Streaks are meant to be broken and that’s exactly what the North Platte football team (1-1) did when the Panthers shut out Maysville (0-2) to capture an elusive win that the program had so desperately coveted.
When the Panthers most recently stepped foot onto the gridiron on September 2, nearly three calendar years had passed since their last win, but after a 1,043-day drought the long wait is finally over following a 20-0 victory. North Platte entered the contest with a 22-game losing streak, dating back to October 25, 2019, when it defeated Penney 27-20 in the final regular season game of that year.
The North Platte football team celebrates after defeating Maysville 20-0 on Sept. 2 to end a 22-game losing streak dating back to Oct. 25, 2019.
“It’s been a long time since they’ve experienced anything like that and I just love to watch their reaction afterwards,” North Platte head coach Jared Quigley said in his second career game with the Panthers. “There was excitement with the crowd and the parents and the student’s section with the administration and the coaches; it was just kind of an overwhelming feeling for all of us to kind of break that streak.”
The 20-point victory was also the first North Platte shutout since the wild season opening 2-0 win in 2015 against Gallatin. On the last play of the opening half of that shutout, Kyle Ewing – who has since graduated – chased down a defender who had picked off a pass in the end zone the length of the football field to tackle him at the opposing 1-yard line to maintain the 2-0 margin.
That was also the last non-conference win for the Panthers and week two of 2016 was the last time they were at .500, with an identical 1-1 record. Fast forward seven years and the North Platte defense once again reached the feat of not allowing a score against the Wolverines.
The defense caused havoc – forcing three fumbles and having 7.5 sacks – led by Jesse Williams who had six tackles, two tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery. Dylan Armstrong and Kaden Mullendore had the other two forced fumbles with Chance Garber and Seth Cruz recovering the balls.
“Jesse Williams at the defensive tackle had a great night, they really struggled blocking him up front, and he was in the backfield. Garber had a great night playing linebacker and those two did a good job taking away what Maysville was trying to do offensively,” Quigley said.
Colton Kirkham had one of the best games of his career when he tossed three scores, two of which were caught by Mullendore. The Kirkham to Mullendore connection started with a 27-yard pass in the opening quarter – with Kirkham running in for the 2-point conversion – and was followed up with a 71-yard score in the second quarter to put the Panthers up 14-0 at the break.
“He (Kirkham) threw the ball probably better than I’ve seen him throw it all summer, he was just trusting his arm and trusting that the receiver was going to be there. We had a great matchup with Mullendore out wide and those two connected on a couple of different occasions,” Quigley said.
In the third quarter, North Platte pushed the deficit to three possessions with a 25-yard touchdown pass from Kirkham to Garber. This was a rare feat for the Panthers’ offense as they haven’t surpassed the 20-point barrier since dropping 27 points in a loss to Lathrop on October 16, 2020.
Kirkham completed five passes for 183 yards and rushed 18 times for 76 yards, while Mullendore had four receptions for 148 yards and two touchdowns. Liam Servaes had five rushes for 32 yards and Armstrong had 15 yards on the ground in Quigley’s first win with the Panthers.
“I don’t want him to get too overly confident, but I want them to ride on that confidence. The boys are still kind of up, energy-wise, from that win last week and I’m just hoping that they can ride that win for the rest of the season,” Quigley said.
With the KCI Conference being filled with a surplus of 1-1 teams after two weeks, North Platte is in a five-way tie for second place in the conference as it is only one game behind Mid-Buchanan (2-0). The Panthers will take on the reigning Class 1 champion East Buchanan (1-1), who was just upset by Savannah (2-0), on the road on September 9.