Olpe — The Olpe Eagles capped their perfect 9-0 regular season Thursday night with a 24-0 shutout victory over Peabody.
“It’s pretty exciting to do that,” Olpe coach Mike Plunkett said of his team’s undefeated record. “It doesn’t happen often enough, but it’s pretty neat when it does happen.”
The Eagles’ defense was at its best Thursday night, completely dominating the game in holding the Peabody offense to just 45 total yards.
Plunkett went as far as to call it Olpe’s “best defensive game this year, and probably for several years.”
“Our kids haven’t flown around like that in a long time,” Plunkett said. “Our defense smothered them. Peabody had one outstanding running back and a couple that were also good, and they really didn’t get anything.
“I was really pleased with both sides of the ball, but the defense is what led the way.”
After a scoreless first quarter, Olpe finally got the scoring underway in the second quarter when quarterback Tanner Coble hit Seth Pargman for a 21-yard touchdown pass to untrack the Eagle offense.
“It took a little while before we got going on offense. We moved the ball early and then sputtered,” Plunkett said. “When we got that touchdown pass, that spurred us on.
“It was anybody’s game at that point, and had Peabody scored first, the game could have been a lot different.”
Running back Drew Pettijohn added a three-yard, third-quarter rushing touchdown and a 15-yard TD reception in the fourth quarter, while Dallas Burenheide knocked through a 29-yard field goal in the third quarter to round out the Olpe scoring.
Coble finished the night 7-of-18 passing for 86 yards and two touchdowns, and Colton Stueve rushed 23 times for 163 yards.
Olpe will begin the State playoffs next Tuesday when it plays host to Solomon at 7 p.m. in Olpe.