Performances by Ottman, Quinlin highlight SHNH win over Platte Valley

The South Holt/Nodaway-Holt Spartans pulled off their first win of the football season in Week 4 against Platte Valley September 14 in Barnard.

The Longhorns were coming off a win of their own the week prior, hoping to coast to another victory, but the Spartans had other plans in their 60-12 win that ended the game early in the third quarter.

“Those first three weeks were tough on us, and no excuses, those teams were good,” SHNH Coach Josh Petersen said of the Spartans’ 0-3 start to the season. “But tonight, we executed the game plan and got a win. Tackling has to get better, but our offense did what we wanted to do.”

Three consecutive interceptions by Spartan defender Eric Ottman started Platte Valley’s opening offense on the wrong foot while SHNH turned those opportunities into touchdowns. Ottman accounted for four total interceptions as the team dismantled the Longhorns over the course of the first quarter.

On the flip side, the Spartans got their offense firing on all cylinders behind quarterback Drew Quinlin’s six touchdown passes in the victory and one on his own.

“We’ve got several guys who can be 100-yard receivers any given night,” Petersen said. “As long as we can get things figured out defensively, we’ll be alright.”

Keeping the Longhorns at bay, the Spartans scored 20 unanswered points with a pass from Quinlin to Reagan Morris, a 10-yard run by Quinlin and a 20-yard run by Ottman.

Platte Valley got on the board in the closing minutes of the first quarter on a 33-yard touchdown run by Dalton Luke, whose running game created plenty of problems for the Spartans, but wasn’t enough on its own to secure a win in Week 4.

“I thought our guys came out and played hard tonight, and I don’t feel like we underestimated South Holt/Nodaway-Holt, but we may have underestimated their speed,” Platte Valley Coach Cree Beverlin said. “They just have a lot of athletic kids.”

The first quarter ended 20-6, but SHNH got to work early in the second quarter to build on the momentum they created in the first quarter, opening with a 34-yard touchdown play from Quinlin to Morris. Ottman scored a few minutes later on an 18-yard run before Platte Valley scored their second and last score of the night on a 43-yard pass play from Patrick O’Connor to Luke to make it 34-12 with 3:15 left in the first half.

Quinlin threw for three more touchdowns in the closing minutes of the first half, hitting Ottman on two touchdown passes and Dylan Schuetz on another for a halftime score of 54-12.

“At that point we were just hoping to end the game in one half and get our guys out of there healthy and with the win,” Petersen said. “But they did good to come back out with that fire and get things done early in the second half.”

It took just another minute and a half in the third quarter for the Spartans to score the needed touchdown to end the game early. Quinlin’s sixth touchdown pass was a 26-yard completion to Morris to end it at 60-12.

The win is the first for the Spartans as both teams go into Week 5 with a 1-3 record. SHNH travels to DeKalb September 21 and Platte Valley hosts North Shelby for their Homecoming.