Palmer, Aumua power rushing attack in 34-12 win over Raytown

by Michael Smith


The Grain Valley football team had some big shoes to fill.

The Eagles had their season opener against Raytown Friday at Ted Chitwood Stadium. It was their first game without Ty Williams, a player who had the best offensive season in the history of the program last season.

He was a Simone Award finalist and a first-team, all-state selection in a year he rushed for 2,485 yards and 33 touchdowns. That is a lot of production that head coach David Allie would have to replace.

Can Grain Valley do it?

Well, it helped answer that question Friday in its season opener against Raytown. Senior Robert Palmer, a transfer from North Scott in Iowa, gave the Eagles a huge boost as he carried the ball 20 times for a career-high 197 yards and a touchdown while sophomore Sjoeren Aumua had nine carried for 72 yards and two scores as they helped their team earn a 34-12 victory.

“DJ (Harris) had a couple of good runs for us, too,” Allie said of Harris, who had three carries for 26 yards. “Those guys carried the load for us.”

The Eagles started out slow on offense as they were only able to muster field goals of 39 and 28 from kicker Colton Clyman, whose latter field goal came 10.8 seconds left in the first half to tie the game at 6-all going into halftime.

Raytown’s score came when quarterback G Williams found a wide-open Larry Porter Jr. wide open over the middle for a 12-yard TD pass late in the second period. Raytown failed on a two-point conversion attempt.

The Blue Jays defense did a good job stopping Grain Valley’s runs up the middle in the first half, so head coach David Allie made an adjustment to mix in more outside runs after halftime. I ended up paying off.

Raytown junior Armon Weathers recovered an Aaron Barr fumble on the kickoff return after halftime, but the Blue Jays were unable to capitalize with any points as the Eagles got a turnover on downs.

The offense finally got going as Palmer later carried two Raytown defenders in the end zone with him for a 9-yard scoring run to put his team ahead 13-6 at the 6:10 mark in the third.

“We had some creases inside in the first half, we just weren’t hitting them,” Allie said. “When they were loading up inside, that gave us the edge. We had a sweep and toss that helped us attack the C and D gaps.”

Raytown drove the ball down the field on the ensuing possession and made it to the Eagles’ 22-yard line. Williams connected with Hunley on a 17-yard pass, but Barr, a senior safety, punched the ball out of his grasp and junior Brody Jones’ recovered it at the Raytown 14.

The Eagles then had a drive that was highlighted by a 76-yard jaunt from Palmer.

“I saw that gap and I took advantage of it,” Palmer said of the big run. “It was a perfect moment.”

Aumua later found a huge hole on the left side and ran into the end zone untouched for a 14-yard TD run, the first varsity score of his career, to make it 20-6 with 2:20 left in the third quarter.

“It feels good, man,” Aumua said. “I finally get to show my talent. I can just show out from here on out. I like the outside runs because I have more space to do what I want and juke tacklers.”

The Blue Jays responded on their next drive. Williams lobbed a pass to the right side of the end zone and Porter made a leaping catch over Grain Valley cornerback Jordan Fuller for a 14-yard score. That narrowed the gap to 20-12 after another failed 2-point conversion try.

After that, the bend but don’t break Grain Valley defense did just enough to win, while Aumua scored a 2-yard run and quarterback Chase Neer connected with a wide-open Landon Marriott for 8-yard TD pass to cap the scoring for the 1-0 Eagles in the fourth period.

“The blocking was way better in the second half,” Palmer said. “The first half, we struggled blocking and things weren’t going our way, then we hit the switch in the second half. The execution was perfect, and we played our game.”

Grain Valley senior Robert Palmer, left, rushed for 197 yards and had a touchdown, while Sjoeren Aumua had 78 yards and two touchdowns on the ground in Grain Valley's 34-12 win over Raytown Friday at Ted Chitwood Stadium. Photo credit: Michael Smith