Gisler’s 3 TDs plus pick-6s for Burnett, Clemons, Smith help Platte County run away with another win

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — The optics of the final score with a running clock for the entire second half were indicators of perhaps Platte County’s most complete performance of the season.

In most ways, the Pirates did overwhelm William Chrisman in Friday’s Suburban Conference White Division matchup at Norman James Field, and three total touchdowns from sophomore running back Adam Gisler and three interception returns for scores — one each for senior cornerback Jordan Burnett, junior safety Montez Clemons and junior linebacker Darrell Smith — covered up any blemishes from a handful of early mistakes. The Bears didn’t break the shutout until the second half against a reserve defense and committed four costly turnovers.

Platte County’s 48-6 triumph pushed the current win streak to four going into Class 5 District 8 play, but the coaching staff will have a few points of emphasis this week after early penalties, a pair of turnovers and multiple dropped passes kept the game scoreless for much of the first quarter.

“It was a complete game in how we put it together,” Platte County coach Bill Utz said. “The defense obviously made some great plays; special teams did great. Overall, I challenged them to come down here and take care of business. However that looked, they came in and did that.”

Platte County (7-2) needed the win and some help to move up a bracket line. Coupled with Fort Osage’s 42-26 loss at Oak Park, the Pirates jumped to the No. 2 seed in the Class 5 District 8 bracket, and they open hosting Raytown (1-8) in the first round Friday night at Pirate Stadium.

Entering the postseason still stuck at No. 9 in the Class 5 Missouri Media poll, Platte County and Raytown match up four weeks after their conference matchup, which the Pirates won by a score of 35-12 — but not after trailing for much of a mistake-filled first half.

However, with a win, Platte County now also hosts a second-round matchup against the Fort Osage (5-4) or Winnetonka (2-7). District seeding remained up in the air going into the regular season finale but Platte County easily moved into the second spot despite facing a 1.2-point deficit to Fort Osage in the standings before Friday’s game started.

“I’ve penciled it out for them,” Utz said. “I showed them exactly what needed to happen just so they would know (how we could move to No. 2), but at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter. You have to play no matter what the scenario ends up being.”

Platte County truly turned the game into a blowout in a critical sequence late in the first half.

Rotating between three quarterbacks, William Chrisman produced the best sustained drive while trailing 35-0 into the second half. Declan Watson, a junior, and freshman Dezman Warner combined to complete three passes to set the Bears up with a first and goal at Platte County’s 3.

On the next play, William Chrisman senior running back Lance Neuer plowed into the line for a 2-yard gain but came up short of the goal line. The Bears took a timeout with just about a minute left in the second quarter. The initial stop proved consequential when Warner attempted a quick pass from the 1 with Burnett reading the play from his left cornerback spot and reaching into bat the ball into the air.

Clemons came over and corralled the interception with his feet on the goal line and then raced exactly 100 yards down the visitor’s sideline for his first career touchdown. Smith even came from well behind the play and provided a late block on the quarterback to allow Clemons to finish his route to the end zone.

“Man, I’m thanking (Burnett),” said Clemons, who added five tackles and a pass breakup to go with his memorable first career interception. “I always try to go back and help him, not that he needs no help. When I see the ball pass my head, I always look back, just run to the ball. I needed a pick — finally got it.

“I had to thank DJ, too. That helped a lot.”

Instead of giving up a score and needing to add points after halftime to induce the 35-point running clock, Platte County went into the break up 42-0. The Pirates gave the starters one more defensive possession in the third quarter, and this time, Smith, who recorded six tackles, picked off Watson on another ball knocked into the air.

Smith then raced 40 yards untouched down the William Chrisman sideline for his first career touchdown.

“(Smith) made a huge block on Tez’s return,” Utz said. “He busts his tail to come down and make that play to spring him, and that’s like insta karma that he comes out and gets himself one. We’ve got some guys that play on unbelievable emotion, and he’s definitely one of them.”

Despite a botched snap on the extra point, Platte County led 48-0 with 5:05 left in the third quarter.

William Chrisman finished with just under 200 yards of offense with Neuer accounting for 70 rushing on 20 carries plus a short touchdown on the Bears’ final possession. In addition to the interceptions, the Pirates defense harassed all three quarterbacks with senior defensive end Tucker McDowell added 1 1/2 sacks — one where he stripped the quarterback for a fumble the offense recovered — to go with four tackles, while junior defensive lineman Jordan Miller (one tackle) shared the other sack.

Platte County’s retooled secondary in wake of junior safety Caden McGhee’s season-ending knee injury in a Week 3 win over North Kansas City continued to take strides, even with senior cornerback Ayden Watts’ streak of consecutive games with an interception ending at four. He notched four tackles, while sophomore safety Ty Christopher added four more, Burnett three, and junior safety/cornerback Taylor Stamberksy one.

William Chrisman’s three quarterbacks all experienced various levels of success — Watson (9-for-13, 97 yards), Warner (1-for-2, 10 yards) and sophomore starter Connor Elliott (2-for-9, 28 yards) all receiving. They each threw one interception.

Most importantly, Platte County also returned junior Trevor Hay (three tackles) to his first full game since a broken wrist sidelined him from Week 2 until his limited return a week earlier against Park Hill South. That gives the Pirates the ability to use the versatility he brings along with senior linebacker Seth Martin (two tackles), junior linebacker Archie Wesley (two tackles and a pass defensed) and sophomore Cale Buntz (one tackle) around the central linebacker duo of Smith and junior Cobe Pollard (team-high 11 tackles plus one for loss) and the defensive line rotation of McDowell, Miller, senior Markus Delfin (two tackles) and junior nose guard Kameron Doyle.

That’s led to improvements in stopping the run.

“That helps us a lot,” Clemons said. “I feel like we don’t have to worry about the run as much as the pass. We can focus on the pass a little more.”

Despite the point output, Platte County went scoreless for the first 5:30 and put the defense in a couple of potentially compromising positions early.

William Chrisman punted near midfield on the game’s opening possession but picked off Pirates sophomore quarterback Rocco Marriott just three plays later on an initial third down. The Bears immediately went three-and-out with McDowell and Miller combining on a third-down sack to put the ball back in the offense’s hands.

Gisler received a carry on the next snap and broke outside for an 80-yard touchdown run — the longest of his career — to put Platte County up 7-0 with 6:30 on the first quarter clock.

“It was nice,” Utz said. “That breakaway speed on a running back is something that can be really special. We’ve had some great players here, but it’s been a while since we had something like that, and I mean he was leaving people. It was an impressive run right from the get-go and then he kicked in that extra gear at the end and finished the job.”

Gisler ended up with 174 yards on just 10 carries, topping the century mark for the fifth time in nine games, the last eight of them starts after he took over Platte County’s lead running back duties in wake of junior Dayton Doll’s season-ending injury in a Week 1 win over Kearney. Gisler also became the 12th running back in recorded program history to record 1,000 yards in a season — first since Adel Freitek in 2018 — and now sits at 1,033 entering the Week 10 game against Raytown.

Marriott experienced relative struggles and finished just 4 of 17 for 38 yards but two of the completions went for scores in addition to the two interceptions. However, Platte County receivers recorded at least four drops in addition to a pair of holding penalties on the Pirates their drive that ended with a long pass down field on third and 20 where sophomore wide receiver Braiden Stevens either lost track of the ball’s flight path or discontinued his route on what essentially resulted in the same result as a punt.

Platte County also punted on the offense’s fourth possession of the first half after a false start penalty cost 5 yards on first down.

“The penalties were almost all aggressive penalties that sometimes when you’re used to playing fast you can end up in a spot where there’s a hold here, a hold there that’s subject to the style of the game,” Utz said. “We just need to adapt to that. We had way too many dropped passes, and we had some guys open that we missed sometimes. We just have to get a little bit better.”

However, Platte County caught a break on the punt when William Chrisman freshman called for a fair catch but rushed up late unable to cleanly field the ball, which hit his hands as he reached down close to the turf. Pirates sophomore tight end Jack Utz fell on the loose ball, giving the special teams this same type of turnover for a third straight week after Martin had one in wins against Belton and Park Hill South in Weeks 7 and 8.

Gisler then broke off runs of 15 and 17 yards before Marriott dashed around left end for a 7-yard run with officials ruling him out of bounds at the 1 just short of the goal line. Gisler plowed in from 1 yard out on the next play to extend the lead to 14-0.

For the rest of the first half, Gisler remained the focal point of the offense, although Marriott also 39 yards on the ground on five attempts. Platte County continued to receive strong offensive line play from the same combination of five starters in place for every game this season — seniors Muyonta Maxwell (left tackle), Becker Grego (right guard) and Gage Fulk (right tackle) plus juniors Riley Hixson (center) and Drew Doll (left guard). The Pirates have swapped spots for Grego and Hixson after a Week 4 loss to Grain Valley, and sophomore Quinn Lightle continues to rotate in at both tackle and guard in what has become a strong six-player rotation.

After the second rushing touchdown, Gisler also showed off his versatility, hauling in an 11-yard pass that went for a score after he tight-roped down the sideline and across the goal line to increase Platte County’s lead to 21-0. He finished with two catches for 27 yards while sophomore wide receiver Tres Baskerville accounted for the other two receptions (11 yards) from Marriott.

“(Gisler) is a great ball player, and he’s playing with a lot of confidence,” Bill Utz said. “He’s putting a great year together where he’s just continuing to get better and better and better. He’s a kid that’s going to work for you. He’s worked to get to this point, and he’s going to continue to do so.”

On William Chrisman’s next play, Burnett broke on a pass from Elliott for his fourth interception of the season and went 25 yards for a touchdown — his second of the season and first since intercepting two passes and returning one for a score in the first matchup with Raytown. The Pirates have 17 interceptions total this season spread between between nine different players after having only 25 total the last two years combined — 13 in 2021 and 12 in 2022.

Burnett and Watts lead the way with four apiece, while Christopher has three in his first-year as a starter and McDowell, Smith, Hay, Clemons, McGhee and Stambersky each have one. Five of them have been returned for touchdowns with Burnett’s second looking very similar to his first a month earlier.

“There wasn’t any doubt (I was going to score),” Burnett said.

With the 28-0 lead, Platte County kept the momentum after McDowell’s strip sack forced another William Chrisman punt. Runs of 24 yards from Gisler and 26 for Marriott then set up a quick pitch pass to Baskerville that went 6 yards for a score and essentially ended the night for the Pirates’ offense with the Bears throwing interceptions that went back for touchdowns on two of the next three possessions with the other coming right after Clemons’ 100-yard return that led to halftime.

Platte County allowed junior reserve quarterback Brady Davis all of the second-half possessions, and he finished 1-for-3 for 6 yards, completing a pass to freshman Brody Hawk — a defensive end receiving a few snaps at wide receivers. The Pirates also gave carries to sophomore running back Isaiah Seymour (two for 5 yards), sophomore Zach Burch (four for -8 yards) and freshman Carlos Baskerville (2 for -1 yards).

In addition, Platte County rested the defensive starters after Smith’s interception return, and senior cornerback Savion Jones recorded two tackles, while junior linebacker Merritt Bigus, sophomore linebacker Cole Johnson, Burch, sophomore defensive back Mogie Walkingstick added one each. The Pirates were then able to start thinking about the start of district play, even with the first-round opponent not yet known as the game came to an end.

“We’re starting to flip mindsets now,” Clemons said. “It’s win or go home. Coach has been talking to us all week about it starts here. We did what we were supposed to do, and now, I feel like now it’s starting to lock in.”

Platte County failed to reach a district title game last season — a first for the program since 2014. The Pirates have since turned a small but talented senior class and a group of rapidly rising juniors and sophomores with a sense the roster might be a year away from competing again.

Instead, Platte County opened 3-0 with wins over Class 4-ranked Smithville (No. 1, 8-1) and Kearney (No. 4, 7-2) plus Class 5 District 8 No. 5 seed North Kansas City (2-7). Losses to top-seeded and White Division champion Grain Valley (8-1, No. 2 in Class 5) and Class 6 No. 7-ranked Oak Park (9-0) followed before the Pirates righted the proverbial ship with the wins over Raytown, Belton, Park Hill South and now William Chrisman.

The path is set, difficult and likely requires wins over Fort Osage, which beat Platte County in the 2021 Class 5 District 8 title game, and Grain Valley — District 7 champion the past two years before a reshuffle this season moved the Eagles over. However, the playoffs seem a possibility for a program intent on making the absolute most of this season while setting up for success in future years.

“This is the funnest team I ever played with so shout out to all the young guys,” Burnett said. “It’s been amazing.”