Drew Aggus
Special to the Citizen
NORTH KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Park Hill South Panthers fell to North Kansas City in an overtime thriller, 41-35, in the Class 5 District 8 semifinal on Friday, Nov. 8.
This loss marks the second consecutive year that the Panthers were eliminated by the Hornets and the third consecutive year that the Panthers have lost their first postseason game.
Panthers coach Alan Wilmes was impressed by his opponents’ performance.
“They played really hard, and they have some really good, explosive players,” Wilmes said. “They never gave up — just like we didn’t — and it was a great football game. Somebody had to win.”
The second-seeded Hornets came into the game 8-1, following a blowout loss to Raytown in their last game of the regular season. They were a heavy favorite over the third-seeded Panthers, who finished the regular season with a 4-5 record.
Despite the matchup and the outcome, the Panthers hung with the Hornets essentially the entire game.
The Hornets got the ball to start the game but were forced to punt the ball on their first possession, and the Panthers turned the ball over on downs on theirs.
DREW AGGUS/Special to the Citizen
Park Hill South’s Tyler Brown (69) and Braden Bartosh (77) signal for a touchdown against North Kansas City on Friday, Nov. 9.
The Hornets’ ground game was relentless all night. They ran the ball on their next drive on just about every play, running out the first-quarter clock with the game still being scoreless.
But 20 seconds into the second quarter, the Hornets got on the board, as Jeremy Brown ran in a 5-yard touchdown. Following the successful point after attempt, the Hornets lead 7-0.
The next drive for the Panthers involved a number of big plays, including a 20-yard run from quarterback Matt Suchanick and an 18-yard pass to Gaige Warren to get the Panthers into the red zone. Just two minutes after the Hornets scored, the Panthers struck back and tied it up on a 9-yard dime to Eric Avery.
The Panthers’ defense stepped up on the next drive, allowing just one first down on a pass-interference call. On fourth down, the Hornets quarterback Seth Mattly juggled the ball around before drop-kicking it 18 yards to give the Panthers excellent starting field position just behind midfield.
Unfortunately for the Panthers, they were unable to take advantage of their position, and they went three and out and punted the ball away.
After six running plays and a couple of offensive penalties, Mattly threw his first pass of the drive and it was intercepted by Mike Suchanick. The Panthers were set up at their own 40 with another chance to take the lead. But a few plays later, Matt Suchanick threw the ball right and it was picked by Roman Vibar.
On the first play of the drive for the Hornets, Brandon Hall took the ball 58 yards to the house but the touchdown was called back after an offensive hold. The Hornets would have three touchdowns called back in this game due to offensive penalties.
On the last play of the half, Hall ran the ball 36 yards down the middle of the field, but Ryan Owens made a touchdown-saving tackle at the 25-yard line. Hall ended up having himself a day, as he would finish the game with four touchdowns, 258 rushing yards and 57 receiving yards, which were all team highs.
The game went to halftime knotted at 7. The Panthers were still wholly within striking distance with plenty of opportunities to take the victory in the second half.
The Panthers got the ball to start the second half, but the Hornets defense held firm, forcing a punt.
After the return, the Hornets were set up just 40 yards out. Four plays later, they were in the end zone, following 27 rushing yards from Brown and an 11-yard touchdown run from Daniel Joiner.
On the ensuing kickoff, Warren had a strong return, setting the Panthers up at their own 36. Three plays later, Laron Mitchell broke off a 56-yard touchdown run that tied up the game at 14 after the PAT.
The Hornets punted on their next drive, and the Panthers ran a fake punt, which did not work well. The Hornets were set up 25 yards outside of the Panthers’ end zone in great field position.
However, they fumbled the ball at the 6-yard line and Dylan Owens scooped it up for the Panthers.
Suchanick ran the ball in from 10 yards out to put the Panthers up 20-14 to end the third quarter after the turnover.
Suchanick had a strong performance, finishing the game with 158 passing yards and 118 rushing yards, which were both team highs.
The Panthers’ PAT was missed, which would be crucial down the stretch.
Forty seconds after the Panthers took their first lead of the night, the Hornets fired back.
A 40-yard pass to Hall put the Hornets on the Panthers side of the field and a 36-yard run by Hall just three plays later put the Hornets in the end zone. Ronaldo Calderon kicked in the PAT and put the Hornets up 21-20.
On the Panthers next drive, Malik Gipson perfectly stripped running back Joe Inzenga and took the ball 40 yards to the house, putting the Hornets up 28-20 after the PAT.
Matt Suchanick and Inzenga fumbled the handoff on their next drive and Cameron Long recovered it for the Hornets.
The wind chill in the low 20s probably had something to do with the Panthers inability to hang on to the ball, but the Hornets’ defense was also being extremely aggressive.
Regardless of the cold, windy weather, the crowd at the game was large and loud, representing both schools well — something that Hornets coach Leon Douglas likes to see.
“Today’s a great example of the beauty of high school sports,” Douglas said. “It was a great game and a great playoff atmosphere. It was awesome.”
Following a 40-yard touchdown run from Hall and another successful PAT, the Hornets went up 35-21, scoring 21 points in just more than three minutes.
The Panthers didn’t have a lot of time to waste and Wilmes knew that.
“We get down; we get back up every time,” Wilmes said. “We just told them to keep fighting. We believe that we can score at any moment.”
With just eight minutes left in regulation, the Panthers needed to score quickly and that’s exactly what they did.
Warren returned the ball 38 yards, and Matt Suchanick completed a 20-yard pass to Avery. On the next two plays, Inzenga ran the ball a combined 28 yards and scored a touchdown. The PAT was good, and the Panthers were down just eight points with 7 minutes to go.
The Hornets kept the ball on the ground in an attempt to drain the clock, but the Panthers defense stepped up. Jamari Westbrook, Dylan Owens and Cameron Gillespie each made a tackle, and the Hornets were forced to punt the ball away with 4:40 left in regulation.
Matt Suchanick did everything except score on the next drive, taking the team nearly 50 yards between his passing and running. Mitchell scored a touchdown on an 8-yard run to cap off the drive.
However, since the Panthers had missed a PAT earlier, they had to go for two to tie the game up.
On the two-point attempt, Warren found himself wide open in the corner of the end zone, and Matt Suchanick tossed the ball straight to him to tie the game 35-35 with a little more than two minutes left.
The heavily-favored Hornets got one final shot in regulation to take the win over the Panthers.
They marched the ball down the field relatively quickly and ran in another touchdown to take the lead, but it wouldn’t stand, as a holding call brought the ball back to the Panthers’ 30 with 20 seconds left.
On the next play, Mattly completed a pass to Joiner, who carried Elano Alvarez over 15 yards on his way to the end zone. As he hopped and stretched in an attempt to break the plane, Josh Lowe ran from across the field — never giving up on the play — and punched the ball out at the one-yard line.
The ball flew into the air, and everyone — from players to fans — was completely silent, as they watched the play unfold. Gillespie jumped up, caught the ball and returned it about 20 yards before being tackled. Following Lowe’s season-saving play, the Panthers took the knee, and the Class 5 District 8 semifinal went to overtime tied 35-35.
In overtime, each team got one possession that started 25 yards from its opponent’s endzone.
On the Panthers possession, they got nothing going, went for it on fourth down and turned the ball over without scoring any points. This meant that all the Hornets had to do was score, and they would win the game.
Brown was the only player who gained positive yards on the Hornets’ possession, but he did more than enough, as he would run in a touchdown from 11 yards out to give his team the 41-35 win and a spot in the Class 5 District 8 championship.
The Hornets will play Staley in the district championship game on Friday, Nov. 15.
Following the win, Douglas said that he was extremely proud of his team’s offensive performance.
“We’ve got one of the best offenses in the state; our offense is awesome,” Douglas said. “Our line does an awesome job of providing great tracks for guys to hit it and be able to get that ball downhill. And our receivers do a great job of blocking down field.”
The Hornets finished the game with 505 yards of offense on the ground to go along with just 40 yards in the air.
The Panthers’ offense was a little more balanced, as they finished the game with 261 rushing yards and 158 passing yards.
With the loss, the Panthers finish the season 4-6, having lost their last three games.
Going winless in the postseason for the third straight year was not exactly what Wilmes and his staff had in mind when the season began, but he was impressed by the way his seniors led the team.
“They were awesome,” Wilmes said. “They just bought in right away and worked really hard; we can’t thank them enough and probably can’t pay them back for that. Without them, we wouldn’t have had the season that we had.”
In coach Wilmes’ first year as the coach for the Panthers, he thought that the team, especially the seniors, did a great job of establishing the program.
“(It’s) a good foundation that we built, and I feel like we can build off of it,” Wilmes said. “We feel like it was a successful season. We’re excited for the future.”