North Platte St. Pat’s dominated in all three phases against South Loup to win 56-14 in the opening game of the season Friday, and the debut of Head Coach Brad Braithwait.

The game was played at Knights of Columbus Field in North Platte.

“I’m just happy for our coaches and players, they’ve put in a lot of time the last 10 months,” Braithwait said. “I’m really happy to see them rewarded for the fruits of their labor.”

The first play call from scrimmage of the Braithwait era was a pass from his son, Jaxon, to Peyton Kramer that went for 10 yards. After that, however, the Irish ran the ball down the field like they have been known to do and went ahead on a 15-yard run by Ben Heirigs. Just two and a half minutes elapsed, and the Irish were up 7-0.

The St. Pat’s defense forced South Loup to punt after three plays. The Irish blocked the punt. Kramer recovered and ran it into the end zone and it was 14-0.

“That was nice to see, we spend an awful lot of time on special teams and if you can have success in that department, it lets the kids know that what we’re doing in practice is worth it,” said Braithwait, who was in charge of the special teams previously as an assistant under Kevin Dodson.

On their next possession, South Loup put St. Pat’s in as close to an adverse situation as they would be in all night, facing fourth down and six yards to go. Braithwait found an open Tucker Kemp, who took it down to the Bobcat six. Cotter Johnston punched it in after that and it was 21-0 with three minutes left in the first quarter.

On the first play of the second quarter, Braithwait threw a 34-yard touchdown pass to Breckyn Collins to make it 28-0.

Two minutes later, it became 35-0 when Heirigs scored on a 46-yard touchdown run.

South Loup got on the board with a little under five minutes left in the first half. Quarterback Tysen Schacher scored from 13 yards out on an option. The two-point conversion was stopped, making it 35-6.

Ben Hankla returned the ensuing kickoff all the way for a touchdown. The junior missed the extra point after hitting his first six PATs and it was 41-6, which became the score at halftime.

St. Pat’s polished off the Bobcats in the second half, with the defense scoring a safety for their first points after the break. The Irish also showed they have depth in their backfield as sophomore Ryker Atkins scored a touchdown in the second half.

Next, St. Pat’s will play at Wilcox-Hildreth (1-0) on Friday, Sept. 4.

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