South Platte 16 14 6 6 | 42
Creek Valley 0 14 6 24 | 44

CHAPPELL, NE — Creek Valley trailed by 22 in the third quarter against the South Platte Blue Knights, but the Storm's seniors refused to be denied Thursday night in Chappell.

After the Knights took a 36-14 lead with 8:09 left in the third quarter, Creek Valley outscored South Platte 30-6 the rest of the way to earn a 44-42 win.

The Storm had seven players active for the six-man rivalry matchup against the Knights. Five of those players were seniors.

All five seniors played every single snap in the game.

South Platte got off to a hot start behind two rushing touchdowns from senior Ethan Reichman. The Knights led 16-0 after one quarter.

The Storm would go blow-for-blow with the Blue Knights in the second quarter. The two teams combined for three scores in 20 seconds of game time as Creek Valley climbed back in, making the score 24-14.

Reichman then added his fourth rushing score of the day before the break to make it 30-14 at halftime.

South Platte took the opening drive of the second half in for a score to make it 36-14. Creek Valley was forced to punt on their next possession.

Then the momentum started to shift as the Storm forced a turnover on downs and scored on their ensuing possession to make the score 36-20 heading to the fourth quarter.

South Platte had the ball to start the final quarter, but Creek Valley forced a punt. The Storm again took advantage, scoring on a touchdown pass from senior Eli Schmid to senior Drew Fraass to make it 36-28 with 4:52 left in the game.

The Storm's defense forced another turnover on downs, getting the ball back with about three minutes left on the clock.

Two plays later, Schmid hit senior Lucas Trujillo on a 65-yard catch and run to even the game at 36 a piece with 2:52 remaining.

After another stop by the Creek Valley defense, the Storm had it at midfield with one minute left in the fourth. South Platte forced Creek Valley into a 4th and 17 situation from the Storm's 38-yard line.

Instead of punting, Storm head coach Joe Kupper dialed up a pass play. Schmid saw an opportunity and took off, running down the sideline for a 42-yard touchdown. With 22 seconds left, Creek Valley had its first lead of the night at 44-36.

At this point, the Storm had outscored South Platte 24-0 in the fourth quarter. The Knights weren't done though.

South platte got to Creek Valley's 26-yard-line with four second left on the clock. Reichman took off on a scramble of his own, evading multiple tackles and diving into the end zone to score on the game's final play from scrimmage.

With zero time on the clock Creek Valley led 44-42 with a PAT from South Platte upcoming to try to tie the game.

Kicked PATs are worth two points in six-man and the Knights trotted out senior Colton Moorhead to kick. To this point, he had made three, had one blocked and another failed due to a bad snap.

His final attempt of the night was blocked by the Storm. Creek Valley had completed the comeback, winning 44-42.

Schmid finished with six total touchdowns for Creek Valley: four passing, one rushing and one kickoff return score.

Senior Drew Fraass caught two touchdowns while senior Ethan Togstad and Trujillo each had one.

Schmid threw for 248 yards on 12-25 passing. He also ran for 53 yards on nine carries and went 4-6 on PATs. Trujillo finished with 28 rush yards, 27 pass yards and 103 receiving yards.

Reichman finished with 294 rush yards and six touchdowns on 24 carries for South Platte.

Creek Valley (3-4) will finish its regular season next week on the road against Potter-Dix.

South Platte (1-6) returns home to finish the regular season versus Arthur County.