In the aftermath of North Platte winning the Class 1 District 3 Championship by a score of 42-6 over Windsor, Aspen Large (#5) and Jason Shanks (#1) celebrate with head coach Jared Quigley on Nov. 17.
DEARBORN – Determined to keep a deep postseason run going, North Platte (11-1) wasted no time and kept no stones unturned in the Class 1 District 3 Football Championship on Nov. 17.
North Platte hosted Windsor (8-4) – the No. 2 seed that entered the night with five straight victories – and not only won, but with such a large lead there was a running clock in the final 18:30. Colton Kirkham and Liam Servaes made up for every Panther touchdown in the blowout win as the seniors each scored thrice.
“That’s just playing good football and taking care of what we can,” North Platte head football coach Jared Quigley said. “I challenged us the last couple weeks to really take care of the ball, limit our turnovers and penalties and just kind of clean up some of those mistakes.”
North Platte senior Liam Servaes rushed for three touchdowns in the Panthers’ 42-6 win over Windsor.
North Platte set the tone for the game with a score in the first 34 seconds, despite kicking off first. The Greyhounds muffed the kick, Hayden Gibson recovered the ball and the Panthers scored two plays later.
On the first offensive snap of the district championship, Dylan Armstrong brought in a pass from Kirkham and was taken down two yards shy of the end zone. Servaes ran in for six on the next play to make the score 6-0 right out of the gate.
“We got lucky on that first kickoff with the bobbled kick, and then our first play ended up getting us down the field in scoring position and punch it in on the next. That was big for us to get that score early in the game, but also to have the ball to start both halves,” Quigley said.
The Greyhounds faced a 4th down before moving the chains but ran for over 30 yards down the left sideline on a misdirection play to set up an eventual touchdown. Brody Craig ran in from two yards out and the game was tied with 5:45 left in the first quarter, but Windsor never scored again.
Dylan Armstrong brings in a 32-yard reception on the first offensive snap of the Class 1 District 3 Championship.
“We did a good job there defensively to start the game. We were just a little amped up and ready to play and I think after they scored on us, we got that stuff settled down a little bit and the boys settled in. They got a little relaxed and then they started playing really disciplined football,” Quigley said.
Kirkham scored his first of three touchdowns with a 10-yard rush and kept it for the 2-point conversion with right under four minutes left. Jason Shanks and Jaxson Carpenter
came down with an interception on the next two defensive series and Servaes scored on the first play of the second quarter.
Jaxson Carpenter intercepts a pass in the first half on Nov. 17.
Servaes ran in for his third first half touchdown with right under three minutes left in the second quarter. Shanks ran in for two and the Panthers led 28-6 at the break.
In the second half, Kirkham scored two more touchdowns both of which were different than his first one. He had a special team’s touchdown for the second straight week and added a passing touchdown.
“The last couple of weeks, we’ve had some problems with our special teams that we’ve cleaned up. I thought our special teams played great tonight,” Quigley said.
The Panthers punted on the opening drive of the second half and the Greyhounds went three-and-out. Carpenter caught the punt and ran to the right, then pitched it back to Kirkham on a reverse play and the senior took it the distance down the left sideline.
The next time North Platte was on offense, Kirkham let it fly 58 yards and Carpenter came down with the touchdown reception. Kirkham ran in for the 2-point conversion on each of his second half touchdowns, with the second one pushing the margin over 35 points to make the clock run the rest of the way.
Colton Kirkham puts his arms up as Dylan Armstrong greets the senior in the end zone after a punt return touchdown at North Platte High School.
“Colton is a dude, he’s a great football player and he’s able to make plays when plays need to be made. The punt return, the 2-point conversions, rushing on the ground, and he threw one through the air. He’s a great leader, he’s a great kid and when you have a kid like that on your team, it’s a big difference maker,” Quigley said.
With the victory, the Panthers move past districts for the first time since 2009 and advance to the state semifinals for the first time since 1998 – the same year of their only state title. To put in perspective how impressive this run is, North Platte only won three postseason games from 2012-2021 but has matched that win total in the 2023 Class 1 District 3 Tournament alone.
“Our theme of this week was legacy and kind of what it means to leave a legacy and the tradition and history of this team that we’ve had this season. We did a really good job coming out and winning that game; I think it’s big for the kids, it’s big for the school and it’s big for the community, so it’s exciting to be a part of it,” Quigley said.
Jared Quigley holds the Class 1 District 3 Championship plaque towards the crowd.
In the aftermath of districts, there is one more game to decide who will make it to the Class 1 State Championship. North Platte will host Milan (11-1) in the state semifinals next.
“I don’t know a ton about them. I know that they’re going to be physical and that they have a good running back and a good quarterback. I think on our side of things, we’ve got to clean up our mistakes, we’ve got to look and see what they do and try to put our players in the best position. One thing that is kind of positive is that we have two days of school this week then we can kind of focus on football the rest of the week,” Quigley said.
The Class 1 State Semifinals will be played at North Platte on Saturday, Nov. 25, at 1 p.m. This will be the Panthers’ fourth straight home game this postseason as they have averaged 49 points per game and only allowed 10.7 points per game in that timeframe.