North Platte senior quarterback Colton Kirkham runs in the second half of the snowy Class 1 State Semifinals as the Panthers defeated Milan 54-34 on Nov. 25.
DEARBORN – Two years removed from back-to-back winless seasons, North Platte (12-1) has advanced to the Class 1 State Football Championship after knocking Milan (11-2) out of the semifinals on Nov. 25.
Jared Quigley inherited a football program that not only went 0-10 in each of the previous two seasons ahead of his arrival in 2022 but had only recorded 10 total victories from 2016-2021. Quigley not only led the Panthers to two straight seasons above .500 but surpassed that 6-year win total in his second year alone.
“It’s time for this community and school to have a solid football program and it’s awesome that these boys have risen up this season and fought through some adverse situations and different types of challenges that have gotten us to this point,” Quigley said.
North Platte junior Waylon McCraken (#32) tackles Milan junior Keaton Weter (#20) in the Class 1 State Semifinal.
North Platte has scored at least 42 points in each of the four games this postseason, surpassing 50 points twice. The Panthers scored 108 total points in 2020 and 73 total points in 2021, which is combined for 20 less points than they scored in just the postseason this year (201).
“Considering where we were a couple years ago, I’m so excited and proud of the guys,” North Platte senior quarterback Colton Kirkham said. “Quigley brings the swagger to our team and gets us excited, so we were bought in from day one. He showed us how to do that, and we followed his lead.”
The Class 1 State Semifinals was the biggest game of Quigley’s coaching career, which was also the first snow game he has ever experienced. On a cold Saturday afternoon where snowfall picked up after halftime, the Panthers came away with a 20-point win to move on to a state championship for the first time since 1998.
Hayden Gibson (#77) and Liam Servaes (#25) team up to bring down Milan running back Carlos Cotto (#24) on Nov. 25.
“I know that it means a lot to the boys, that’s something that we’ve had our eye on for eight, nine months now. We talked about at the end of last season and that’s kind of how we adopted the theme, ‘expect to win,’ for this season. We hear a lot of stuff about that 1998 season and we’re just excited that we have an opportunity to play for a state championship,” Quigley said.
North Platte has only played in a state championship once, a 30-7 victory over St. Vincent in Class 1A in 1998. This time, the opponent will be Marionville (13-0) – an unbeaten squad that’s averaged 40.6 points per game and has only allowed 4.8 points per game.
“The game plan is just to go and play for a state title. We don’t need to get pumped up for that; we already are and that’s been the goal since last November, so we expect nothing less than for us to go win it,” Kirkham said.
Chance Garber walks off the field helmetless in the second half of the Panthers 54-34 win.
In the Class 1 State Semifinals, the first quarter was much different than the three that followed as North Platte didn’t earn a first down, had a fumble and trailed 7-0 after 12 minutes. The Panthers woke up in the second quarter and never looked back offensively, scoring on seven of the nine series the rest of the way and being a perfect six-for-six on 2-point conversion attempts.
“We didn’t make a whole lot of adjustments, we just tried to execute. On that first series, Milan came out playing extremely physical and that was our challenge to continue to play physical and try to execute to the best of our abilities,” Quigley said.
Liam Servaes and Dylan Armstrong both ran in for a pair of short scores before an end of half sequence that saw two touchdowns in the final 46 seconds. Milan responded with a long touchdown pass, but North Platte marched down the field and Kirkham ran in for six with one second on the clock to make the score 32-14 at the break.
“We got out there, executed, played hard and played physical. We were bigger – maybe not faster – but we were bigger, so we had to bring the physicality and we did,” Kirkham said.
North Platte senior Jaxson Carpenter threw a 34-yard touchdown pass on a 4th and 9.
North Platte started the second half with the ball and only needed six plays of offense to add two more touchdowns. Kirkham and Armstrong both had a rushing touchdown and the scoreboard read 40-21 midway through the third quarter.
Milan didn’t go down without a fight – putting up a season-high 34 points on the North Platte defense – but couldn’t make up for the large deficit and continually decided to kick extra points even though the Panthers never failed on a 2-point try. Jaxson Carpenter reeled in a 34-yard touchdown reception on a 4th and nine and Kirkham ran in from 24 yards out to cap off the high scoring affair.
“I’ve said it all year, Colton’s a dude and a game changing type of player. He’s the type of kid that you want on your team, when the moments get tough and when you need a play you can rely on him,” Quigley said.
The Class 1 State Championship will be played at Mizzou Arena in Columbia, MO. North Platte has cancelled school on the day to give the student body the opportunity to attend as the game will be at 3 p.m. on Dec. 1.