Pair of timely interceptions help Platte County pull away in dominant district semifinal win

Platte County didn’t give in to the potential for frustration, showed no panic and eventually came away with another impressively dominant victory.

Maybe the 42-0 shutout of St. Pius X on Friday night at Pirate Stadium didn’t look familiar to others during a now 24-game unbeaten streak, but that might capture the beauty of the Class 5 District 8 semifinal triumph. The Pirates progressed on the quest for a second straight state title by showing another way to win.

Platte County (10-0) came off of a first-round bye to record the second shutout of the season. The Pirates quickly expanded a 14-point halftime lead into a running clock in big part due to interceptions from junior linebackers Hank Fowler and Carlos Baskerville, who returned his for a touchdown to account for the game’s final points late in the fourth quarter after junior kicker Sterling Wilson finished his 7-for-7 night on extra points.

“I’m good with this,” Platte County coach Bill Utz said. “It’s kind of what we told them halfway. There’s some adversity we had to play through, and that’s what football’s supposed to be as opposed to what we’ve been dealing with the past couple of games. It was good to make them work through some of those situation; it was good for our coaches to work through some of the adjustments.

“We needed this.”

Platte County’s run to last year’s Class 5 state title and the unbeaten start to this season have been mostly credited to a potent, quick-strike offense under the direction of record-setting senior quarterback Rocco Marriott — and for good reason. He totaled five touchdowns against St. Pius X in the rematch of last year’s district championship game, rushing for two scores in the first half and throwing three after halftime with two to senior wide receiver Braiden Stevens and a 98-yarder to senior wide receiver Tres Baskerville to increase the Pirates lead to 28-0 with 10 minutes, 44 seconds left in regulation.

However, Platte County needed to overcome 11 penalties costing 86 yards that included five offensive holding penalties, two erasing long first-down runs and another a touchdown that limited the production of senior running back Adam Gisler. The Pirates were forced into three first-half punts — the first of the season for Stevens, the No. 1 punter in addition to his receiver duties.

St. Pius X (6-4) never found a way to take advantage of the slow start, going just 2-for-18 on third downs and creating a large chunk of 242 offensive yards while playing from behind in the fourth quarter.

“Coming out, we knew we had to prove something, knew we had to make a stand,” Fowler said. “That goose egg, throwing it up on the scoreboard, what a way to go out.”

The district’s top seed, Platte County advances to host Rockhurst (9-2) in Friday’s Class 5 District 8 championship game at Pirate Stadium. The Hawklets advanced after pulling away for a 41-13 win over Fort Osage in the other semifinal to set up the first and previously unlikely matchup of two historically successful programs.

Rockhurst opened the season with a 49-19 win over St. Pius X, which scored a pair of touchdowns late to tighten an insurmountable gap.

Platte County improved to 7-1 against St. Pius X in an abbreviated all-time series in a geographical rivalry, having won three straight to include the district matchups in back-to-back seasons after the Warriors were moved up to Class 5 due to the private school success multiplier. This one proved much more difficult than last year when the Pirates scored 38 unanswered points to invoke the running clock coming out of halftime and establish a 45-7 lead early in the third quarter.

In an uncharacteristically sluggish start, Marriott went 3 for 11 passing in the first half for 32 yards but gave Platte County a 14-0 lead on a tough 13-yard touchdown run in the first quarter and a 62-yard burst to the end zone in the second.

“We were of course a little bit frustrated that we couldn’t score the way we wanted to, but we still found a way,” Tres Baskerville said.

Platte County took the opening kickoff of the second half with a chance to expand the lead but again ran into penalty issues that set up a second-and-34 scenario. Marriott the completed passes for 18 yards to Tres Baskerville and 22 yards to Stevens on the next two snaps for an improbable first down, only for Gisler (15 carries, 63 yards; one catch 12 yards) to fumble on the next play.

St. Pius X recovered seemingly with a chance to grab some momentum after being held to under 100 yards of offense in the first half. Almost impossibly, Platte County’s first drive of the third quarter lasted more than 6 minutes but never reached the red zone in another frustrating result for the offense.

“I’ll be honest, I more felt like we were so close to blowing the thing open than losing control,” Utz said. “What I was hoping, obviously, is if you convert that, you have a huge momentum play and can blow the thing open. Then you fumble. If we don’t fumble, there’s a chance we go in there and score. Honestly, I was never concerned of losing momentum. I just thought we were so close, and eventually, we got there.”

Four plays later on a third down, Platte County senior defensive end Cale Buntz (two tackles) applied pressure to St. Pius X quarterback Jake Nichols, who ended up having his throw altered. The ball dangerously fluttered into the air between three defenders, and Fowler picked off the errant pass and used a short return to set the Pirates up at the Warriors’ 29-yard line.

Fowler and his teammates clearly felt the energy from the play with a hyped celebration that put Platte County right back in position to score moments after the potentially deflating lost fumble.

“I was feeling it out there — key interception, big turnover after our boys fell short a little bit,” said Fowler, who finished with a team-high eight tackles to go with his second interception in three games since moving into the starting lineup to give Platte County a more traditional 4-3 look alongside Carlos Baskerville (seven tackles, one for loss) and senior KJ Stallings (three tackles). “Had to get them in a spot to succeed and get us back in the game.”

Platte County didn’t waste the second chance, even with another small hiccup. Two plays after Fowler’s interception, Marriott rumbled 15 yards down to the 2, and Gisler scored on the next play only for one of the holding penalties to force first and goal at the 12. Gisler ran for 1 yard before Marriott found Stevens in the middle of the end zone for an 11-yard touchdown to increase the Pirates’ lead to 21-0 with just 3:03 left in the third quarter.

St. Pius X immediately responded with a potential scoring drive after two long completions for Nichols, who finished 16-for-32 for 170 yards. A 20-yarder to senior wide receiver Nick Springer put the Warriors at Platte County’s 18, but four players later, an incompletion resulted in a turnover on downs to start the fourth quarter.

“Our defense absolutely stepped up tonight; they did us great. They saved us multiple times, and I love them for it,” Tres Baskerville said.

Platte County then narrowly avoided another potentially disastrous situation with the next snap from senior center Lucas Dillingham seemingly catching Marriott off guard. He scooped up a loose ball in the end zone and then traversed a large swath of the end zone before attempting to push beyond the goal line and avoid a safety.

The officials spotted the ball at the 1, but Platte County eventually faced a third and 15 with Marriott taking another snap in the end zone. He hit Tres Baskerville on an out route going to the right, and he shook two defenders and ended up racing 98 yards for a touchdown — the longest for the Pirates since Jared Parsons hit Cole Rhoden for a 99-yarder against Kearney in 2021.

“When I first caught it, I was kind of bracing for contact for the two guys, but then they came off my ankles and I was trying to go,” said Tres Baskerville, who finished with four catches for a team-high 146 yards. “That’s all I was thinking: don’t get caught.”

Platte County comfortably led 28-0 with 10:44 left in regulation.

Forced to truly open up the passing game, St. Pius X again drove into Pirates’ territory but ended up with a turnover on downs. Marriott, who finished 15-for-25 for 288 yards, connected with senior tight end Brooks Hall for the only time to gain 25 yards on a well-placed throw down the visitor’s sideline, and four plays later, Marriott scrambled through traffic before hitting Stevens behind the defense for a 33-yard touchdown to start the running clockwise with 4:19 on the clock and the lead at 35-0.

Stevens finished with a team-high five catches for 81 yards and remained the only Platte County player to score a touchdown in every game this season with his two receiving scores.

“He’s really fast,” Utz said. “His track speed is really coming out with how he’s playing. His field awareness is really good with an ability to freelance plays where he breaks off a route into an open spot and Rocco finds him.”

On the very next play, Carlos Baskerville stepped in front of a pass from Nichols and grabbed his first interception of the season with a clear path to the end zone.

Carlos Baskerville strolled 27 yards for a touchdown and the exclamation point, posting his second defensive touchdown of the season to go with his forced-recovered fumble in Platte County’s 70-6 demolition of Ruskin in Week 8. The highlight-reel plays for the Baskerville brothers came just weeks after their father and Pirates quarterback coach Wayne Baskerville received a diagnosis of multiple myeloma cancer.

Wayne Baskerville continues to maintain his duties while awaiting the timing for steps in his expected treatment.

“Gosh, it’s just great seeing my dad still able to come out and seeing Carlos doing great on the defense,” Tres Baskerville said. “It’s just great seeing the whole family on the field.”

The two turnovers in the second half capped the most complete performance of the season for Platte County’s defense, considering the opponent. The Pirates have allowed just 89 points this season with only 49 coming against the starters and 14 of those were on a pair of kickoff return touchdowns for Grain Valley.

St. Pius X managed just 50 yards rushing with the three linebackers plus a tight defensive line rotation of Buntz and junior Brody Hawk (one tackle) at defensive end and senior Cole Johnson (four tackles) and junior Kyler Parker (one tackle) at defensive tackle playing the majority of the snaps. However, senior defensive end JoJo Wolo also contributed on rush packages with a tackle.

Platte County’s switch from a 4-2-5 continues to put senior cornerbacks Adeboye Akande (six tackles, one for loss) and Mudiaga Egbedeju (five tackles) and the safety duo of senior Mogie Walkingstick and senior Matt Cisco (four tackles) apiece in more traditional secondary assignments. In addition, the Pirates also continue to rotate in juniors Jack Johnson (four tackles), Jordan Moore (two tackles) and Maverick Troncin (one tackle) as roles have become more defined down the stretch.

“That was a playoff win,” Utz said. “That was where when something didn’t work, people stepped up. The defense had their opportunity to shine, and they were very impressive. We take a lot of pride in that, and hats off to them. They played their tails off.”

Platte County’s defense came up big in pivotal moments with a pair of turnovers on downs in the red zone plus a stop on the game’s opening drive. The Pirates haven’t faced a deficit since Week 3 of last season against Fort Osage.

Nichols completed his first three passes, but St. Pius X ultimately opted to punt on a fourth and short.

Platte County overcame two different holding penalties negating long gains for Gisler on the Pirates’ opening drive, and Marriott eventually established a 7-0 lead with his first rushing touchdown one play after a 17-yard run on a fourth-and-1 from Gisler that held up. St. Pius X then flipped field position with a 67-yard punt but couldn’t take advantage despite an effective defensive strategy of sending extra defenders on blitzes while having defensive linemen attempt to put hands in Marriott’s passing lanes.

“Yeah, you know there was (some frustration) but that’s all that we have to work to,” Tres Baskerville said. “We were getting entitled with all the big scoring games we’ve had, and we played a good defense tonight.”

Platte County broke back through early in the second quarter when Marriott faked a handoff to Gisler moving left before going around the right corner and outsprinting the defense. Marriott finished with a team-high 130 yards rushing on 14 attempts, which included taking a pair of sacks, with the Pirates using more designed runs for the quarterback with a defense designed to limit big passing plays. His completions included just three to senior wide receiver Ty Christopher, who entered with nine receiving touchdowns in his past six games, while senior tight end Jack Utz went without a catch.

The ensuing possession for St. Pius X reached the red zone, but the Warriors never drew back within a possession.

Platte County held on a fourth and 1 from the 6 to earn a shot at a 2-minute drill touchdown, but the drive ended with Stevens’ third punt. A kick-catch interference penalty allowed St. Pius X to try a 55-yard field goal on the final play of the second quarter, but senior Frankie Kapetanovich’s attempt came up just short and kept the Warriors scoreless despite a beneficial penalty discrepancy and a field position advantage for much of the first half.

At one point early in the third quarter, Platte County had 10 penalties enforced to just one for St. Pius X — outside of two intentionally taken delay of games taken ahead of punt attempts near midfield.

“Any time you have a big play and it gets taken away, it is frustrating,” Bill Utz said. “In a lot of situations, it can cause you to fail or turn the ball over, but if you look back at it, there were a lot of times we got a first down and get a little bit of a drive. Penalties happen.”

Platte County has scored at least 42 points in all 10 games this season but has been held to that exact total in each of the past two games, which included a 42-7 win over Raytown in the regular season finale ahead of the bye. The Pirates were also just under 500 yards of balanced offense with a starting offensive line of Dillingham, fellow seniors Quinn Lightle (left tackle) and Michael Poncavage (left guard), junior Cooper Koenigsfeld (right tackle) and freshman Jayden Horn (right guard) while junior Reece Moppin continued to play a rotational role at guard.

Rockhurst has allowed no more than 35, which came in a one-point overtime win against St. Thomas Aquinas (Kansas) in Week 7. The Hawklets’ losses came to Class 6 district finalists Blue Springs (8-3) and Liberty North (7-4) over a span of two weeks, the latter ending hopes of unseating Platte County for the district’s top seed.

Entering the postseason ranked No. 4 in the final Class 5 Missouri media poll of the regular season, Rockhurst went on to blow out William Chrisman and then Fort Osage in the first two postseason games to earn the right to face Platte County, which received all nine first-place votes every week in the rankings after last year’s state championship — the fourth in program history and first since winning three straight from 2000-2002. The two teams have combined for 13 state titles with the Hawklets’ most recent in 2010.

Rockhurst dropped down from Missouri’s largest classification for the first time in the school’s history due to a recent enrollment drop, setting up and also won state titles in the same season as Platte County in both 2000 (Class 5A) and 2002 (Class 6) when the Pirates were in Class 3A/3.

“If you’ve been around here for a long time, this is probably a game people thought would never happen,” Bill Utz said. “The fact we get to host it and get to be in that game is awesome. Ever since districts came out, it’s one of those things you look at, watch and see how it’s going to play out. It’s came to fruition and now we can openly talk about it. I’m happy for our guys, and our kids are such competitors that I look forward to them playing in what should be in an incredible atmosphere.”