The Penney Hornets have enjoyed the benefit of either home-field advantage or opponent familiarity in rolling to four postseason victories, including Friday night’s 48-21 win at Plattsburg High School, sending the Hornets into the state semifinals for the fifth consecutive season. Now, the team that extinguished the Hornets state championship dreams in 2015 stands in the way in 2016, as Penney prepares for a weekend trip to Ste. Genevieve, and a 1 o’clock kickoff on Saturday afternoon with the defending state champion Valle Catholic Warriors.
The Hamilton boys dominated the first half at Plattsburg, scoring six unanswered touchdowns to take a 41-0 lead into the locker room. LaTroy Harper had three of the scores, opening the tallies with a first quarter, 65 yard punt return, before adding a 38 yard touchdown reception and a 51 yard scoring catch in the second quarter. Brock Swindler had two scoring runs in the first quarter (36 yards and 1 run) for Penney, while T.C. East added a one-yard plunge in the second quarter. Hamilton was 5 for 6 on East PAT’s in the first half.
The Hornets completed their scoring in the third quarter, as Derek Dixon connected on a nine-yard air strike from Jaran Richman. Plattsburg scored three times in the fourth quarter, on an end zone fumble recovery, an 11 yard touchdown pass (from Tanner Sims to Joe Turley), and a 54 yard touchdown catch by Gannon Steggall. Plattsburg finishes the year at 6-7, while Hamilton moves to 13-0.
Due to a district quarterfinal bye enjoyed by Valle Catholic, Saturday’s quarterfinal will be in Ste. Genevieve instead of Hamilton. Both teams had only one road game in playoff competition, which would normally tip the home field to the team (Penney) on the bottom half of the bracket in 2016 (even year), but Hamilton has had three home games (all in district play) compared to Valle’s two. The Warriors beat the Hornets, 62-36, in the Class 1 state title game at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis.
Valle Catholic stamped its ticket for the state semifinals with a Saturday afternoon quarterfinal win at 35-8. The Warriors are 12-1 heading into the rematch with the Hornets, with their only loss to Class #2 powerhouse Lamar.
The unbeaten run of the Marceline Tigers ended on Saturday, with a 30-21 loss to the Monroe City Panthers. Monroe City, in the state semifinals on Saturday at 1 o’clock, will host Lincoln, a 46-0 quarterfinal winner over Cass-Midway.
