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By Kai Raymer (Ozarks Sports Zone)
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Who needs to travel in luxury? Not the West Plains Zizzers.
Through three road games this season, it’s hard to argue with their strategy.
The Zizzers rebounded from back-to-back home losses with a 41-21 road win at Kickapoo on Friday night, spoiling the Chiefs’ homecoming festivities. The Zizzers rushed for nearly 500 yards as a team.
With additional wins against Camdenton and Hillcrest, the Zizzers are 3-0 in road games this season. You can possibly credit their pregame bus naps.
“A lot of teams will do a charter bus and stuff like that,” said Zizzers coach Steve Ary. “We bring two (yellow school) buses and let our kids lay down in the seats. They sleep until we’re about 40 minutes out. They all feel good after a nap. It just seems to be a pretty good recipe for us.”
West Plains travels at least two hours for conference road games, although Springfield happens to be the shortest of its six destinations.
“We travel every time, so travel doesn’t really bother us too bad,” Ary said. “We’re always on a bus for two hours, any way you slice it.”
The Zizzers brought their ground game along with them Friday night. Sophomore running back Brayden Lidgard had a monster outing, gashing Kickapoo for 326 yards and five touchdowns on 33 carries.
Don’t judge him by his 5’5”, 160-pound frame. Lidgard routinely ran through would-be Kickapoo tacklers.
“He’s a stud,” said West Plains senior left tackle Dugan Kelly. “He doesn’t play like his size. He plays a lot bigger than himself. He’s really strong, especially for a sophomore.
“He’s not afraid to lower his shoulder.”
It was a much-needed outcome for West Plains, not only for the historical aspect: the Zizzers had never previously won at Kickapoo since joining the conference in 2002.
But more importantly: West Plains lost at home to Joplin (28-26) on Sept. 15 and Lebanon (27-22) last week.
“We were aggressive, our toughness got better tonight,” Kelly said. “We had a couple of bad weeks on the offensive line. We fixed it in practice and I guess it showed tonight.
“Coach (Ary) gets a little bit frustrated with us, and that motivates us, too. We don’t like him being sad.”
Friday night’s game was close well into the third quarter, after West Plains led 28-14 at halftime.
The momentum even seemed to be on Kickapoo’s side after the Chiefs drove to the West Plains 2-yardline midway through the third quarter.
But a holding penalty and a sack derailed the Chiefs’ potential scoring drive. After taking over on downs, West Plains drove 90 yards in 13 plays and found the endzone on a 25-yard run by Lidgard.
Just like that, Kickapoo went from a potential seven-point deficit to trailing 35-14.
West Plains also capitalized on a pass interference call against Kickapoo late in the second quarter.
Zizzers quarterback Connor Rackley then scored with about eight seconds remaining in the half to give West Plains a 28-14 lead at intermission.
“You just can’t give away opportunities like that and expect to win football games against good teams like West Plains,” said Chiefs coach Nate Thomas. “You have to capitalize in those situations.”
Mason Auer had 172 rushing yards to lead Kickapoo, including a spectacular 56-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.
Auer’s scrambling ability also keyed Kickapoo’s first touchdown, as he eluded multiple West Plains pass rushers to find Dalton Coates for a 61-yard touchdown pass.
“It’s his first year playing quarterback and he gets a little more experience each week,” Thomas said. “We’ve thrown him into the fire. He can go out there and create (plays), even when there’s nothing there.”
Coates had 72 rushing yards and 77 receiving yards for Kickapoo.
West Plains sophomore quarterback Connor Rackley rushed for 95 yards and one touchdown on 14 carries. The Zizzers dominated time of possession, running 77 plays to Kickapoo’s 47.
“We’ve been focused on trying to get a win and getting our offensive line back on track,” Ary said. “We’ve not been taking care of business the last couple of weeks in short-yardage situations. We haven’t been running the football like we needed to. We needed to show up tonight, establish the run game and get physical.
The Zizzers improved to 5-2 overall and now stand alone in third place in the Ozark Conference.
Joplin (6-1) and Camdenton (6-1) both won and are tied for first place. They play in Joplin next week.
West Plains hosts Parkview (1-5) for senior night next week. Kickapoo (1-5) travels to Lebanon (4-3).
West Plains 41, Kickapoo 21
West Plains 7 21 0 13 — 41
Kickapoo 7 7 0 7 — 21
First quarter
Kickapoo – Coates 61 catch from Auer (Cybulski kick)
West Plains – Lidgard 4 run (Cressman kick)
Second quarter
West Plains – Lidgard 14 run (Cressman kick)
West Plains – Lidgard 9 run (Cressman kick)
Kickapoo – Auer 56 run (Cybulski kick)
West Plains – Rackley 7 run (Cressman kick)
Fourth quarter
West Plains – Lidgard 25 run (Cressman kick)
West Plains – Lidgard 6 run (kick failed)
Kickapoo – Coates 12 run (Cybulski kick)
STAT LEADERS (Unofficial)
WEST PLAINS
Passing: Rackley 10-for-16, 87 yards
Rushing: Lidgard 33 carries for 326 yards, 5 TDs; Rackley 14 carries for 95 yards, 1 TD; Lane Jett 6 carries for 39 yards
Receiving: Lidgard 3 catches for 29 yards; Randolph 3 catches for 25 yards; Josh Hackworth 2 catches for 19 yards; Mitchell Mahan 1 catch for 13 yards
KICKAPOO
Passing: Auer 6-for-13, 97 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT
Rushing: Auer 12 carries for 172 yards, 1 TD; Coates 11 carries for 72 yards, 1 TD
Receiving: Coates 2 catches for 77 yards, 1 TD; Austin Hutson 3 catches for 20 yards
