Grace’s Draper surpasses 5k career yards in latest stellar showing

GRACE — Grace High School senior Gavin Draper has been among the state’s top passing quarterbacks all season, leading the Grizzlies to their fourth consecutive winning season.

During Saturday’s quarterfinal matchup with the Prairie Pirates, Draper was again the star of the show, completing 22 of his 33 pass attempts for 326 yards and five touchdowns, leading the Grizzlies to a 40-16 victory. Over the course of his latest standout performance, the star quarterback surpassed the 2,000-yard mark for passing this season and the 5,000-yard mark for his high school career.

“When we give (Gavin) some time, I think we’re pretty decent at chucking the ball around,” Grace head coach Travis Draper said of his son and the Grizzly passing game after their victory over Clearwater Valley.

Draper is one of five eight-man quarterbacks to break the 2,000-yard mark this season — 14 across all classes. His 31 passing scores place him fourth among eight-man quarterbacks and sixth in the state.

His 326 yards Saturday, which included scoring plays of 44 and 48 yards, were a career single-game best for Draper, moving him to 2,162 yards on the season (4th in eight-man). That total puts him at 5,159 yards for his Grace career — including just 651 yards between his freshman and sophomore seasons.

Draper has done a great job not just of compiling eye-catching numbers, but also of spreading the wealth. Four Grizzly receivers have been on the receiving end of more than 300 of Draper’s yards this season, and seven different teammates have caught at leas on of his scoring passes. He hit five different receiver for his five scores Saturday.

Grace’s biggest test will come this weekend, when they travel to Moscow to face the Kendrick Tigers and their quarterback, Maddox Kirkland — one of the few signal-callers in the state with better numbers than Draper.

Kendrick is riding a 15-game winning streak — their last loss coming Oct. 18, 2024.