The belief didn’t seem to extend far outside of the inner circle when the season began.
Win by win, Platte County quieted the doubters behind a group of players intent on following up last season’s unprecedented Class 4 success and adding to the program’s tradition. The senior class included three-year stalwarts, developed products and a key transfer who embraced a difficult schedule and one of the toughest districts in the state to reach the precipice of their goals.
However, Platte County’s season ended with a 33-28 loss to Smithville on Friday, Nov. 9 at Pirate Stadium in a much-anticipated rematch between two of the three Suburban Conference Blue Division co-champions in the Class 4 District 8 championship game. The Pirates were unable to complete a season sweep of their nearest Highway 92 rival and finished at 10-2, giving them 21 wins over the past two seasons.
There were plenty of reasons to count 2018 as a success, but the conclusion on a bitterly cold and windy night stung for a group not content with coming up short of a second straight playoff trip.
“Honestly, if you’d have told me we were going to win 10 games this year? Ten games is hard,” Platte County coach Bill Utz said. “Winning 10 games is an amazing accomplishment. To think that was going to be this year? Probably not. I’m proud of them. They fought. There’s no superstars in this group, but they stuck together and did an amazing job.
“They’ve come a long way. That’s a testament to who they are and a testament to what this program is.”
Platte County’s 14-player senior class came from a group that went winless as freshmen three years earlier. However, the group also included three-year starters Dylan Gilbert (wide receiver), Peyton Stoner (lineman), Glen Gammill (lineman) and Reid Sutter (right tackle). Additionally, safety Nolan Saale, running back Adel Freitek, wide receiver Brice Bertram and defensive back Cade McNicholas were key cogs in last year’s run to the Class 4 semifinals, which ended with a loss to eventual state champion Webb City.
ROSS MARTIN/Special to the Citizen
Platte County quarterback Spencer Stewart walks off the field following a 33-28 loss to Smithville on Friday, Nov. 9 in the Class 4 District 8 championship game. The Pirates held a 21-19 lead at one point against their Suburban Conference Blue Division rivals, but the Warriors rallied late to end Platte County’s season. The Pirates won the first meeting between the two, 28-27.
Spencer Stewart — a two-time Class 6 honorable mention all-state selection at Shawnee Mission Northwest (Kansas) — transferred to Platte County prior to the season and helped solidify what turned into another dangerous offense for the Pirates.
Kearney handed Platte County its only regular season loss in Week 3 before the Pirates ran off eight straight wins to earn a share of the conference title and advance to the Class 4 District 8 final for a fourth straight season. The streak included a 28-27 win over Smithville when the Pirates scored 28 unanswered points in the second half and a 36-35 win over Raymore-Peculiar on a touchdown/two-point conversion with no time on the clock the following week.
Given a second shot at District 8’s top seed, Smithville used a combination of senior quarterback Kellen Simoncic’s big plays and the bruising running and inspired defensive play of senior fullback/linebacker Brian Boyd to win the first district title for the Warriors (11-1) since 2001. They advance to host Warrensburg (8-3) in the state quarterfinals this week.
“I’m proud of us,” Stoner said. “Freshman year, us seniors were 0-8. As a freshman team, we didn’t win a single game. Nobody gave up; nobody threw in the towel. Everyone grinded to get us to this point.”
Just like during the regular season meeting, Platte County fell behind early but this time trailed just 13-7 at halftime.
The two teams locked into a back-and-forth struggle in the second half, but ultimately, Smithville’s steady power running game and big plays in the passing game made the difference. Simoncic, who already this season became the Warriors all-time leading passer for yards and touchdowns, threw a lengthy touchdown pass in each half — one each to senior wide receiver Garrett Thompson and senior tight end Jake Fisher. Boyd carried 34 times for 203 yards and rumbled into the end zone on two short touchdown runs.
The final score of the game came on a Boyd run from 2 yards out to put Smithville ahead 33-21 with just 1 minute, 6 seconds remaining.
“There were times in that game where we really needed a big-time play, and we just couldn’t make it. They did,” Gilbert said.
Eight minutes earlier, Platte County’s final push to take the lead ended with an incomplete pass on fourth-and-2 at Smithville’s 27. The drive started shortly after Fisher hauled in a 52-yard touchdown pass, and the Warriors added a two-point conversion to go ahead 27-21.
Platte County moved 44 yards with the big play a 33-yard strike from Stewart to diving junior wide receiver Donny Maccuish on a second-and-18 play. Four plays later, a short pass in the direction of Freitek hit the turf with 9:04 left in regulation.
“We thought we would get it back,” Utz said of that drive and the resulting march from Smithville that all but sealed the result.
Platte County went to a 4-2-5 defense most of the night due to an ankle injury to senior linebacker Omar Garcia suffered the week before a tough 28-20 District 8 semifinal win over Excelsior Springs — one of five teams in the bracket to start the postseason with seven wins. That left junior Gabe Harmon (nine tackles) and impact freshman Trevor Scott (eight tackles) to take most of the snaps at linebacker, while Stoner, junior Garret Watson and sophomores Keaton Smith, Alex Stearns and Forrest Boynton rotated through the four defensive line positions.
Saale (12 tackles) and juniors Trent Rueckert (11 tackles) and Will Hay (six tackles) were also called upon for Platte County to try and come up from safety spots and make difficult tackles on Boyd, a bruising 220-pound force who nearly doubled his season output on the ground with junior running back Isaac Miller limited due to injury.
“(Boyd’s) a good player. We just didn’t get the stops we needed to, didn’t chop him down when we needed to,” Stoner said.
Emblematic of a season that featured two once-in-a-lifetime comeback wins, Platte County did not fold after Boyd’s second touchdown made it a two-score game.
Smithville eschewed the option to run out the clock after a third-down conversion left them with a goal-to-go situation and Platte County out of timeouts. The Warriors paid with unnecessary worry.
With Bertram pleading with his Platte County teammates to fight to the final whistle, Stewart led a two-play touchdown drive with a 44-yard completion to Gilbert and then an 11-yard score to a wide-open Maccuish — his first and only touchdown of the season — with 45 seconds left.
Gilbert’s final catch turned out to be the last of his record-setting career with the Pirates after Smithville recovered the ensuing onside kick attempt and ran out the clock.
Unofficially, Gilbert finished the season with 73 catches for 1,191 yards and 15 touchdowns — at least one in each of the final nine games. The yardage set a single-season record for the Pirates previously held by Scottie Wilson (1,138 in 2012) while the TDs came up one short of the mark of 16 set by Jim Meyers in 1968 and equaled last season by Devin Richardson.
ROSS MARTIN/Special to the Citizen
Platte County’s Trevor Scott, left, tackles Smithville running back Brian Boyd, right, during the Class 4 District 8 championship game on Friday, Nov. 9 at Pirate Stadium. Smithville rallied late to win 33-28 to advance to the state playoffs.
However, the stats were a secondary thought to the disappointment of not going back to the playoffs.
“I’m very honored to play in this great program,” said Gilbert, who now holds Platte County’s career record for catches (170) and yards (2,487) — subject to verification — to go with 27 touchdowns. “I wanted to leave with a better mark, a state title, but I think this class did an amazing job. We just fell short.”
After stopping Platte County on the game’s opening drive, Smithville set the game’s tone. The Warriors ate up more than 8 minutes of clock after the Pirates’ punt but ended up settling for a 30-yard field goal from Evan Verhulst.
Platte County’s deficit hit 10-0 after a 34-yard connection from Simoncic to Thompson midway through the second quarter. However, the Pirates immediately responded with an eight-play touchdown march, capped with a 3-yard touchdown pass from Stewart to Gilbert to make it 10-7.
A stop then gave Platte County a chance to tie or take the lead, but after an initial first down, the Pirates were forced to punt. Smithville blocked the kick and then tacked on a field goal with 2 seconds left in the half — only after Fisher dropped a seemingly sure touchdown in the back of the end zone — to go into the break up just six despite dominating most of the first two quarters.
“We were good,” Utz said. “We did not play well (in the first half). To get that score and be down 13-7, we felt good.”
Platte County trailed 27-0 after the first drive of the third quarter in the first meeting with Smithville when the momentum shifted. In a play reminiscent of the previous comeback, Miller fumbled the ball away on the Warriors’ first possession of the second half on a play that occurred at about the same time and in a similar part of the field to a giveaway he had six weeks earlier.
After recovering, Platte County needed 11 plays to score a go-ahead touchdown. That script included a third-down conversion with a pass to Gilbert for 22 yards and a 10-yard scramble from Stewart down to the Warriors 2 on a fourth and one.
Three plays later, Stewart hit Gilbert for a 2-yard touchdown to make it 14-13 — the Pirates’ first lead of the game.
From there, the teams exchanged the lead three more times. Boyd capped the following drive with a short touchdown run to make it 19-14 following a failed two-point conversion, and Freitek — limited to just 17 yards on 10 carries after running for 67 or more in the nine other games he played this season — had a short 2-yard touchdown run to give the Pirates a 21-19 lead.
Platte County’s defense just could not earn the final stop needed to ever give the Pirates a chance to build a two-possession advantage.
“It’s not like they’re a bad team,” Utz said. “We knew it was going to be some kind of game like this, and we came up a little bit short.”
Fisher’s touchdown proved to be the final lead change, and Platte County’s drive that ended with more than 9 minutes ended up the last best chance for the Pirates to prevail.
In what turned out to be a memorable season, Platte County opened with two blowouts of Class 5 district semifinalists, endured a stumble at stubborn rival Kearney and then kept winning to eventually reach as high as No. 4 in the Missouri media Class 4 rankings. The Pirates integrated Stewart into what turned into a fast-paced, high-powered offense behind the offensive line of seniors Gammill (left tackle and center) and Sutter (right tackle), juniors Max Renner (right guard), Wyett Wallingford (left guard and left tackle), Luke Seigel (center and left guard) and swing sophomore Trey Butcher.
Stewart threw for 38 touchdowns — tying Platte County’s school record Tanner Clarkson set last year — and nearly 3,000 yards with Gilbert and Bertram (six catches for 68 yards in his final game; 62 for 965 yards and 11 TDs in a breakout season) the main targets. Freitek ran for 944 yards and only missed the 1,000 mark because he sat out two games due to illness, but he also totaled a team-high 16 touchdowns.
The seniors on both sides of the ball were the keys to somewhat unexpected records of 9-1 and 10-1, program-best starts for Platte County since moving to Class 4. However, the Pirates ended up one game short of the playoffs in what became an unfortunately familiar scenario for the seniors during their high school careers.
“Their expectations were high, but down deep, they know this is an amazing accomplishment,” Utz said. “They fought, and they did a great job. Their identity got set pretty early, and they got on a nice run.
“Eventually this sting will wear off, but it’s going to take a while.”
Platte County won 37 games the past four years, an unprecedented run of success for the Pirates since moving to Class 4 a decade earlier.
In both 2015 and 2016, Platte County lost the District 8 title game to Kearney teams that went on to reach the state title game. The Pirates reached the state semifinals out of the same bracket last year, and Smithville would appear to be a heavy favorite to advance at least that far this season.
While there was clearly little to separate the two rivals this year, Platte County’s postseason loss to a worthy Smithville squad didn’t make the ending any easier to endure. There will be plenty of what-if scenarios in the aftermath that will hopefully give way to memories of what an unheralded group went through to become a state contender.
“Five years down the road, hopefully, we get to look back and talk about all the great moments and enjoy it,” Stoner said.