RAYTOWN, Mo. — In a game moved up a day to avoid forecasted inclement weather, Platte County dominated start to finish and avoided any potential setbacks ahead of another ranked showdown.
Raytown South couldn’t muster any offensive points in a Suburban Conference Blue Division matchup Thursday, Sept. 26 at Markland Field, while Platte County received breakthrough performances from junior wide receiver Dayton Mitchell and junior running back Cayden Davis in a dominant first half. After halftime, the Pirates rested starters as much as possible on the way to a 35-6 victory that was even more comfortable than the final score would indicate.
Mitchell hauled in all of his career-high three touchdowns in the first half from junior quarterback Chris Ruhnke, while Davis put up his best numbers of the season (eight carries, 77 yards) after suffering an ankle injury early in Platte County’s season opener. The Pirates led Raytown South 35-0 at the break and were able to shift the focus to this week’s homecoming clash with undefeated Smithville.
“Coming in on one less day, which didn’t affect us too much, we were ready to play,” Platte County coach Bill Utz said. “We knew if we did what we wanted to do, we should be fine, and that’s the way it played out.”
ROSS MARTIN/Special to the Citizen
Platte County’s Dayton Mitchell races toward the end zone on one of his three touchdown catches against Raytown South on Thursday, Sept. 26 in Raytown.
The annual Smithville-Platte County rivalry matchup will again carry heavy Suburban Conference Blue Division and Class 4 District 8 implications.
Smithville (5-0) enters off a 48-0 pounding of winless Class 5 Smith-Cotton after the homecoming matchup was ended shortly after halftime on Friday evening with heavy thunderstorms on top of the region and the result no longer in doubt. The Warriors remain atop the district standings after Week 5 and ranked No. 4 in the most recent Class 4 media poll. Platte County (4-1), winners of three straight since an upset loss at Class 5 Park Hill South, continued to rank No. 6 in the media poll but sits third in the District 8 seeding behind unbeaten Lincoln Prep (5-0).
Last season, Platte County overcame a 27-0 deficit with 28 unanswered points in the second half to dramatically down Smithville. The 28-27 win was part of a nine-game winning streak that earned the Pirates part of a three-way share of the Blue Division championship and the top seed in District 8. They reached the title game for a fourth straight season where Smithville extracted revenge with a 33-28 victory on their way to the Class 4 state semifinals.
Thanks to a win over Kearney in Week 3, Platte County meets up with Smithville as the only two unbeaten left in conference play this season.
“They know it already, and we’ve been hinting at it as the week went on,” Utz said. “It’s inevitable to know (Smithville) is on the horizon, and they know. It’s a big enough rivalry that all you have to do is say, ‘Smithville,’ and they know what to do.”
Before sizing up Smithville, Platte County needed to avoid any potential letdown against a historically stingy defense on an unexpectedly reshuffled game week. The Pirates were even without senior standout Grant Allen against Raytown South due to a conflicting soccer game on Thursday night for the two-sport standout, but sophomore Blaine Keuhn and Ruhnke successfully shared the punting duties while sophomore Cole Rhoden went 3-for-3 on extra points and handled kickoffs.
In fact, the makeshift special teams unit provided a big momentum play early to provide some needed energy in front of a sparse and lethargic crowd on Raytown South’s rescheduled homecoming.
After a squibbed quick-kick punt to end the opening offensive possession, Platte County almost ended up on their heels. A 28-yard catch-and-run for Raytown South running back Quinton Rowell seemingly put the Cardinals in Pirates’ territory, but junior cornerback Collin Tyson forced and recovered a fumble to negate the advantage.
ROSS MARTIN/Citizen photo
Platte County’s James Gladden hits Raytown South’s Emery Marshall during a game on Thursday, Sept. 26.
On the ensuing drive, Davis ran four times for 29 yards and caught a pass for 11 more. He capped the march with a powerful 8-yard touchdown run, looking healthier than he has at any point since missing the second half of a season-opening win over Oak Park and all of the loss to Park Hill South.
Davis entered the season as the likely lead back but has slowly mixed back in with senior speedster Trey Phan (eight carries, 21 yards) and senior bruiser Lewis Hunter (five carries, 43 yards).
“It’s been hard mentally, and I had to go through the rehab with my ankle,” said Davis, who finished with 77 yards on eight carries and two catches for 33 yards. “But watching Lewis and Trey run makes me happy for them, so they can get better, too. It’ll be good because now we have three or four guys in the backfield we can use.”
Then came the big special teams play.
Rhoden popped the ensuing kickoff up into the air, and Platte County junior wide receiver Colby Rollins scooped up the free ball in Raytown South territory. Ruhnke had three catches in the four plays needed to traverse 37 yards, including a 4-yard snag for a touchdown — his third straight game with at least one TD catch.
The extra possession resulted in a 14-0 lead, and Platte County wouldn’t look back.
“It wasn’t necessarily meant to be an onside kick, but worked out that way and gave us a little bit of the momentum we wanted,” Utz said of the recovered kick. “With Grant not there, we had some concerns in the kicking game but obviously, Rhoden and Keuhn stepped up and did a nice job there.”
Platte County scored on its first three possessions of the second quarter. Mitchell hauled in a 20-yard touchdown pass to extend the lead to 20-0 (a two-point pass failed), and after Raytown South failed on an ill-advised fake punt run on a fourth-and-28, the Pirates took advantage of another short field.
Hunter scored his second touchdown of the season, plowing in from 1-yard out to make it 27-0.
Platte County appeared to have another stop on a bad punt snap only to have a facemask call nullify the play. Raytown South had a short punt, and Davis ripped off chunk gains of 12 and 16 yards before hauling in a 22-yard reception to set up Ruhnke’s third scoring pass of the first half — a 17-yarder to Mitchell finished off by plowing over a defender near the left pylon.
Prior to Thursday, Mitchell didn’t have multiple touchdowns in any game, and he now has team-highs of 25 catches for 425 yards and five touchdowns as the clear No. 1 target for Ruhnke.
“I know Chris is going to get me the ball. Me and Chris have a connection,” said Mitchell, who finished with team-highs of six catches and 73 yards against Raytown South.
Ruhnke played only one unsuccessful drive after halftime and finished 15 of 25 passing for 169 yards. He gave way to sophomore backup Jared Parsons, who completed 3-of-4 passes for 31 yards with his only incompletion an interception Raytown South returned 85 yards for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter.
Mitchell has emerged as the clear top target in the passing game during the current three-game winning streak, but seniors Cam Scheib (two catches, 33 yards) and Hunter Clarkson (two catches, 32 yards) provided balance on a night when Rollins was held to just one grab and senior Donny Maccuish was out due to injury.
Clarkson even hauled in a two-point conversion pass to make it 35-0 after Mitchell’s third touchdown, providing the needed points for a second half running clock. The return of Davis at full strength could help further divide the attention of defenses in coming weeks, some welcome reinforcement for an offense that’s been inconsistent at times.
“Most importantly, we won,” said Mitchell, the top returning receiver after the Pirates graduated class after class of accomplished pass-catchers in recent years. “When we get our run game going, that just opens the pass game that much more. We were running the ball really good tonight, so that helped a lot.”
Platte County sophomore running back Ben McDaniel carried a team-high 17 times for 88 yards in the second half with running clock in effect most of the way. Meanwhile, the Pirates’ defense continued to thrive regardless of who went into the game.
Raytown South managed just 69 yards of offense — 9 rushing on 24 attempts.
Platte County senior defensive end Garret Watson, a three-year starter up front, continued to lead the way with a third straight standout performance. He had two sacks and was one of three players to lead the Pirates with four tackles, helping to shutdown elusive Cardinals quarterback Jovon Ray in the first half.
In all, Platte County divided 7½ sacks between seven players. Pirates sophomore linebacker Trevor Scott had four tackles and 1½ sacks, while senior defensive lineman James Gladden had one, and junior defensive end Forrest Boynton (four tackles) and senior linebacker Gabe Harmon had a split of a sack in the first half.
Keuhn, an extra defensive back in passing situations in addition to emergency punting duties, had the other half sack.
But Watson was the star for a third straight game, a run starting with his career-best performance in a blowout of rival Kearney in Week 3 to stop a lengthy losing streak to the Bulldogs. He’s had at least three tackles in every game this year and has six of his seven sacks the past three weeks — three in the 18-17 heart-stopping comeback over Grain Valley between the Kearney and Raytown South blowouts — after Gladden shifted from defensive end to defensive tackle.
“(Watson) is definitely playing at his best right now,” Utz said. “He’s been a great player for us, really, the last four years, but he’s really coming into his own and doing what we thought he could do. It’s what we’ve expected him to do, but he’s doing a nice job of playing that role of leader.”
Raytown South (1-4) provided only a brief reprieve from a schedule that featured two Class 5 powers and an early gauntlet of Blue Division contenders.
Platte County needed the epic comeback over Smithville to keep its season on track, and the Warriors will not forget that stinging result or the eventual hard-fought rematch in the postseason. Mitchell had the biggest moment of his career to this point, hauling in the winning touchdown pass in the memorable regular season meeting, but later saw longtime friends and Smithville senior standouts Isaac and Spencer Miller participate in the district championship celebration on the Pirates’ homefield less than two months later.
The rivalry returns to Pirate Stadium on Friday with the winner taking a big step toward a repeat of the Blue Division title and the top seed in Class 4 District 8.
“This is one we definitely checkmarked at the beginning of the season,” said Mitchell, who started school in rural Kansas with the Millers before both families moved south. “They got us in the playoffs last year, but we are coming in for our revenge. It’s great to see those guys, grew up with them, but we’ve got to take care of business.”