Former Smith-Cotton Tiger Foils Chiefs First Pre-Season Victory

Article was updated with audio from the Kansas City Chiefs Radio Network. 

Former Smith-Cotton Tiger Blake Grupe, a rookie placekicker for the New Orleans Saints, spoiled the Kansas City Chief's first pre-season victory in dramatic fashion at the Superdome Sunday afternoon.

Arrowhead Pride reports as the clock wound down in 4th quarter action, the Chiefs had the ball, and it looked like they might be able to escape with a narrow victory. Until a forced throw on third down was intercepted by the Saints. That's when rookie Grupe kicked the game-winning field goal giving the Saints a 26-24 victory.

The National Football League has a video recap of the game, including the game-winning kick by Grupe on YouTube here. If you don't want to check out the whole recap, you can scroll to around 9:40 in the video where the interception takes place, and then see Grupe's game-winning kick.

Here is the call with a wrap-up from the Chiefs Radio Network and Chiefs broadcaster Mitch Holthus:

Grupe was a member of the 2017 class at Smith-Cotton High School. He played Varsity Football, Varsity Soccer, and Varsity Baseball for the Tigers, wearing #19 in Football and Soccer, and #10 while on the diamond. This is according to Max Preps.

After his Smith-Cotton sports career, Grupe played college ball at Arkansas State and Notre Dame. Pro Talk says he's connected on 74.3% of his field goal attempts throughout the years. Pro Talk also reports he's battling with veteran kicker Will Lutz for the starting job in New Orleans.