Roosters advance to district title game

Tonight’s Class 4 District 7 championship game is one Pleasant Hill football coach Justin Hamilton and his team have been looking forward to since Oct. 16.

On that night, the Roosters fell at Odessa, 28-18, after leading 18-14 in the third quarter. It marked their second-straight loss in the series, but they knew there was a chance they could see Odessa again in the postseason.

“We just have to eliminate some of the mistakes we made last time,” Hamilton said. “I really feel like we beat ourselves in that game, especially offensively. I think there are some things we can do that we’ve been better at doing that will hopefully put us in position to win at the end. I told them whew we lost to them that we’ll see them again, and this is that week.”

Pleasant Hill will play at Odessa (8-3) at 7 tonight for the district title. The two programs haven’t met in the playoffs since 2021 and 2022, and Pleasant Hill won both of those games.

Tonight, it will once again be a battle of two teams quite familiar with each other. The Missouri River Valley Conference West rivals will battle for the right to face either Kearney or Savannah in the state quarterfinals.

“There will be some wrinkles in there for both teams,” Hamilton said. “We are really familiar with each other.”

The Roosters (7-4) advanced to face Odessa by crushing Central (Kansas City) 42-7 last week on the road. That came a week after the Roosters needed a blocked PAT and missed game-winning field goal attempt by Harrisonville to win its playoff opener.

“The start of the game was huge for us,” Hamilton said. “One thing I said the week before was the back-and-forth pace didn’t really fit what we do offensively in terms of we were never able to put a drive together and do what we do. A long drive where we take time off the clock and score – that never really happened in the first half the week before.”

Pleasant Hill jumped out to a big lead last Friday. P-Hill took the ball first and drove 14 or 15 plays, taking about eight minutes off the clock and scoring a touchdown. 

The Roosters did the same on their second drive, taking control of the game. They added two more touchdowns in the final five minutes of the half, taking a 28-0 lead into halftime.

“It’s what we tell our kids we want to do every week,” Hamilton said. “On the first drive, we weren’t hitting the big chunk plays like we had been in terms of 15 or 20 yards, but we were getting four, five or eight yards a pop.

“We had a fourth and two on their side, and I told our OC if we get this first down, call play action on the next play,” Hamilton added. “They were piling everybody in the box, and we were able to run right by them with our play action.”

The Roosters completed 4 of 5 passes in the game for 101 yards and one touchdown. Hamilton said his kids know they won’t throw the ball much, but when they do, it’s often successful.

They also held Central to just seven points. Central came in averaging more than 20 points per game, and only scored fewer than 14 points twice this fall.

“I thought we struggled tackling early on, but as the game went on, we got better,” Hamilton said. “They line up in some different formations we don’t typically see. Getting lined up in the proper spot was the first thing because we worked on that all week. Then, we have to react and tackle well. We talked to our kids about how defense is angles, running to the football and tackling, and we’re going to keep working on that this week.”