North Platte seniors Jesse Williams (#62) and Hayden Gibson (#77) pressure Lawson sophomore quarterback Brogan Crawford (#17) in the Panthers’ first win over the Cardinals in 28 years on Oct. 6.
DEARBORN – For more than a quarter of a century, North Platte failed to take down Lawson on a football field, but the Panthers continue to make history this season, which includes snapping that losing streak.
Being one of the best teams in Class 1, North Platte (6-1) took care of business and won its fourth consecutive game – and second straight against a Class 2 opponent – en route to defeating Lawson (1-6) 28-14 on Oct. 6. Before that victory, the last time the Panthers beat the Cardinals was in 1995.
“It’s super exciting; as we came into this one, we kind of knew historically the background of it and we’ve seen how things have kind of worked out for us this year,” North Platte head football coach Jared Quigley said. “We have a great squad, great senior leadership and we have some great things going on this year, so it’s just awesome for our kids and for our community to win this one.”
North Platte set the tone for the contest by scoring on its first possession of the game, which went 70 yards in 11 plays and took nearly six minutes off the clock. Dylan Armstrong ran in for the touchdown and 2-point conversion to put the Panthers up 8-0 with 5:11 left in the first quarter.
North Platte turned the ball over on the next two series but added another score late in the first half. Facing a 2nd and long on the Panther 47-yard line, Colton Kirkham connected with Jaxson Carpenter for a long touchdown, making the score 14-0.
North Platte senior tight end John Winkler had five catches for 147 yards in the Panthers’ 28-14 win over Lawson.
“We had the same play call before the timeout, but we were just having some alignment issues, so we called timeout to get them settled down. We’d been working that all week long about seeing their safety button down hard, so we knew that we’d had that open over the top,” Quigley said.
Lawson’s offense struggled in the first half, not having a single play in North Platte territory until its final drive with less than four minutes left. That drive ended up being a turnover on downs with 43 seconds left and the Panthers ran out the clock to head into the locker room with a 14-0 lead.
“I challenged our defense tonight to be physical and I’m happy with how they played. I knew that team was going to be physical, that they wanted to run the ball and that we’re going to have to have a presence to combat that,” Quigley said.
North Platte milked more than eight minutes on the opening drive of the second half – which began with a successful fake punt on the fourth play – resulting in another score. On 4th and 6 at the Lawson 8-yard line, Kirkham scrambled to the left and ran into the end zone with 3:24 on the third quarter clock.
Trailing 22-0, Lawson finally put together a scoring drive. Facing a 3rd and goal with 10:41 left in the fourth quarter, Brogan Crawford found Parker Mackley for a touchdown.
Jason Shanks had a 22-yard touchdown to put the game away in the fourth quarter.
North Platte responded quickly, pushing the lead back to three possessions 1:20 later. Jason Shank had an impressive sequence, scoring a 22-yard rushing touchdown then intercepting a pass on the next defensive series.
Lawson added another score with right under seven minutes left, but North Platte held off to pull off the win. The Panthers now move to 3-1 in the KCI Conference and are currently sitting in first place in the Class 1 District 3 standings.
“Tonight showed that we can fight through adversity. When things aren’t going our way or we have a penalty or something happens, we can battle back,” Quigley said.
Kirkham had a big game, completing 10 of his 16 pass attempts for 222 yards and ran for 55 yards with a touchdown in the air and on the ground. John Winkler brought in five catches for 147 yards and Carpenter ended with 51 receiving yards on two catches, along with a score.
North Platte will host West Platte next week and will look to take down the rival in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2018-19. The Panthers won 18-7 last year to claim the tobacco stick.