th NKC lost by only 4 points against the highly ranked Kearney High School, this was no different in the game against Oak Park High School, coming into the game NKC was the favored team to win, although the first half of the game did not reflect that.
In the first quater, within Oak Park's first drive, Oak Park Sophomore Jack Clemens found Junior Deng Tong open in coverage after which Deng Tong was able to see a open hole, which allowed him to find his way down field for a touchdown. Unfortunately this was not the last time they scored against us in the first half.
by the end of the first half the score was 24-0 with Oak Park in the lead. Going into halftime moral was low for both fans and players, many students had decided to leave as a result of the mood deflating score. While it is unknown what Coach Joiner said in the locker room during halftime something had clearly resonated within the team, upon the start of the 3rd quarter things had taken a change for the better.
After receiving the ball at the start of the second half,
Mehki Fields lasered the ball downfield to
Reggie Smith for a big gain, which set-up Samuel Zinnah for a rushing touchdown to start North Kansas City's reign to victory, Northtown would go on to score 2 more touchdowns in the 3rd quarter, and score 3 more times in the 4th quarter, marking a major rivalry victory and the most impressive feat of all North Kansas City scored 41 points in just 2 quarters.
Continuing on NKC Football will be playing Park Hill South High School this Friday, which also is NKC's homecoming game, and for the last game of the season NKC will be at home against another high ranked team, Liberty High School.