By Jordan Burton (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Lamar…
Lamar
Lamar
Lamar
Lamar
Lamar.
Yeah, the Tigers have won six straight Class 2 titles and if you want to win a state championship you have to go through Lamar. They’re again the favorites locally and a state level, although they’ll likely have to visit Trinity Catholic in a semifinal rematch of last year’s state championship. TC has about a half dozen players getting D-1 interest, mostly all at the skill positions. The Ozarks is still really good at the Class 2 level, with Strafford, Liberty and Fair Grove probably all being robbed of state championship appearances because of the Tigers.
District 3
Favorite: Lamar
These dudes haven’t lost a game to a Class 2 team since November 2010. Since the start of the 2011 season, Lamar has shutout 34 opponents with three of those coming this year with potentially a fourth being taken away because Lamar couldn’t find anyone to play them. This year’s defense has given up multiple scores just once all season and that came against previously unbeaten and state-ranked Class 3 Seneca, while Lamar had got two and three deep at some positions. You can make a case that this is one of Scott Bailey’s best defenses ever. Travis Bailey will be Lamar’s next D-1 prospect; he’s the best linebacker I’ve seen locally at the high school level since Cale Cornman at Liberty. Bailey has the rare blend of athleticism and motor so not only is he physically capable of making every play, but he has the innate desire to make every play. Senior defensive ends Cooper Lucas (reigning Big 8 Defensive POY) and T.W. Ayers will play college football and their physicality and relentlessness, mixed with their ability to defend the run and pass, gives Lamar an insanely dominant front seven. Then you have Mike Danner and Landon Hardman flying around the secondary with great ball skills. I know people are wondering when this streak ends, but with the way this defense brings it, I would be shocked that it happens this year, assuming Lamar doesn’t get complacent and continues to play inspired football.
Best of the Rest:
See Lamar.
District 4
This is the district of death in Class 2 with Ava, Mountain Grove, MV-BT/Liberty and Strafford. This year isn’t necessarily as top heavy as it’s been in recent years, but winning this thing will take some work and luck. Either way, the winner will have to go toe-to-toe with Lamar, which is about as fun as a root canal.
Can we also just admire how things worked out with seeds. Mountain Grove was sandwiched between Strafford and Liberty, an interesting position because the Panthers beat Strafford but lost to Liberty. Because of the way the head-to-head challenge system works, Grove got to jump Strafford before Liberty had the opportunity to jump Grove. Without doing the math, had Liberty beat Houston by three more points to secure the max differential, you’re potentially looking at Grove being the 4-seed and seeing Ava on the road in the semifinals. Instead, the Panthers will get back-to-back home games against teams they’ve already beaten.
Favorite: Ava
Ava had its best season in program history, running the table and winning the SCA outright for the first time and claiming sole possession of a conference championship for the first time since 1986 (I wasn’t born yet). Every coach said Ava would win the SCA during the preseason so I’m not sure it was a surprise to anyone along Highway 60, but the way it happened was impressive. Ava opened the season with a win over Class 4 Marshfield. Then went to Grove and Liberty on consecutive Fridays to start September and left with wins. The Bears blanked Class 3 Salem and drilled Class 1 power Thayer too. This is a typical Dan Swofford team that does it with defense, pitching four shutouts and holding every opponent to fewer than 20 points, but this Ava team also has some explosiveness offensively with Stephen Copeland (877 rush yards, 11 TDs) and Quincey McDonald (750 rush yards, 13 TDs) and junior quarterback Caleb Johnson being the trigger man. Maybe most importantly, Johnson has been able to efficiently beat loaded boxes for big plays through the air just enough to keep safeties away from the line of scrimmage. Johnson has also been a grown man defensively with 13 sacks. Ava is really good, but other teams in the Ozarks have been in the same position before. MV-BT/Liberty (2011, 2013, 2015, 2016), Strafford (2014) and Fair Grove (2016) were all undefeated going into the Lamar game and only Liberty in 2015 managed to play with them. Ava’s ability to withstand the mental challenge of playing Lamar will go a long way towards deciding if they can hang physically.
Best of the Rest
I’m not sure it’s as cut and dry as it seems on paper. Ava is the favorite but this is still Liberty’s district until someone proves otherwise. The Eagles have won eight of the last nine district titles. It took a historically good Strafford team to knock off Liberty. Most impressively, is that in many of those years they beat solid teams like Grove multiple times in the same season. Darin Acklin just understands how to get his kids going at this time of year. Also, this Liberty team isn’t as bad as its 4-5 record would indicate. Of those five losses, three came by seven points or less, two came against Class 3 programs and one came against a Class 4 program on the road. Koel Orchard has been an absolute monster in all three phases of the game, but having Jaris Acklin take over at quarterback and his growth at the position has allowed Orchard to move around the field and become a matchup nightmare. The Eagles have won four of their last five entering district play… Mountain Grove is the 2-seed in the district and depending on which team shows up, they might be the favorite in the district; keep in mind they drilled Class 3 Aurora and turbo-clocked Strafford. Injuries have greatly derailed a season that started with much promise but ultimately the Panthers have the best football player in the district, when healthy, in Carter Otwell. A knee injury has limited him offensively, but his return to the defensive side of the ball is the reason Grove was able to end a three-game losing streak with a win over Thayer. Chance Barbe is also back and healthy. Junior Trevor Thompson has been playing lights out on both sides of the ball. It won’t be pretty football, but Grove can still win this district… Strafford has quietly put together an insanely good season. The Indians have won seven straight starting the season with losses to Catholic and Mountain Grove and they’ve done it with defense. The Indians have allowed just 24 points in their last seven games, including three shutouts. In that time they’ve also proven that they aren’t afraid of power football, which seemed to be the case after those first two games. Strafford better be ready to bring a hard hat and pail to work because they’ll have three straight SCA teams to march though to win a district championship, starting with a Houston team that has won two of its last three, including a win over Grove.
Hudl Film I love: Lamar RB/DE Cooper Lucas
First of all, can we admire the fact that this kid in an all-state caliber running back and defensive end? That’s a freakish combination, to go take the pounding that a running back takes and still make plays defensively. I love the way he runs and his refusal to go down at first contact or in 1-v-1 situations, but we’re going to look at him as a defensive end. If he was taller he’d be getting some serious love. Sometimes he plays from a 3-point stance, other times he’s essentially a stand-up linebacker. Regardless, few are better at setting the edge than Lucas. You’ll rarely see a play get outside of him and regularly see him chase down plays from the backside. He’s insanely good at using his hands to get off blocks and his speed rush is maybe the best in the Ozarks. On Friday against Seneca he hit an offensive tackle with a bull rush before drilling likely All-Big 8 QB Gavin Clouse, WWE style. Even the Seneca fans gasped. His physicality on both sides of the ball sets the tone for why Lamar continues to be so dominant; there’s a reason the kid rarely plays a game without blood on his jersey.
