PECULIAR, Mo. — The focus shifted from the impending result to the next task at hand.
Platte County’s winning streak came to an emphatic end Friday, Oct. 11 at Panther Stadium. Raymore-Peculiar scored on six consecutive possessions spanning from late in the first quarter to early in the third quarter on the way to a dominant 47-7 victory over the Pirates, who committed a pair of costly turnovers in the decisive middle portion of the game.
Platte County entered winners of four straight, including rivalry triumphs over Kearney and Smithville, but dropped to 5-2 overall with the loss to a ranked Class 6 foe. The Pirates also fell one spot in the Class 4 media rankings to No. 5 overall but still have plenty of reason for postseason optimism.
More importantly in the short term, Platte County hosts Winnetonka this week and travels to Grandview next week with a chance to finish off an unbeaten run through the Suburban Conference Blue Division. The Pirates have twice shared the Blue Division title (2012 and 2018) after leaving the Midland Empire Conference but have never won the crown outright.
ROSS MARTIN/Special to the Citizen
Ray-Pec’s Philip Fager, left, is tackles by Platte County’s Gabe Harmon (middle) and Spencer Cupp (18) during a game on Friday, Oct. 11 in Peculiar, Mo.
“This is a game that overall does nothing for us but hopefully get us ready to play the next couple games,” Platte County coach Bill Utz said. “As I told them, if we raise our level of play to that level, then we’re going to be in great shape. We’ve got to go out and get a bounceback win this week and see what happens next week.”
Platte County managed 274 yards of total offense against Raymore-Peculiar (5-2) — up to No. 7 in this week’s Class 6 media rankings — but never ran the ball effectively. A week after setting a season-high with 229 yards on the ground in a 15-0 shutout of Smithville, the Pirates rushed for only 58 yards with the majority coming from senior Trey Phan (three carries, 42 yards) on two long carries in the third quarter and sophomore Ben McDaniel, who ran six times for 23 yards in the fourth quarter when the Pirates faced a rare running clock deficit.
Cayden Davis, Platte County’s junior leading rusher, gained just 11 yards on seven carries along with a lost fumble on a screen pass after putting up a career-high 183 and a touchdown a week earlier.
“This one is hard to swallow, and with these guys, that’s OK,” Utz said. “I don’t think it’s a confidence thing with them. We just want to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
Platte County moved the ball at times but couldn’t finish drives in a game that slipped away before halftime.
Raymore-Peculiar didn’t score on either of its first two drives but ended up holding the ball for more than 30 minutes, piling up 542 yards of offense against a besieged defense. Panthers senior wide receiver Luke Grimm — a University of Kansas recruit — hauled in five catches for 123 yards and two long touchdowns, while also running 13 times for 67 yards in a multi-pronged, double-wing rushing attack.
Additionally, Raymore-Peculiar running backs Gabe Shanklin (23 carries, 232 yards) and Phillip Fager (82 yards) led an effective rushing attack that averaged 6.9 yards per attempt for the game.
Platte County junior defensive back Spencer Cupp led the Pirates with 12 tackles, while sophomore linebacker Trevor Scott (nine tackles) and senior linebacker Gabe Harmon (eight tackles) were also busy in the middle of the defense. Garret Watson, a senior defensive end, made nine tackles and a sack, while James Gladden also had a sack.
Platte County overcame an early mistake in the first half, but a turnover changed the complexion of a unique matchup of ranked teams at the opposite end of the Suburban League’s enrollment-based divisions. The Pirates moved the ball into Raymore-Peculiar territory on each of their first two drives but couldn’t score.
Instead, looking to punt for a second time, Platte County senior Grant Allen fielded a low snap and took a 12-yard loss — unable to get the kick off and setting Raymore-Peculiar up in Pirates’ territory. However, the drive ended with a 54-yard field goal attempt that sailed wide right, keeping the game scoreless.
Platte County wouldn’t have another defensive stop until the third quarter — a deluge of points that stood in stark contrast to recent results. The Pirates went nearly 10 full quarters of game play between a touchdown for Grain Valley in the third quarter of Week 4 and Raymore-Peculiar’s first touchdown late in the first quarter.
“(Raymore-Peculiar) is a Class 6 school with really good athletes. They should have really good athletes at this level,” Utz said. “It’s a good test for us. If we find a school in our classification with that many good athletes running around, then that may be a problem.”
After the missed field goal, Platte County went three and out and punted, and two plays later, Shanklin broke through a pair of tackles near the line of scrimmage on a second-and-19 play before hitting the open field and sprinting down the home sideline for a 70-yard touchdown run. Raymore-Peculiar suddenly led 6-0 after a failed extra point.
On a third and 10 early in the second quarter of the ensuing drive for Platte County, Raymore-Peculiar defensive back Martwan Grant-Coody hauled in a deflected pass from Pirates’ quarterback Chris Ruhnke — the junior’s third interception thrown this season. On the very next play, Raymore-Peculiar quarterback Conrad Hawley found Grimm deep for a 41-yard touchdown pass to make it 14-0 with the two touchdowns coming in a span of less than 2 minutes.
“Short fields. We can’t do short fields — against anyone we can’t do that,” Utz said. “Against somebody that can score on big plays? That’s even worse. We’ve got to clean that stuff up, and (turnovers) haven’t hit us at all all year long.”
Platte County immediately struck back with their only points of the night.
Ruhnke had a 14-yard completion to junior wide receiver Dayton Mitchell then a 25-yarder to junior wide receiver Colby Rollins plus a roughing the passer penalty to move to the Raymore-Peculiar’s 26 in just two snaps. The Panthers forced a fourth-and-6 play only to have Ruhnke hit Mitchell for a 22-yard, over-the-shoulder touchdown catch to make it 14-7.
Platte County wouldn’t get the defensive stop needed. Raymore-Peculiar’s next two drives ended in the second of three touchdowns for Shanklin and a 28-yard Gabe Sappington field goal to make it 23-7 with 2:31 left in the half.
“We had some spots where we were able to move the ball, and that was good,” Utz said. “That was a hole they dug out of, and they did a nice job. Eventually, it was just too much of a task to climb when they came right back and scored.”
Still down just two possessions, Platte County couldn’t run out the clock, going three-and-out and punting the ball back with 1:42 left in the second quarter. Raymore-Peculiar didn’t look overly eager to seek more points but ended up with a 50-yard touchdown pass from Hawley to Grimm on the final snap of the half to make it 30-7 at the break.
Raymore-Peculiar got another Sappington field goal on the first drive of the second half, and Davis lost a fumble a minute later. Both of the Pirates’ third quarter drives ended in Panthers’ territory without points, and facing the sizeable deficit, Platte County almost exclusively relied on its passing game with Ruhnke finishing just 16 of 37 for 207 yards. Mitchell had a game-high six catches for a team-high 106 yards, while Rollins (one catch, 25 yards), Phan (two catches, 22 yards), Clarkson (two catches, 20 yards), Davis (two catches, 19 yards), senior wide receiver Cam Scheib (two catches, 13 yards) and senior wide receiver Donny Maccuish (one catch, two yards) split the other 10 completions.
Two fourth quarter touchdowns started a running clock with more than 6 minutes left, and Utz put in the reserves to avoid any other complications. The Pirates had already lost sophomore cornerback Cade Fowler in the first half to injury, and there are more important moments to come in the season.
“There’s still little things. We still had opportunities to make plays that we need to take advantage of in the future,” Utz said. “We will take that and try to teach and learn from it.”
The result was in stark contrast to last year’s dramatic finish when Platte County first lost a two-touchdown lead and then came back with a drive in the final minute that ended with a touchdown and then winning two-point conversion — both scores coming with no time on the clock.
“Winning last year against these guys, we did have an expectation knowing that it was going to be a tough task,” Utz said. “The expectation to win was there; the reality was there.”
Platte County will also be playing for Class 4 District 8 seeding in the final two weeks while chasing the Blue Division title. Lincoln Prep (7-0) remained in the top spot after a cross-state road win over University City, while Platte County fell from second to third behind Smithville (6-1) — although the Pirates would leapfrog the Warriors for the No. 2 seed based on the recent head-to-head win if the standings were to hold at the end of the regular season.
Platte County has played in four straight Class 4 District 8 title games but will again face a difficult path regardless of the bracket with seven of the eight teams currently boasting a 4-3 record or better. Excelsior Springs (5-2), Kearney (4-3), Lafayette (4-3), Winnetonka (4-3) and Kansas City East (2-5) round out the No. 4-8 spots in the current standings.