The undefeated champions of the KCI Conference, the Penney High School Hornets, are three wins away from a Class 1 state championship, with a quarterfinal test coming up at 7 o’clock tonight (Friday night) at Plattsburg High School. The game is a rematch from September 16th, when the Hornets hammered the Tigers 42-7 in regular season action.
Penney advanced to the quarterfinals by defeating the Princeton Tigers, 56-6 in the District 8 final last Friday night on KTTN FM 92.3. Head Coach Caleb Obert got another strong effort from senior quarterback Jaran Richman, particularly on a late second quarter drive that went 75 yards, and gave the Hornets a 26-6 halftime lead:
Obert expects the postseason challenge of Plattsburg to be more difficult than the regular season matchup:
Plattsburg entered the postseason with a rather pedestrian record of 3-6, but victories over West Platte, Wellington-Napoleon, and East Buchanan earned the Tigers the District 7 title, with a scoring advantage of 93-38 in those contests underscoring Plattsburg’s tremendous postseason surge.
Playing the long-held coaches philosophy of “never looking ahead”, the Hornets have all focus on the quarterfinal rematch with Plattsburg, even with the possibility of a state championship rematch looming. If unbeaten Hamilton and once-beaten, defending state champion Valle Catholic win this weekend, the Hornets would host the Warriors next weekend in the Class 1 state semifinals. Valle Catholic beat Penney in last year’s state title game at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis.
The Hamilton at Plattsburg contest is the only Class 1 quarterfinal scheduled for Friday night. The others will be Saturday at 1 PM, with Valle Catholic at Thayer, Cass-Midway at Lincoln, and Marceline at Monroe City.
Hamilton won the KCI regular season title with a head-to-head win over runner-up Lawson, 34-33. In Class 2, the 10-2 Cardinals won District 8 last Friday night with a 37-34 victory at Lexington, sending the Cardinals back home for a quarterfinal test against Summit Christian Academy. That game, on Saturday afternoon at 1 o’clock, will be played at Lawson High School. Other Class 2 quarterfinals are, on Friday night at 7, Malden at Trinity Catholic, and on Saturday at 1 o’clock, Brentwood at Centralia. Liberty (Mountain View) will play at defending state champion Lamar on Saturday afternoon at 1:30.
In Class 3, the #1 ranked Maryville Spoofhounds host high-scoring Kansas City Center on Saturday afternoon at 1 o’clock. Other 1 PM kicks on Saturday will be Park Hills Central at Miller Career Academy and Owensville at Monett. At 7 o’clock tonight (Friday night), McCluer South – Berkeley plays at Jefferson City Blair Oaks.
The game in Class 4 with #2 Hannibal battling #1 Kearney will be played on Saturday. It will be a 1:30 kick from Kearney High School. The rest of the Class 4 slate is Friday night at 7, with Ladue Horton Watkins at Cape Girardeau Central, Parkway North at Parkway West, and Harrisonville at Webb City.
All four of the Class 5 quarterfinals will be played on Friday night at 7 o’clock, with Vianney at Chaminade, Park Hill South at Kansas City Staley, Fort Zumwalt North at Glendale, and Carthage at Belton.
Class 6 and eight-man are down to the semifinal round, with tonight’s winners advancing to the state championship games next Friday, November 18th at Memorial Stadium in Columbia. In Class 6, Kirkwood is at Kansas City Rockhurst and Blue Springs at Christian Brothers College (CBC). In eight-man semifinal action, King City will host North Andrew while Stanberry is at Sedalia Sacred Heart.
The Class 1 through 5 state championship games are two weekends away at Missouri State University in Springfield.
