All eight of South Holt/Nodaway-Holt’s touchdowns were from passes as the Spartans’ passing game dismantled the North-West Nodaway Muskets on October 19 in Oregon. The 54-6 win that ended the game midway through the third quarter allowed the Spartans to move to 4-5 while the Muskets finish the regular season 0-8.

Spartan quarterback Andrew Quinlin had a game with over 500 yards of passing and eight touchdown throws. Eric Ottman caught five of the touchdown receptions, including two for 50 yards or more. Several of the passes were across an open field where it was up to the receivers to get into the endzone after going several yards for the catch, making the SHNH passing game very dangerous.

“It was really nice to see how everything came together because this is going to be our offense until we can get Taran (Clark) back and be able to run the ball,” SHNH Head Coach Josh Petersen said. “North-West Nodaway fought hard, but with my quarterback and two receivers we’re going to air the ball out and it just works for us. We’re not a run-heavy team and the receivers all caught for about the same amount of passes so we’re spreading the ball out well I think.”

Scoring their first three touchdowns in the first quarter, the Spartans offense didn’t have the ball long each possession before lobbing the ball up for a score. The first play of their offense was a 43-yard touchdown pass from Quinlin to Reagan Morris who caught the other three scoring plays.

The 20-0 first quarter lead grew over the course of second quarter as SHNH scored 40 unanswered points on the Muskets, who struggled to get past three-and-out despite trick plays and fake punts. The SHNH defense just seemed ready for anything and everything the Muskets had in their playbook.

Putting the ball on the ground seemed to shift things for NWN as their only score of the evening came on the legs of Gabe Goff whose running drive which began deep in their own territory, resulted in a two-yard touchdown play. The score would keep the game from ending at halftime as SHNH answered back with only one more touchdown to make it 48-6 ahead of the Muskets by the end of the half.

The teams traded possessions for the beginning of the third quarter as the second half looked to be more evenly matched between the sides. It didn’t help the Spartans at all when Morris went out with an injury late second quarter.

Midway through the third quarter SHNH caught a break as a pass play across the middle to Ottman resulted in a 20-yard score to end the game 54-6.

Finishing in the middle of the district, the third-seed Spartans in district two will face sixth-seed Platte Valley at South Holt on October 26 at 7 pm. At the same time, the sixth-seed Muskets in district one will face East Atchison in Tarkio. It’s win or go home at this point in the season.