Raytown South, Kearney, Platte County among Friday night’s winners in Missouri football
Raytown South advanced to the Missouri Class 5 District 7 high school football semifinals on Friday night with a 35-14 home win against Neosho from southwest Missouri.
Senior Mylen Simmons did the heavy lifting for the Cardinals, scoring four touchdowns on the ground. The Cardinals led 21-0 at the break.
This marks the second straight year that Raytown South has won a district game — this, after ending the previous five seasons with a loss in their district opener.
At 8-2, the Cardinals have posted their highest win total since 2009 (10-4).
Raytown South hosts Carthage (6-4) next Friday night.
Kearney 56, St. Joe Benton 6
Casey Rooney threw three touchdowns to Manny Linthacum and Kearney’s defense scored twice in an easy Class 4 District 8 win against St. Joseph Benton.
The victory was the seventh in a row for the Bulldogs (8-2), who advance to face Savannah (7-3) next week.
Linthacum and Rooney connected on touchdown passes of 49, 29 and 21 yards — all in the first quarter. In the second, the Bulldogs’ defense came up big: a 34-yard pick-six by Conner Reid and 78-yard fumble return by Carson Shear.
Rooney completed 5 of 8 passes for 155 yards. Kale Tucking, a freshman, paced the Bulldogs’ rushing attack with 120 yards and a touchdown on six carries.
Kearney finished with 373 yards of total offense despite possessing the ball for just 15 minutes. The Cardinals (3-7) had the ball for 31.
Warrensburg 30, Osage 28
Warrensburg escaped its Class 4 District 5 game with a victory thanks to a late field goal by Rylan Henry: The senior Missouri State pledge booted a 30-yarder with 1:56 left.
Warrensburg’s defense then held off a late charge by the Indians, who drove to the Tigers’ 37-yard line with 1.9 seconds left but couldn’t convert on a last-second pass attempt.
Osage went ahead with 5:16 to play — 28-27 — after trailing by two scores at the break.
Warrensburg quarterback Kobe Westphal threw a 13-yard touchdown pass and ran for scores of 9 and 44 yards. He ran for 129 yards and threw for 176.
The Tigers (6-4) next head to Pleasant Hill (8-1) in a rematch of a Week 7 Missouri River Valley West conference game. Warrensburg upset then-unbeaten Pleasant Hill 38-31 for the Roosters’ only loss.
Platte County 35, Raytown 7
There was no looking ahead to next week’s matchup for Platte County.
The Pirates turned in a decisive win over Raytown in the opening round of the Class 5 playoffs and will face perennial power Fort Osage next.
“Something that we preach is once you get going, you keep going,” Platte County coach Bill Utz said. “I thought the defense did a great job of getting unbelievable field position. The offense was able to capitalize on that with some big plays.”
A ground-heavy attack for the Pirates, led by Adam Gisler’s 106 yards on 13 carries, crossed the goal line twice in the first quarter. The first TD came on a 16-yard run by Gisler, the second a Rocco Marriott QB keeper.
Gisler’s second rushing TD gave Platte County a 21-point lead with five minutes to play in the opening half. Then Marriott connected with Jack Utz for a 26-yard touchdown, giving Platte County a 28-0 lead at halftime.
Platte County needed less than 30 seconds — just two snaps — to trigger the running-clock rule in the second half. Marriott’s second TD pass, to Brooks Hall, gave the Pirates a 35-0 lead.
Geguieffa Williams hit Jordyn Robinson for an 85-yard TD pass play for Raytown (1-9), preventing the shutout.
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