Blue Springs South stages late comeback, snaps Platte County’s 29-game winning streak

BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. — The final chance to extend the state of Missouri’s longest winning streak came in dire circumstances.

Platte County took possession needing any score but eventually ran out of time. Blue Springs South mounted a second-half comeback and held on for a 27-24 victory Friday night at Larry Stewart Memorial Stadium — handing the Pirates’ their first loss since November 10, 2023 in a Class 5 state quarterfinal against Grain Valley.

An untimely turnover, a controversial Blue Springs South field goal and two late scores doomed Platte County (1-1), which led 17-3 at halftime on a pair of short touchdown runs from junior running back Caleb Hill. The Pirates ended up showing the potential to make another deep playoff run while at the same time leaving disappointed because a potential win slipped away against a state-ranked Class 6 opponent.

“For us, when we think about where this program’s been and what we’re doing, this is one of the toughest opponents that we’ve seen in the last three or four seasons,” Platte County first-year head coach Derek Yost said. “There’s a lot of athleticism over there. Thought we dealt with it really, really well for about three quarters, but you have to put four together to get out of here with a win. Just didn’t happen tonight.

“The effort, the attitude, the foundation of who we are as football team, it’s all there. Proud of the effort from these guys, and tomorrow, the sun rises again and we go.”

The first-ever matchup between the two programs turned into a classic.

Platte County seemingly took control midway through the fourth quarter when sophomore quarterback Kade Fowler shocked a dormant offense to life with a long scramble. He then uncorked a perfectly placed deep ball behind the Blue Springs South defense that found senior wide receiver Noah Omoike for a 47-yard touchdown — the first of his career and his only catch of the game.

With just 5 minutes, 53 seconds left, Platte County led 24-13 and provided a reprieve to a besieged defense.

“Love that for Noah and Kade, both of them,” Yost said. “Noah’s done a tremendous job battling back from an ACL injury last year and looks really good. Super excited for him on that play, and Kade continues to grow confidence in that deep ball and his ability to throw it. It’s going to unlock something for us down the road for sure.”

However, Blue Springs South (1-1) needed just three plays to respond with a touchdown, but after a failed two-point conversion, the Jaguars trailed by five.

Platte County immediately went three-and-out, and a dynamic defense seemingly ran out of gas down the stretch, especially the short five-player rotation at defensive line tasked with trying to put pressure on sophomore backup quarterback Brody Reicard in the second half. Reicard’s touchdown pass on a second straight scoring drive — this one lasting just over a minute — gave the Jaguars a 22-21 lead, and they converted the two-point try with a pass, leaving just 2:16 in regulation.

“Tough spot,” Yost said. “We probably weren’t in good enough shape tonight at times, and we had some substitution issues. We have to deal with that and the conditions. It’s hot; everybody’s dealing with it. We probably just didn’t have enough legs under us — a lot of defensive snaps at the end.”

Platte County immediately faced a fourth-and-17 inside the 20, but Fowler, who ended up with a team-best 95 yards on 10 attempts, scrambled for a first down near midfield. The next four plays went incompletion, incompletion and sack from Blue Springs South senior EDGE and Ohio State commit Prince Goldsby.

On the last meaningful snap, Fowler stepped up into the pass rush and threw a contested incompletion to Platte County junior tight end Hank Marriott. The Pirates’ offensive line of seniors Cooper Koenigsfeld (left tackle), James Moiyallah (left guard) and Reece Moppin (right guard) plus juniors Miller Bigus (center) and Max Shuey (right tackle) faced a stacked box with varied blitz looks while sophomore Daxton Leuschen, rotating in at guard, left in the first half with a leg injury.

On the final drive, Blue Springs South sent multiple blitzes with Platte County forced into a pass-only mentality.

“They’re going to look back on this one, and it stings a lot in the moment,” Yost said, “but there’s a ton to learn from this game — a ton for us to back and refocus on. For Kade and that two-minute drill, I thought he facilitated it really well and escaped the pocket at times, but that pass rush is pretty prolific. They’ve got some great guys over there. We’re excited for him to have that experience.

Blue Springs South took a knee on the final play and managed a split of a unique opening two weeks — a three-point loss to defending Class 6 state champion Lee’s Summit and a three-point win over two-time defending Class 5 state champion Platte County.

In all, Platte County’s 29-game winning streak means the program went more than 1,000 days between losses. This marked the second-longest run in program history behind the 52 straight victories between 2000-2003 that included thee straight Class 3A/3 state titles. The Pirates also ran off a 33-game unbeaten streak from 1959-1963 when they went 29-0-4.

“Blue Springs South came out with a great game plan and executed at a high level,” Yost said. “Tip your cap to them. I’m really proud of the way the guys played. I thought they did an excellent job coming out here and battling, but probably a few things that weren’t up to our standards like usual”

Blue Springs South led 3-0 early but also lost junior quarterback Archie Buttram to a leg injury in the first quarter.

Platte County overcame a turnover on a botched snap-handoff on the second play of the game after forcing a quick three-and-out and eventually took the lead behind interceptions for senior cornerback Jordan Moore (one tackle, 1 PBU) and junior cornerback Eric Dooley (three tackles, 1 PBU) combined with a trio of timely big plays on offense. The Pirates’ 17 unanswered points started immediately after allowing an opening 37-yard field goal that put them behind for the first time this season.

Fowler, whose rushing total came despite taking four sacks, made his biggest completion of the first half while seemingly going down in the grasp of Goldsby. Instead, he flipped the ball to junior running back Brady McDaniel, who raced 33 yards down inside the Blue Springs South 10-yard line. Ultimately, the Pirates settled for a 24-yard field goal from senior Sterling Wilson — the first of his career in addition to a perfect 3-for-3 night on extra points.

The winner of an offseason battle for the starting spot, Fowler faced consistent pressure and finished 9-for-16 for 93 yards a week after going a perfect 7-for-7 with 95 yards in a 56-7 demolition of Winnetonka. The completions went to seven different receivers with Hill grabbing a team-high three for just 6 yards, while sophomore Owen Yates had two for 4 yards and senior Jude Brown (3 yards) and junior Nolan Sipes (4 yards) joined Omoike and McDaniel with one catch apiece.

McDaniel ran for 6 yards on four carries in addition to his only catch.

“The dump to McDaniel was really great. Kade playing with his feet a little bit. We love to see that,” Yost said.

Reicard struggled early and threw interceptions on two of Blue Springs South’s next three possessions, and both led to touchdowns.

After Moore’s pick, Fowler broke off a long run inside the 10 on a quarterback draw, and Hill, who finished with a well-earned 56 yards on 16 carries, scored from 3 yards out to put Platte County up 10-3 with 6:32 left in the first half. Dooley snagged a wayward deep throw and advanced the ball near midfield with a short return, and Hill rumbled 45 yards on the very next snap for his biggest gain of the game.

The goal-to-go situation concluded with Hill bowling into the end zone from 4 yards out with just 12 seconds on the second quarter clock.

“Caleb’s just doing Caleb things,” Yost said. “Exactly what we expect. He’s patient. It’s 2 yards; it’s 3 yards. Then all the sudden it’s 40.”

Platte County carried all the momentum at that point but struggled the entirety of the third quarter to create offense. The front four rotation of seniors Brody Hawk (seven tackles, one for loss, one forced fumble and one sack) and Kyler Parker (two tackles), junior Greyson Reik (one tackle for loss) and sophomores Phin McMain (five tackles) and Elijah Lewis (one tackle) started to have trouble providing pressure, and Reicard started to pick apart a non-blitzing defensive scheme.

Blue Springs South forced an early three-and-out and saw an illegal formation penalty negate a long touchdown.

Platte County made a defensive stop, but Sipes mishandled the ensuing punt. The Jaguars recovered inside the 20 and eventually scored on a 4-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-goal to cut the deficit to 17-10.

“In that moment, it’s just an untimely error,” Yost said. “Some of those things slipped on us tonight. It’s one I hope he forgets about and gets ready to go again. We need him.”

Platte County’s defense started to see the field the majority of the time, and cramps forced deeper substitution patterns than expected. Still, the Pirates were hanging strong behind senior linebackers Carlos Baskerville (team-high 11 tackles, one for loss), Hank Fowler (nine tackles) and Maverick Troncin (six tackles, two for loss) while the safety due of senior Matt Cisco (five tackles, 2 PBUs) and Jack Johnson (one tackle, 1 PBU) helped limit big plays.

One of the ultimately consequential moments late in the third quarter when Blue Springs South lined up for a 42-yard field goal.

Based on new mechanics for officiating crews, only one referee goes under the goal posts for longer attempts. Video of the kick from the opposite end zone shows the kick sailing wide right, and Platte County players adamantly reacted to the miss. However, the official under the goal post called the kick good, and despite protests from the Pirates coaching staff, the score moved to 17-13 with 2:55 left in the third quarter.

“Any time you have a tough, close loss like that, you go back and look at a couple of key moments and how we coached and handled those moments and what we’ll change moving forward,” Yost said. “You kind of live and let die on those things. You can’t appeal. There’s nothing you can do so you just focus on the next play. Maybe we didn’t do a good enough job of that tonight.”

Platte County seemed to have the reprieve when Omoike hauled in the long touchdown pass, but a defense that also saw senior cornerback Andrew Parrish (two tackles, 1PBU), senior linebacker Devin Lumm (one tackle), sophomore defensive lineman Kyle McGee (one tackle) and freshman linebacker Rowdy Hawk (one tackle) contribute count’ come up with the final critical stop for the Pirates, who dropped to No. 4 from No. 2 in the most recent Class 5 Missouri Media poll.

Blue Springs moved up one spot to No. 5 in Class 6 with the win.

Platte County now looks to regroup in a road game at William Chrisman (2-0) this Friday. The Bears have opened at 2-0 with wins over Raytown South (21-20) and Truman (53-7) but have never beaten the Pirates in nine all-time matchups.