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By Jon Dykstra (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
MARYVILLE, Mo. — There were plenty of hugs to be had after the Class 3 state semifinal game in Maryville on Saturday. Unfortunately for Cassville, the Wildcats found themselves on the ends of the hugs that came with tears and words of comfort, while Maryville got the ones with smiles.
An 8-yard touchdown pass from Spoofhound junior Connor Drake to sophomore Caden Stoecklein with 11 seconds left in the game gave Maryville the 30-28 win and ended the Wildcats’ season after a furious comeback delivered Cassville the lead late.
“Talk about Cassville, that is a class program,” Maryville coach Matt Webb said. “Those guys came up here and gave everything they got.”
Cassville (10-3) entered the fourth quarter trailing Maryville 17-0, but on the period’s first play, senior quarterback Hayden Sink plunged into the end zone for a 1-yard touchdown to start a wild last 15 minutes of football.
“I just told them that I was proud of them,” Cassville coach Lance Parnell said on his message to the team. “Down 17-nothing, and find a way to come fighting back … I’m heartbroken for them right now.”
On the ensuing kickoff, Cassville senior Drake Reese caught the Spoofhounds napping by dribbled the kick right in front of himself and dove on it for a successful on-sides kick.
The Wildcats went right back to work offensively and needed just six plays to go 53 yards. Senior running back Jerricho Farris capped the drive with a 28-yard touchdown run to cut the margin to 17-14 with 10:09 left in the game.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
Maryville used its own running game to chew up over six minutes of game clock with a 15-play, 80-yard drive which ended in a 1-yard touchdown run by fullback Trey Houchin with 3:50 left to go in the game.
For the run-heavy Wildcats, things looked bleak down two scores with just under four minutes on the clock, but on the fifth play of the next drive, Sink found Reese along the sideline, and the receiver tight-roped the sideline then turned on the jets for a 51-yard touchdown reception.
With the score back to just three points, Reese went back to attempt another on-sides kick with 2:05 to play. While he hit the first one almost as softly as possible, he struck this one with some heat behind it. The ball ricocheted off a Maryville player, and Cassville jumped on it to keep its hopes alive.
“Drake is a really good kicker and he executed both of those perfectly,” Parnell said.
Facing a third-and-3, the Wildcats reached into the bag of tricks once more with a reverse pass. Reese threw downfield to a wide-open Brett Cooper for a 44-yard touchdown with 1:07 to play.
“What a great play call by Clay (Weldy, assistant coach) to take the lead,” Parnell said.
While Cassville is run-heavy, so is Maryville, but with 80 yards to go in 67 seconds, the Spoofhounds had to lean on Drake, who opened the season as the team’s backup, but has started since they lost senior quarterback Ben Walker for the season in Week One.
Drake opened the drive with a short pass which senior running back Connor Weiss turned upfield for a 35-yard gain.
After an offsides penalty on Cassville and an incompletion, Drake found Houchin for a 12-yard gain. He then connected with senior Caleb Kreizinger for eight more and Kreizinger ducked out of bounds to stop the clock.
Drake went back to Kreizinger on the next play for 18 yards to get Maryville down to the 8-yard line.
On the next play, Drake scrambled to his left to buy time before spotting a wide-open Stoecklein in the back corner of the end zone. Stoecklein hauled in the pass with 11 seconds left.
“When the ball was coming, it was coming so slow and I was just like ‘just get to me,’ and in the back of head, I was like, ‘I can not drop this,’” Stoecklein said.
A last-second Sink pass fell incomplete and the celebration began for Maryville, while Cassville’s season came to an end.
“Life doesn’t always go your way, but we talked about that we are going to walk out of here with our heads held high,” Parnell said. “We played with great effort and great heart. We aren’t going to duck our chin.
“That is a very good football team over there from Maryville, who battled us tooth and nail. I tip my hat to Coach Webb — what a great program, facility and community they have up here. We are going to walk out of here with our head held high (because) we competed our tail ends off.”
After the hard-fought game, the teams came together for longer the usual with several players from each side making sure to hug and talk with the other team’s top players. For Weiss, he says he knows the feeling that the Wildcats are dealing with after the Spoofhounds’ own season ended on a last-second play last year.
“I just said to keep your heads up,” Weiss said. “They are a great football team. Even though it is over for them, they gave it everything they had. … They did great. I just wanted to console them and make sure they were alright.”
The Wildcat seniors end their careers as two-time state semifinalists after finishing as the state runner-up last season.
“We were down 10 at halftime, and I said it to them multiple times that ‘character is not made in times of adversity, it is revealed,’” Parnell said. “Our kids’ character was revealed tonight through adverse situations.”
