The North Platte football team runs out onto the football field at North Platte High school on Friday, Sept. 24.
The Panthers and Tigers were both searching for their first victory of the 2021 fall season when they stepped onto the North Platte football field at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 17, after a 30-minute rain delay.
The North Platte football team was on the verge of the program’s first win since 2019, but the Panthers’ 16-point second half lead slipped out of their grasp and Plattsburg won 22-16. North Platte was leading 16-0 at halftime, but Plattsburg stepped up to steal the game in the second half.
“We were up, had a lot of good things going and had momentum at the end of the first half,” North Platte head coach Reis Wright said. “In the second half, it just didn’t fall our way and that was challenging.”
The game started to go wrong for the Panthers with 9:03 remaining in the third quarter. When being chased down in the pocket by Tiger defenders, Colton Kirkham attempted to throw the ball away, which led to an intentional grounding penalty.
Since the right foot of North Platte’s quarterback was in the end zone, the penalty resulted in a safety and gave the Tigers two points. Still leading 16-2, the Panthers punted the ball off to give the Tigers decent field position.
Plattsburg capitalized by eventually finding the end zone with 2:50 remaining in the third quarter. The Tigers converted on the 2-point conversion and narrowed the deficit to 16-10.
The Tigers scored once again with a rushing touchdown with 4:54 remaining in the fourth quarter, but the Panthers refused to let their KCI rival take the lead. Plattsburg failed on the 2-point conversion attempt and the game was knotted 16-16 with the clock ticking.
“They essentially made the plays at the end of the game that mattered. We had a good start, but we didn’t finish quite as strong allowing some things to happen that we need to avoid,” Wright said.
The Tigers took their first lead of the night with 1:17 remaining, as they scored a touchdown but the 2-point conversion was no good. The Panthers were unable to answer and fell in a heartbreaking loss, 22-16.
Despite the tough loss, Coach Wright isn’t worried about the win and loss record. He told the Platte County Citizen what his mindset is as the Panthers’ coach.
“I don’t care if I won 100 games or lost 100 games, I don’t know if I did anything at all if I’m not mentoring the boys to be better men. Life is going to get you some, but the sun is going to rise tomorrow and you are going to have to make sure that you rise too,” Wright said.