Not only was the temperature below freezing in De Soto during the state quarterfinals, but Blue Valley Southwest junior quarterback Dylan Dunn also started ice cold.

His defense tried to heat things up with a fumble recovery in the red zone on the first play from scrimmage. But Dunn’s first pass went the other direction as De Soto junior linebacker Sean Gibson snatched the ball out of the air and returned it 93 yards for the pick-six.

Dunn spent the rest of the game showing that he just needed a little time to warm-up.

Dunn finished 22 of 28 on passes the rest of the way as he threw for 601 yards and eight touchdowns, including four different receivers earning a pair of touchdowns, as he led Blue Valley Southwest to a 69-35 win over a De Soto team that entered the game with a 9-1 record.

Dunn said that his early interception forced him to get focused and avoid making that mistake again.

“I had to move past that because I couldn’t let that affect me for the rest of the game,” Dunn said.

Despite the early setback, Dunn said he knew from film study that he still needed to be confident and willing to throw the ball down the field.

“Throughout film this week, we saw a lot of coverages that we liked,” Dunn said. “We just told our receivers to go make plays. When we saw those coverages, we just had to take advantage of them and that’s what we did.”
 

Three of the four receivers who had multiple touchdowns, juniors Tate Everard, Alex Parks and Emmitt Peters finished with at least 156 receiving yards each while the fourth, senior Sam Swickard, added another 88 yards.

Blue Valley Southwest head coach Anthony Orrick said a big part of the game plan was the receivers using double moves to give more chances for Dunn to try and find them with the deep ball.

“They were wide open for a reason,” Orrick said. “But also they have to make the plays, right? We’ve had years where we had a guy wide open and we overthrew him by 10 yards.”

A couple of those plays were from Everard making identical 81-yard touchdown receptions. Everard gave most of the credit to the offensive line for giving those long pass plays time to develop and his quarterback for putting the ball on the mark.

“It’s awesome having a guy who can do stuff like that, just throw it up to you in space, let you go under it and go make a huge play,” Everard said.

Of all the great catches in the game, Everard might have had the best one while on defense.

Dunn nearly put his team up 49-14 midway through the second quarter with a rushing touchdown, but his dive toward the end zone turned into a fumble that resulted in a touchback. 

De Soto tried to move quickly with a deep shot down the field, only for junior cornerback Trey Thomas to deflect the ball in what looked to be an incompletion. But Everard, who dropped back to protect against a wheel route from the slot receiver, closed a five-yard gap between him and the ball’s intended destination on the turf.
 

Everard shocked nearly everyone in attendance when he successfully got himself between the ball and ground to make the interception.

“I don’t even know where he came from,” Orrick said. “He just came out of nowhere. Obviously Trey Thomas had some great coverage and did a great job of tipping it. We talk about that also: ball gets tipped, that’s gotta be our ball.

“We had several catches Friday night, but that was definitely a big one for us. The Nice thing about it is a lot of our DBs are our receivers, so we got some pretty good hands back in the secondary.”

Everard gave the credit to Thomas.

 “I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Just go and make the play,” Everard said.

That interception set up another one of the top catches of the night. The Timberwolves quickly moved into scoring territory, setting up the chance for a route that Dunn loves throwing. Dunn, using his long arms and 6-foot-4 frame to loft the ball high in the end zone for receivers running fade routes to leap above defenders and pull down the ball in the end zone. That's just what Peters did on a 12-yard touchdown reception to put his team up 42-14.

Dunn's success throwing those passes has lead some team photographers and a few parents to annoint him "King of the Fade."

"We've been working on those fade routes every single practice," Dunn said. "I trust my receivers to win one-on-one and they were just making plays. All night we just kept doing it. We were certainly on point with those fades."

Orrick said Dunn's success on those fade routes, as well as a myriad of throws at every level of the field, comes from his quarterback's work ethic throughout his high school career.

"(Dunn) just really works on his craft year-round and he's just gotten better and better," Orrick said. "He started as a sophomore. We had our bumps and bruises along the way. He put it together now and he continues to work and keeps geting better."

De Soto running back Dylan Whittington ran for 100 yards on just three carries with one score while quarterback Carson Miller finished with 96 yards and a rushing touchdown. Bennett Hutchison ended up with 73 rushing yards and two touchdown runs.

But with the Timberwolves’ scoring advantage ballooning in the first half, the Wildcats attempted a few shots down the field to try and get the offense going. Miller ended up with just 17 passing yards and two interceptions.

Blue Valley Southwest senior running back Parker Smith helped the team keep the offense moving the chains as his team maintained the scoring margin throughout the second half. Smith finished with two touchdowns and 110 yards on 26 carries.
 

Despite entering the postseason two games under .500 and a 1-5 league record, the Timberwolves reached the state semifinals for the first time in program history and tied the team’s highest win total, set back during the program’s second season in 2011 under then-head coach Bill Lowe.

“One of the things that we talk about all the time is, 'How good are we?’” Orrick said. “That’s where we struggle sometimes with our confidence with our team when you do play such a competitive league schedule.

“But we preach to our kids, all the way back in the summer, we put in the work and we may stub our toe along the way, but keep preparing every week. It does pay off.”

Orrick said it feels gratifying to see his team reach this point after eight years as head coach trying to build up this program.

“We’ve just taken baby steps each and every year to finally get ourselves over the hump,” Orrick said.

Blue Valley Southwest finally advanced to the state semifinals after reaching the state quarterfinals in four straight seasons. In the previous three years, the Timberwolves lost in the quarterfinals by at least three touchdowns against Aquinas twice and once against Mill Valley, which earned a 35-7 win over the Timberwolves last year.

Blue Valley Southwest (6-5) will get a rematch of that most recent postseason loss as the team faces Mill Valley (10-1) in the state semifinals.