Winnetonka didn’t offer the challenge needed to sustain the emotional high.
Coming off of a pair of unforgettable comeback wins, Platte County took control against the overmatched Griffins with two different quick bursts in the first half Friday, Oct. 12 at North Kansas City High School. The Pirates were inconvenienced at times but never truly threatened after scoring three touchdowns in a span of six offensive snaps in the first quarter.
With leading rusher Adel Freitek not even in attendance due to illness, Platte County overcame mistakes with quick-strike, opportunistic offense in a 45-20 victory. Pirates senior quarterback Spencer Stewart totaled five touchdowns — three passing and two rushing — while sophomore running back Cayden Davis turned in a career-high 120 yards rushing to assure no letdown against Winnetonka.
“We came in confident,” said Platte County senior cornerback Cade McNicholas, who totaled two tackles and a pass breakup. “We definitely knew that there were spots we could focus on this week and there were possibilities of an upset, but we were confident.
“We came in with a good attitude.”
Platte County’s winning streak hit five since a Week 3 loss to conference rival Kearney. The recent run included scoring 28 unanswered points in the second half to beat Smithville 28-27 two weeks ago before scoring a touchdown and two-point conversion with no time left on the clock to top Raymore-Peculiar 36-35 a week earlier.
A lot remains to be decided in the regular season finale vs. Grandview.
Platte County (7-1) could still earn a share of the Blue Division title with a win coupled with a Smithville win over Kearney. Additionally, a lot could shake out in the Class 4 District 8 standings, which includes five teams with a 7-1 record.
Still currently at No. 3 behind Smithville and Kearney, the right results could still yield the No. 1 seed for Platte County.
“We’re going into this week with a great mindset,” McNicholas said. “Grandview can be real dangerous. They have a lot of speed, a lot of athletes. Doesn’t matter what the record is or anything else, we are going to prepare like we would for any other team.”
Again ranked No. 5 in most recent Class 4 media poll, Platte County took away the intrigue against Winnetonka (1-7) — still mired in the eighth and final spot of the District 8 standings — with scores on its first three drives of the game.
After a quick defensive stop, Platte County went straight down the field capped with a 1-yard touchdown scramble from Stewart on a busted run play to make it 7-0 Pirates after just 3 minutes, 26 seconds. The Griffins went three and out again, and four plays later, Stewart dropped a pass over senior wide receiver Brice Bertram’s shoulder for a pretty 31-yard catch and run TD.
The start went from bad to disastrous for Winnetonka on the ensuing kickoff.
Two players mishandled the kick, allowing Platte County junior safety Will Hay to come down and corral the loose ball at the Griffins’ 5. On the next play, Stewart threw a 5-yard scoring pass to sophomore Dayton Mitchell, who finished with four catches for 39 yards and a receiving touchdown in a third straight game.
With only one sustained drive, Platte County led 21-0 with 4:38 left in the first quarter, but the Pirates wouldn’t score again for another 12 minutes.
“I think we got to a point where we got too comfortable, and we thought with ease we could keep doing things,” said Platte County senior wide receiver Brice Bertram, who led the Pirates with six catches and 97 yards. “When we started getting penalties and going back, we still had the mindset it was fine. Even if we had to punt, we’d just come back next drive. When one player is giving up on the play, that’s a man down on the field.
“It took a toll on us later in the game because a team that should’ve been down 48-0 at halftime was still in the game.”
Winnetonka, which ended up with 341 yards of offense (163 passing for quarterback Javon Satterwhite and 96 rushing for running back Hayden Shay) came away with no points on its next drive, which spanned into the second quarter. However, the Griffins flipped the field for the first time, and after Platte County’s first three-and-out, they closed back to within 21-7 on a 32-yard touchdown pass to Jason Essex.
Platte County’s two second quarter touchdowns again came in a quick bunch and built a 35-7 advantage.
A mishandled snap on a punt attempt gave the Pirates a short field, and Davis covered 12 yards on two carries — the second a 3-yard touchdown run. Winnetonka punted from its own end zone four plays later, and on the next snap, Stewart hit senior wide receiver Dylan Gilbert for a 37-yard catch-and-run touchdown with 2:05 left before the half.
Gilbert now has a touchdown in five straight games, while Bertram has at least one touchdown catch in six straight with Platte County’s top receiving duo benefitting from the increased production of Mitchell and sophomore Donny MacCuish.
“In big time games, our receivers make big plays,” Bertram said. “It really helps out when teams have to cover four receivers instead of two, and they can’t key on one person. It gives us more weapons so we can attack more parts of the field.”
In danger of being completely blown out, Winnetonka added a touchdown before halftime to close back within three scores.
Platte County took opening kickoff of second half and drove 67 yards, capped with Stewart’s second touchdown scramble — a 19-yarder. The Pirates were up 28 again but would never reach the 35-point lead necessary to start a running clock.
Winnetonka made it two straight drives with a touchdown to close within 42-20, and Platte County’s final points came on junior Grant Allen’s season-long 35-yard field goal later in the third quarter.
“There’s some opportunities we had that we felt we could have taken advantage of a little bit more,” Utz said. “That urgency in this game was something we had to find in ourselves. Sometimes that’s hard to do. The last couple of weeks the urgency was there. It wasn’t something that we had to go find.
“We’ll learn from it. This is something we have to build on, take as an experience and keep fighting.”
The two teams combined for 24 penalties resulting in more than 200 yards of lost yardage.
Platte County committed 10 of those penalties in addition to three errant snaps resulting in busted plays and two turnovers. Stewart saw his streak of consecutive games with four touchdown passes end at four, but he still finished 14 of 26 for 215 yards and three scores. Gilbert totaled three catches for 59 yards one week after becoming the program’s all-time leader in receptions.
Without Freitek, Davis assumed the majority of the snaps at running back and totaled his 120 yards on just 16 carries. He topped the 100-yard mark for the second time in the past four games.
“With Adel being sick, it’s a good week for us to let him heal up the right way, and it was a plus for Cayden — an opportunity where he got some good game reps,” Utz said. “Now if we’re in a situation where we need to spell Adel at some point, we’re going to trust Cayden can get in there and do the job.”
Big plays hurt Platte County’s defense with the coaching staff issuing challenges throughout the game.
Gabe Harmon, a junior linebacker, led the Pirates with eight tackles and a sack, while senior defensive lineman Peyton Stoner continued strong play with seven tackles despite seeing his streak of games with at least one sack end at three. Junior defensive tackle Garret Watson recorded the other sack for a defense forced to chase Satterwhite around all night while contending with the Griffins’ run-pass option plays.
Platte County’s defense opened the season with a shutout in 35-0 win over Oak Park and followed that with a dominant effort in a 45-14 romp of Park Hill South. Both were against Class 5 foes. Since then, the Pirates have allowed 20 or more in six straight games going into the matchup with Grandview (4-4).