After the Reds crushed the Sterling Tigers 24 – 13 in a thrilling match-up on Saturday, November 4, they advanced to defeat Platte Valley 9 – 6 on the Broncos home turf. Injured quarterback Austin Coalson (18) said, “I think that game was pretty incredible. Both sides played really well and our defense stepped it up a lot. They held Platte Valley to zero touchdowns, they just had to settle for 2 field goals. I don’t think we could really ask for much more.”

Offense: On the offensive side of the ball, back-up quarterback Ty Garnhart (19) completed a pass of 30 yards to Jason Landon, even though he was put into action last minute after Coalson suffered from a shoulder injury. Travis Cunningham (18) led the team as he rushed a total of 95 yards in 16 carries to complete a touchdown in the first half of the game.

Defense: The Reds put Platte Valley in a predicament as their defense put a stop to their every play. Completing a total of 54 tackles, the Reds shut out the Broncos and pushed them back before being able to score a single touchdown. “Defensively we were all together on every single snap,” Cole Herring (18) said, “We just shut down their run game and their bass game and didn’t let them score a single touchdown.” Leading the team with ten tackles, Braeson Lewis (18) completed five solo tackles and five assisted tackles with two and half of those being tackles for loss.

Special Teams: Henry Fritzler (19) completed a sack with a two yard loss. Jake Sandau (18) intercepted the ball bringing it back to Reds possesion, while seniors Hayden Gavette, Herring, Trenton Kramer, and Evan Anderson; and junior, Jackson Contreras all completed a total of 11 defensed passes.

After defeating the No. 1 3A seed, the Reds are now in the final four. Their next play-off game is against La Junta on Saturday at 1:00 pm.

They said it:

“We are playing La Junta on Saturday. I think it’s going to go good. They have a tough team, but I don’t think they are nearly as talented as Platte Valley” (Herring 18).

“I think we are going to have to do what we did against Platte Valley. Our defense is going to need to be really good, other than that our offense needs to get some points up on the board” (Coalson 18).