Weather shortens Platte County’s blowout win on Marriott’s milestone night

The lightning strikes were both literal and metaphorical Friday night at Pirate Stadium.

Inclement weather and pending delays led to an early finish in Platte County’s 70-6 victory against completely overmatched Ruskin. The Pirates swiftly struck with dazzling efficiency and ended up scoring 10 touchdowns while only running 12 offensive plays in the first two quarters.

The deluge — of points, not the rain that accompanied a thunderstorm’s arrival during halftime — included senior Ty Christopher’s 83-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and defensive scores for junior linebacker Carlos Baskerville and junior defensive back Jack Johnson.

However, Platte County senior quarterback Rocco Marriott again garnered deserved attention after finishing 8-for-9 with 206 yards and five touchdowns, hitting a career milestone in the process. He became just the eight 11-man player in state history to reach 100 career passing touchdowns, according to available Missouri State High School Activities Association Records, capping the scoring with an 8-yard touchdown throw to senior tight end Brooks Hall late in the second quarter.

“It means a lot, but I couldn’t do anything without my coaches, my teammates,” Marriott said. “… [T]hey’ve helped shape me and helped me grow as a player and as a leader, and then obviously, my parents having put me in the position to succeed for my whole life. I’m just really grateful for everyone.”

Now winners of 22 straight, Platte County (8-0) — the defending Class 5 state champions — produced four one-play touchdown drives and took full advantage of three forced turnovers from the defense.

Despite the limited snaps, Marriott involved all six of Platte County’s leading skill position players, throwing one score each to a the senior trio of wide receivers Christopher, Tres Baskerville and Braiden Stevens the senior due of tight ends Hall and Jack Utz while senior running back Adam Gisler reached the end zone on his only two carries in the first quarter. Stevens remains the only player for the Pirates to score a touchdown in all eight games this season for an offense now averaging an absurd 58.4 points per game.

Platte County went into halftime up 70-6, briefly came out of the locker room and then returned after a nearby lightning strike triggered a mandatory 30-minute delay before a potential restart. Eventually, the teams agreed to end the game early rather than wait out the weather, and Pirates coach Bill Utz used the extra time to honor Marriott’s historic achievement.

“With the delay, it gave us a little bit of time to absorb that,” Bill Utz said. “What it did is it allowed me to come in and congratulate (Rocco) in front of everybody and talk to them about what this means. The beauty of this is he’s one of very few people to be in that spot, which is amazing, but we also have to have people catch the ball. We also have to have people block. We have to have a strong defense. In this game, no matter what you’re talking about, it’s a team stat whether it’s an individual name or not.”

Moments after the decision to cancel the game’s remainder, an equally important result became official about 20 miles away with Liberty North holding on for a 21-12 win over Rockhurst (6-2), which dropped out of Class 6 for the first time this season. The Hawklets have lost two of the last three and now sit more than five points behind Platte County for the top seed in the Class 5 District 8 standings. Barring an upset loss this week at Raytown (5-3), the Pirates will earn the first-round bye in the seven-team bracket and earn the right to host the championship game, assuming advancement.

Rockhurst’s strong schedule gave a potential edge in the chase despite the first loss to Blue Springs. Both defeats have come to strong Class 6 programs, while Platte County continues to roll against mostly overmatched opposition, having already gone 6-0 in Suburban Conference White Division play while also blowing out Smithville (49-7) and Washburn Rural (Kansas) (60-28). Regardless, the Pirates have taken care of business with a running clock at some point in all but one game with the closest margins of victory at 32 (Washburn Rural) and 31 (Grain Valley).

“From Day 1, we’ve talked about how we have to play for us in a sense of the level we play at,” Bill Utz said. “It’s not so much about who we’re playing; it’s about us getting better and doing what we’re supposed to do and taking the challenges from every team we play.”

Nothing changed Friday night.

Ruskin (2-6) opened with the ball and gained a rushing first down on the game’s opening play but eventually finished with just 53 yards of offense, an impressive state considering the Eagles’ scored their lone touchdown on a 79-yard completion from junior quarterback Calvion Stallings Ellison to sophomore wide receiver Quadarious Williams early in the second quarter.

Platte County held a 35-6 lead at that point following a failed two-point conversion. For the second straight week, Gisler scored on the Pirates’ opening snap, racing 49 yards off left tackle for a touchdown less than three minutes into the first quarter.

“He’s a special player,” Marriott said. “As soon as he gets the ball in his hands, there’s a chance for a touchdown every play. We looked at the box they were giving and the play that we had called, and I literally told him, ‘Go score, just go crib it first play.'”

Ruskin’s first three-and-out included a punishing hit from Carlos Baskerville in the backfield on a pass completed behind the line of scrimmage, and after a short punt, Platte County needed just two plays to double the lead to 14-0 on Marriott’s 29-yard touchdown pass to Braiden Stevens. The Pirates’ actually opened with a different defensive look starting junior Hank Fowler at linebacker alongside the usual duo of Carlos Baskerville (five tackles, one for loss) and senior KJ Stallings (three tackles), while the secondary consisted of junior Jordan Moore and senior Mudiaga Egbedeju (two tackles) with junior Matt Cisco (two tackles) and senior Mogie Walkingstick at safety.

Fowler (two tackles) took advantage when he ended Ruskin’s third drive with his first career interception, picking off Stallings Ellison at the Eagles’ 26. On the next play, Marriott hit Tres Baskerville for a touchdown to push the lead to 21-0.

“Our defense isn’t really 11 players; it’s 15 or 16,” Bill Utz said. “We have the ability to make switches and changes because the talent levels are very similar. We have guys stepping up their level. There’s no jealousy, just guys working harder to get better and understanding the bottom line of what we’re trying to do as a team.”

Gisler scored on a 40-yard run to the end zone that finished down the home sideline on the first play of Platte County’s fourth drive, and after an illegal blindside block negated a punt return score for Stevens, Marriott tossed an easy 51-yard score to Christopher behind the defense to put the Pirates up 35-0 — their fifth touchdown on their sixth offensive snap.

The lone big mistake came on Ruskin’s next play when Williams ended up behind a defender and broke a tackle. Platte County’s defense entered off of the first shutout of the season, a 63-0 win over Truman. The Pirates have continued to mix up the defensive rotations with senior Adeboye Akande (one tackle) also seeing significant time at cornerback while Johnson (one tackle) and fellow juniors Devin Lumm, Maverick Tronicn (three tackles, one for loss) all factor in at safety.

“Just trying to fill in depth, trying to make sure everyone has depth at their position,” said Johnson, who opened the season as a starting cornerback and can play multiple positions in the secondary. “(I’m) just trying to be that utility guy that they can go back and use all the time.”

Platte County didn’t need to wait long to answer with Christopher returning the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown to extend the lead to 42-6 with more than 10 minutes left before halftime. The Pirates’ offense didn’t have the ball back until the advantage hit 50.

After Williams’ gained Ruskin’s second first down, Jack Johnson, even with a cast on his left hand for a broken bone, picked off Stallings Ellison along the right sideline, returning his first career interception 43 yards for his first career touchdown. Carlos Baskerville stripped Stallings Ellison in the backfield with the ball floating into the air and falling back into the linebacker’s hands, allowing him a quick and easy path on a 21-yard return to the end zone that put Platte County up 56-6.

“We try to say we’re playing against the standard, not against a team,” Johnson said. “(We’re) just trying to hold that standard of perfection, but every now and then, we’re going to make a mistake. We just have to get back up and go at it again.”

After Carlos’ Baskerville’s fumble return, Platte County almost unfathomably were at eight touchdowns while only having run six offensive plays. The Pirates defense continued to suffocate Ruskin’s offense behind the defensive line’s increasingly dominant effort.

Platte County put the Division I tight end duo to work on the final two drives with a 52-yard completion to Hall, a South Dakota commit with FCS offers in play, setting up a 14-yard touchdown pass from Marriot to Kansas-bound Jack Utz.

Hall almost didn’t end up with a chance to reach the end zone himself.

Taking advantage of an opportunity to create a special moment, Bill Utz inserted sophomore safety Hank Marriott at wide receiver on Platte County’s final offensive drive of the first half, and he hauled in a wide receiver screen from his older brother.

Hank Marriott took full advantage and went 28 yards and inside the 10-yard line before being forced out of bounds. On the next play, Rocco Marriott completed his 100th career touchdown pass to Hall wide open in the end zone with the moment garnering acknowledgement from stadium PA announcer Brett Anderson and then received with an ovation from the senior night crowd.

“I’ve grown up with Brooks all the way since we were in preschool together so that was a cool moment,” Rocco Marriott said. “And getting the ball to Hank, I didn’t even tell my parents. They had no clue. Nobody knew except the people on offense so that was a pretty cool moment, too.”

Platte County finished off the half on defense with senior defensive tackle Cole Johnson (four tackles, two for loss) recording the first sack of his standout season on what ended up the final play of the game. Cooper Hammontree (two tackles), another senior, received the start next to Cole Johnson, while junior defensive tackle Kyler Parker still totaled a team-high three tackles for loss on his four stops and sophomore Miller Bigus also collected a sack.

While junior defensive end Brody Hawk didn’t record a state, Platte County senior Cale Buntz notched a pair of sacks and two tackles (one for loss) on the other side.

“I thought we played at a high level in all three phases. They came out and played exactly the way I anticipated they would,” Bill Utz said.

Platte County mostly used the same starting offensive line of seniors Lucas Dillingham (center), Michael Poncavage (left guard) and Quinn Lightle (left tackle) and juniors Reece Moppin (right guard) and Cooper Koenigsfeld (right tackle) for the seventh time in eight games. The lone exception came in Week 2 against Grain Valley with freshman Jayden Horn filling in for Poncavage, who missed the game with an injury. Horn continues to receive rotational time at guard.

The starters likely would have sat the entire second half, and senior reserve running back Zach Burch ended up with just one carry for 18 yards on the play before Rocco Marriott’s passing touchdown to Stevens. The only players with two catches were Hall and Jack Utz, who was stopped for a 2-yard loss on a tight end screen to start the three-play scoring drive he capped with a punishing catch-and-run into the end zone.

Rocco Marriott improved his ratio of more touchdown passes (36) than incompletions (31) on the season with an increasingly absurd 29 percent of his 124 completions going for scores. He now joins an exclusive club of seven quarterbacks with at least 100 career touchdown passes:

• Dylan Hair, Blair Oaks, 147 (2019-2022)
• Eric Czerniewski, Montgomery County, 140 (2003-2005)
• Jordan Webb, Union, 133 (2006-2008)
• Cael Welker, Jackson, 121 (2018-2020)
• Drew Newhart, Cameron, 107 (2006-2008)
• Jacob Beckemeyer, Wellington-Napoleon, 106 (2006-2008)
• Cooper Callis, Jackson, 100 (2014-2017)
• Rocco Marriott, Platte County, 100 (2022-present)

Four on the list — Czerniewski, Webb, Welker and Callis — played for pass-happy coach Brent Eckley across his stints at three different schools . He led Jackson to a 2020 Class 5 state title with a win over Platte County in the championship game with Welker at quarterback.

With the possibility of six more games, Rocco Marriott should easily reach the top five in Missouri history with Welker within reach given the current pace.

“Rocco is unbelievably deserving,” Bill Utz said. “The work he’s put in is amazing, and he deserves everything he gets. But I hope all of our players latch onto that and realize and knows they’re a part of this, too, and that it’s something the whole program can be proud of.”

Platte County now needs the win over Raytown to lock up a second straight conference title and the No. 1 seed in districts. The Pirates continue to maintain the undisputed No. 1 in the Class 5 Missouri media poll with all nine first-place votes with Carthage (7-1), Cardinal Ritter (4-3), Rockhurst, Republic (6-2), Kirkwood (6-1), Webb City (5-3), Eureka (6-2), Farmington (6-2) and Fort Zumwalt North (7-1) rounding out the top 10.

Fort Osage (5-3), Grain Valley (5-3) and Ladue (6-2) also received votes this week.