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By Kary Booher (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
WILLARD, Mo. – The high-fives and the headlines found Ethan Thompson, and deservedly so. Yet if anyone asked about Bryden Troy, a curly-haired junior defensive tackle, the Willard Tigers couldn’t help but break into a grin.
And why not?
Troy busted through the line of scrimmage and made a goal-line stop just seconds before halftime, preserving a scoreless game. And, ultimately, it set up Thompson’s 19-yard, go-ahead touchdown – on a reverse — that helped Willard rally for an 8-3 victory against the Nixa Eagles on Friday night.
That they completed the game at all was a surprise, given a 90-minute lightning delay in the second quarter – part of a hard-and-steady rainstorm of an evening – led both coaches to consider pushing the match-up to Saturday. In fact, they were 10 minutes away from making that decision.
But …
“We told coach (Brock Roweton) we wanted to finish what we started. In fact, we had so much energy that Coach told us to calm down when we were in the locker room during the delay,” Willard running back Garrett Rice said. “But that play (by Troy) spiked us up even more.”
Troy’s play blunted Nixa’s momentum and lingered as the turning point. You see, the Eagles (1-2) appeared to be atoning for a couple of near-misses, including two fumbles on prior drives, before Sean Sample peeled off a 60-yard run on the opening play of the next drive and positioned Nixa for a confidence-building score.
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It wasn’t meant to be. Not with Troy.
“I never slant, so they didn’t think I’d slant,” Troy said. “I kind of faked it, went left, then right. And I got him up enough to get the guys to tackle him.”
Said Roweton, “He’s a kid who didn’t play as a sophomore and joined us in January and has made strides. I don’t think he knew how good he could be.”
“That was a big play,” Nixa coach Rich Rehagen said. “But our kids didn’t get down.”
Willard eventually eked out the win after Nixa’ Andrew Anello kicked a 24-yard field goal with 10:45 left in the fourth quarter.
On a night when Rice rushed for 138 yards on 24 carries, Thompson had the night’s biggest offensive highlight.
He took a handoff from Rice on a reverse, got a block from quarterback Reece Dawson, and hopped over a late defender – and the goal line – for the game’s only TD. With Dawson’s keeper on a two-point conversion, Willard had an 8-3 advantage with 4:45 left.
Thompson’s TD capped a 13-play drive. Thompson had run the reverse on the third play, too.
“I was a little worried,” Roweton said.
Why?
“Because we ran that play only once or twice last season,” Thompson said. “And Garrett and I hadn’t been making that handoff very well in practice.”
Rice, a 6-foot-2, 235-pound bruiser, was the key to the play. His size and ability to bull his way for 5- and 6-yard runs and second-efforts, too, naturally draw the eyes and feet of linebackers.
That’s what happened on Thompson’s TD, which came on a second-and-8.
“I thought that was going to be the ballgame,” Roweton said. “Either we scored a touchdown, or it was going to go for a big loss.”
Willard sealed the victory thanks, in part, to Austin Joplin registering a sack with 3:02 left, pushing Nixa back to its own 36. Tommy Tapia, a Willard defensive lineman, broke up a screen pass by basically tackling the Nixa receiver in the backfield, and the next pass was batted down, leaving 2:30 left for the Tigers to milk the clock.
“This was a really good win for us,” Rice said. “We’ve said all year we’re going to be a good team, but to get to that next level, we have to do what we did last year and play together.”
