Platte County goes into bye week with unbeaten record, much more on to-do list

Platte County conducted the traditional senior night festivities pregame and then celebrated a noteworthy first for the 22 members of this year’s class after expectedly maintaining an unbeaten start to the season. With no pomp nor circumstance, the Pirates’ 55-13 blowout win over Raytown on Friday night at Pirate Stadium officially earned the program’s first conference title since 2020.

Now, the work to make the so-far exemplary season truly special begins.

Platte County (9-0) goes into Class 5 District 8 play with a well-earned bye in the first round after the program’s first unbeaten regular season since 2006. The Pirates have state title aspirations and maintained a No. 2 ranking in the final Class 5 Missouri media poll until after the playoffs, only able to flip one first-place vote from Cardinal Ritter (7-1) after the 2022 Class 3 and 2023 Class 5 champions lost 50-48 to Lutheran North on Friday night.

“It’s always an emotional time on that senior night,” Platte County coach Bill Utz said. “I couldn’t be more proud of this team. They’ve done a great job; they’ve done everything that we’ve asked them to do. To finish their senior night like this, you can’t really ask for anything better.”

Platte County finished an unbeaten run through the Suburban Conference White Division with another well-rounded effort. The Pirates scored on the first official play of the game, and the defense forced five turnovers — four in a dominant first half — before junior wide receiver Tres Baskerville’s kickoff return touchdown to start the third quarter put the reserves in for the remainder.

The seniors were a big part of the proceedings with safety Caden McGhee recording a meaningful pair of interceptions and Trevor Hay adding another to give him five in a span of three weeks, while running backs Dayton Doll and Isaiah Seymour also found the end zone once each.

Platte County junior quarterback Rocco Marriott also threw three touchdowns — one each to Baskerville, junior wide receiver Braiden Stevens and junior tight end Brooks Hall — to help build a 48-0 halftime lead. The Pirates poured on 34 points in the second quarter alone and rolled to the sixth win this season with a running clock in effect at the end.

“We gave the challenge to the whole team to get things taken care of right away, and they did that,” Utz said.

Raytown (5-4) entered with a winning record and looking improved.

A year ago, Platte County won both meetings between the two teams — one in the regular season and another in the opening round of Class 5 District 8 play — but experienced some struggles and finished with just 35 points in both. The Bluejays didn’t provide any unexpected challenges this time around.

After taking the opening kickoff, Platte County’s very first play came in Raytown territory after the Bluejays went three-and-out from inside their own 20 and then managed only a 34-yard punt. Doll took a handoff and charged into the red zone only for an illegal formation flag to negate the big gain. The Pirates never let the miscue have an effect with junior running back Adam Gisler taking the next carry and racing virtually untouched for a 48-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead after less than a minute.

“It was the exact same play; it was literally the exact same play,” Utz said. “We just switched running backs because Dayton had just made the long run, and for Adam to come out and basically go untouched, I think it kind of set the tone from the get-go what we were here to do and what was in store.”

Platte County ended up scoring on seven of eight possessions in the first half but did exchange three-and-outs with the one-possession lead after Marriott misfired on his first two passes. After Raytown’s third punt, the Pirates reeled off the longest sustained drive of the game.

Marching 80 yards in six plays, Marriott hit Baskerville for a 43-yard gain, and Gisler, who finished with a team-high 77 yards on just three carries, ripped off 20 yards on the next snap. Doll finished with a 1-yard touchdown plunge after a creative fake from Marriott to increase the lead to 14-0.

Platte County again looked efficient in the run game with Doll posting 27 yards on six carries, while Seymour eventually received an extended look with the big lead and added 30 yards on six more attempts. Marriott ran just twice for 19 yards, giving the featured ballcarriers more than 150 yards on just 17 attempts.

For the fourth straight game, Platte County started seniors Riley Hixson (center), Drew Doll (right guard) and Owen Rawlings (right tackle) with juniors Quinn Lightle (tackle) and Michael Poncavage (guard) on the left side. However, the Pirates also brought back senior left guard Gus Keeton for the first time since suffering an ankle injury in a Week 5 win over Belton. He started the first five games but worked in as a reserve, while the second quarter also featured a look with Drew Doll at tackle and senior Anthony Jacquez at center and Hixson shifted out to right guard.

“We’ve got six, seven kids that are rotating and doing a great job,” Utz said. “That’s the one group that continues to get better every week. You have those guys and add in the tight ends and all our running backs, and that’s a group that’s kind of unsung.”

After the offense keyed the early lead, turnovers fueled Raytown’s quickly widening deficit. McGhee (six tackles, two pass breakups) ended the Bluejays’ next drive with his first interception since Week 3 of 2023 when he grabbed a pick but then saw his season end with a torn ACL suffered during the return. He outjumped sophomore defensive back Jordan Moore, who made two tackles while receiving more looks at corner on passing downs behind senior Bronson Ryan (two tackles), for a jump ball after senior quarterback Geguieffa Williams overshot his intended receiver.

On the first play of the second quarter, Marriott produced points off of the turnover, hitting Hall on a seam route down the middle for a 31-yard score. He easily beat the defense and grabbed his first touchdown of the season to push Platte County’s advantage to 21-0, and after Raytown again went three-and-out, Gisler punctuated a short drive with a 9-yard touchdown run on his third and final carry to increase the lead to 28 points with 8:57 left before halftime.

Raytown senior running back Ghustice Brownlee, who carried four times for 1 yard, fumbled in the backfield on the next play when Platte County junior defensive tackle Cole Johnson (one tackle plus one for loss) tracked him down from behind and punched the ball loose. Pirates senior linebacker Brock Fowler (four tackles plus one for loss) recovered.

Platte County appeared to immediately take advantage, only for a holding call to negate a rushing touchdown on an end-around for Stevens. Three plays later, Marriott found him wide open for a 14-yard receiving score that capped a stretch of 21 points in less than 5 minutes.

The situation became even worse when Williams’ third-down pass on the ensuing drive with McGhee grabbing the ball off the carom for the fourth interception of his career.

“Caden’s a great player, and for him to step up and make the plays the way he did was excellent,” Utz said. “They were textbook plays.”

Doll and Gisler were done for the night at that point, and Seymour bullied into the end zone from 10 yards out on another short touchdown drive to put Platte County up 42-0. The Pirates’ final points of the first half came after Hay helped maintain the shutout after Raytown drove across midfield. He went up over the top of Bluejays senior star receiver Larry Porter (nine catches, 101 yards) for a contested interception near the home sideline that visibly fired up his teammates.

Hay came into the season with just one career interception but now has five — already tied for the second most in a single season in program history, according to available records. He now trails the mark of nine Austin Soendker (2005) and Ryan Weedin (2002) share.

“For a lot of the season, (Hay) was close, and it was like we were right there,” Utz said. “All the sudden he started finding them, and it’s like a magnet to his hands right now.”

On the first play after Hay’s interception, Raytown’s defense bit on jet sweep motion in the backfield and left Baskerville wide open down the home sideline. Marriott hit him with a pass and allowed his speedy receiver to race the majority of the 78 yards for another touchdown that increased the lead to 48-0 after a missed extra point.

That marked Marriott’s final pass, and he finished 9 of 14 for 220 yards with completions spread to six receivers — team-highs of three catches and 139 yards for Baskerville, two for 21 yards to Stevens and one each for Hall, Dayton Doll (13 yards on a juggling catch and run), Christopher (10 yards on an impressive toe-tap reception along the sideline) and junior Jack Utz (6 yards). Marriott moved to 28 touchdown passes this season and 53 for his career, moving him to third on Platte County’s all-time list after passing Chris Ruhnke (52, 2017-2020).

Marriott now trails only Brandon Gutshall (56, 1997-2000) and Justin Mitchell (59, 2013-16).

“Rocco’s done a great job. Tonight, boy, his passes were very good,” Utz said. “Taking absolutely nothing away from Rocco because he’s earned everything, a lot of that goes to these great receivers, as well, and this team in general. Those individual records are ultimately team records, and they know that. That’s the best thing about this team. These guys play for each other in that sense.”

Raytown managed to burn the final 3:12 of the second quarter on the final drive of the second quarter.

Utz planned to give Platte County’s first-string offense the first drive out of halftime, but Baskerville’s 87-yard return touchdown on the opening kick of the second half changed the plan. Raytown managed a 30-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter and answered the Pirates’ fourth interception — the first for junior Matt Cisco — with a 22-yard pick-six for the game’s final points with 4:44 left in regulation.

The majority of Raytown’s 158 yards of offense came against the reserves.

“The plan was to let the offense run one more series, and Tres decided to make that a one-play thing,” Utz said. “We wanted to get the first string kickoff return team to get a rep just to see it, and obviously, it went pretty well.”

Platte County again looked stout up front despite liberally rotating the combinations of senior defensive tackles Jordan Miller and Kameron Doyle (one tackle plus two for loss), senior defensive end Archie Wesley (one tackle and a 1/2 sack) and junior defensive end Cale Buntz (one tackle) with Johnson (1/2 sack), fellow junior Cooper Hammontree and sophomores Kyler Parker (three tackles) and Brody Hawk.

The safeties were again the big beneficiaries for Platte County with senior Darrell Smith recording a team-high seven tackles to mostly keep the cornerbacks out of one-on-one situations. In addition to Moore and Ryan, senior Montez Clemons added a tackle and one pass breakup.

Platte County senior quarterback Brady Davis returned to action in a reserve role and attempted two passes with one completion to sophomore tight end Nick Fetterman, who gained 9 yards on his first career interception. The Pirates also continued to use a fourth running back with junior Zach Burch gaining 21 yards on 3 carries before Utz used even more of the depth on the roster.

Cisco (one tackle) saw a penalty negate a potential second interception, while sophomore linebacker Carlos Baskerville (three tackles), junior safety Mogie Walkingstick (two tackles), junior linebacker (one tackle) and senior cornerback Seth White (one tackle) also involved in the comfortable second half.

Many have contributed to this point with Platte County having only two games decided by less than 31 points. In fact, the 49-20 win over Washburn Rural (Kansas) in Week 4 featured two interception returns for touchdowns, and the 28-13 victory over Fort Osage a week earlier involved a touchdown on the final play of the game with the result very much decided.

Now, Platte County can spend a couple of weeks resting and preparing for what comes next and won’t have any added pressure with Cardinal Ritter staying at No. 1 in the state polls after the loss to Lutheran North (8-1), ranked first in Class 4 with a lone loss to an out-of-state opponent.

“A lot of people look at bye weeks and wonder if that’s too much time off. I’m not worried about it at all,” Utz said. “I welcome it. We can give our bodies a little bit of rest, get our minds a little bit of rest and be ready to roll.”

Platte County’s storied track record features many dominant stretches, but the Pirates’ last conference title came in the Blue Division back in 2020, a season that ended with a loss in the Class 5 state championship game. In another random historical connection, the most recent undefeated regular season ended with a state playoff loss to St. Pius X in 2006.

St. Pius X (8-1) could be a postseason opponent again but not for three more weeks. The Warriors, ranked No. 3 in the Class 5 media poll, earned the No. 2 seed in Class 5 District 8 after being bumped up from Class 3 due to increased enrollment and the private school success factor. They open play this week against William Chrisman (1-8).

In the semifinals, Platte County hosts either be No. 4 Central (St. Joseph) or No. 5 Winnetonka with matching 4-5 records. Importantly, Fort Osage (6-3) closed the regular season with four straight wins, meaning the Indians could provide a test to St. Pius X if they are able to first top No. 6 Lincoln Prep (3-6).