Platte County coach Bill Utz intentionally introduced a mysterious number before this season. The Pirates can finally interact with the true meaning behind the three digits with one decimal place on Friday afternoon.
The buses depart from Platte County High School to travel exactly 32.5 miles for the Class 5 Show-Me Bowl against Carthage (12-1) at Spratt Stadium on the campus of Missouri Western State University, just up the road on I-29 in St. Joseph.
Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m.
“I put 32.5 all over the place, and everybody wondered what that meant. We were keeping it a secret and made it a riddle to have the kids try and figure it out,” said Utz, who leads Platte County into the program’s seventh overall state championship having now been in charge for the last four — a school record for a head coach, passing the three for Chip Sherman. “This was set a while ago with the goal of being able to get there. Now, to be literally, door-to-door, 32.5 miles from a state championship is amazing. There’s been a lot of miles in between, but I can’t think of a better opportunity.
“Our fans travel so well that we’d go to wherever we’re at and support us in a state title game but to only travel to St. Joseph, I have a pretty good feeling that place will look pretty orange and black.”
Platte County (13-0) as the defending state champions and winners of 27 straight games — the longest active winning streak in the state. The Pirates have survived easily the most difficult stretch of the current run with comeback wins over Rockhurst in the Class 5 District 8 championship game (29-22) and Grain Valley in the state quarterfinals (46-33) before looking dominant in a 64-35 victory after a long road trip to Kirkwood for last week’s semifinal.
Carthage’s high-volume shotgun rush attack carries the Tigers into the state title game for just the second time in program history and first since winning Class 5 in 2019. Their lone loss came in Week 5 to Class 6 finalist Nixa (13-0), which trailed in the second half before coming back for a 38-22 win.
“We’ve got to go finish it,” Platte County senior linebacker KJ Stallings said.
Carthage junior running back Landon West enters with a team-high 1,714 rushing yards, but senior quarterback Zane Browning matches him with 23 rushing touchdowns. He can also provide timely passing (1,332 yards, 10 touchdowns) with junior wide receiver Tate Nichols (330 yards receiving, 248 rushing and three total touchdowns) and senior tight end Landon Bland (268 yards, six touchdowns) the main targets.
A signee to Oklahoma State as an EDGE rusher, Bland and fellow senior defensive lineman Jordan Brunnert lead Carthage’s stout defense with six sacks apiece. The Tigers have allowed more than 21 points just twice this season with opponents having completed just eight touchdown passes in the run-oriented Central Ozarks Conference (COC).
That could end up being the being test.
Platte County averages 53.1 points per game with senior quarterback Rocco Marriott finishing out one of the most statistically impressive careers in state history. He owns or shares essentially every school record for passing in a game, season and career, which now includes 8,666 yards and 116 touchdowns.
Marriott joins Chris Ruhnke as the only two quarterbacks in Platte County history to start multiple state title games at quarterback.
Platte County heavily leaned on Marriott in the first three games of the postseason on the ground and through the air. He spreads passes between senior wide receivers Braiden Stevens (59 catches, 1,126 yards, 18 touchdowns), Ty Christopher (34 catches, 717 yards, 12 touchdowns) and Tres Baskerville (45 catches, 736 yards and seven touchdowns) and senior tight ends Brooks Hall (32 catches, 440 yards, seven touchdowns) and Jack Utz (21 catches, 370 yards, seven touchdowns).
A third-year starter, Marriott already set career-highs of 3,382 yards and 52 touchdowns — just the seventh 11-man player in Missouri history to throw for at least 50 — with one game left. He also has 660 rushing yards and 12 more touchdowns, none more meaningful than a 1-yarder with 2 seconds left in regulation to provide the last of five second-half lead changes in the win over Rockhurst.
However, Platte County senior Adam Gisler broke through for a career-high 233 yards rushing on just 23 carries and five touchdowns in the most recent win over Rockhurst. He went over 1,000 yards for the season and became just the fifth in program history to rush for more than 3,000 in his career.
“I’m never going to bet against us,” Bill Utz said. “These guys always have a chance, and obviously when they’re clicking, it’s a fun group to be around.”
Platte County must regroup on defense after a difficult recent three-game stretch. The Pirates actually came up with multiple key stops in an uncharacteristically scoreless first half against Rockhurst but struggled to stop the run against Grain Valley and to stick with receivers on extended plays against Kirkwood.
In the first 10 games of the season, Platte County’s No. 1 defense ended up tagged with more than 21 points just twice — a 60-28 win over Washburn Rural and a 54-23 win over Grain Valley when the Eagles returned a pair of kickoffs for for touchdowns. The Pirates had a running clock at some point in 9 of the first 10 games but none since.
Platte County senior defensive end Cale Buntz (team-high nine sacks) and senior defensive tackle Cole Johnson (60 tackles, team-high 27 for loss) and the linebacker trio of Stallings (65 tackles, 10 for loss, two sacks) and juniors Carlos Baskerville (team-high 80 tackles, nine for loss, 3 1/2 sacks, interception, two touchdowns) and Hank Fowler (66 tackles, five for loss, two interceptions, two fumble recoveries) have led a rush defense that has allowed just seven scores on the ground. Four of those were in the state quarterfinals against Grain Valley.
On the back end, Platte County showed improvement against the pass with the cornerback duo of seniors Mudiaga Egbedeju (29 tackles, one interception, one fumble recovery) and Adeboye Akande (29 tackles). Both have six pass breakups, but the secondary ultimately ended up rotating eight different players for a developing unit that replaced 10 of 11 starters from last season.
Egbedeju gained eligibility in Week 5 after hitting the required number of practices after missing a chunk of the offseason for a trip to Zambia to visit family. Fowler morphed Platte County’s defense to a more traditional 4-3 look after earning a starting spot in a Week 8 win over Raytown and has now had a hand in five of just 17 total turnovers forced this season.
Carthage averages just over 38 points per game but brings a penchant for ball-control offense and the chance to play spoiler against the No. 1-ranked team in the Class 5 Missouri media poll for the entirety of this season — one carrying a heavy burden of expectation after last season’s dominant run.
Platte County’s generational class of 25 seniors hopes to finish off one of the most dominant stretches for a program with nearly 700 wins in a history with records dating to 1907. The Pirates won 52 consecutive games — the second-longest in state history — from 2000 to 2003 while winning three straight unbeaten state titles in Class 3A/3 (2000, 2001, 2002) but have now advanced to the state semifinals five times in the past nine seasons finishing as runnerup in 2019 (Class 4) and 2020 (Class 5).
Last season resulted in the program’s fourth state title with the fifth now just a short drive away.
“Honestly, making the state title game is an expectation when we start every year, and it’s fun to get there again, especially staying so close to home,” Bill Utz said.
