By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Facing a fourth-and-goal just inches from the end zone, Springfield Catholic quarterback Quinn Northrup kept the ball on a sneak early in the second quarter.
He was stuffed at the goal line and the Irish never came close to scoring again as the Lamar football team rolled to a 46-0 victory on Saturday night in the season opener for both schools.
“It’s too bad they jumped offside on the previous play because we got in,” Catholic coach Rich Rehagen said.
“Huge, huge for our kids,” Lamar coach Jared Beshore said. “Being able to hold the line there at the very end with just a few inches for them to give was pretty special to watch.”
The Tigers shined in all phases as they began their quest to defend last year’s Class 2 championship, the eighth in school history. Lamar’s defense limited Catholic to -26 yards rushing, making tackles for a loss on 10 of 13 rushing attempts. The Tigers held Catholic to 77 yards through the air and picked off two passes – one of which was returned for a touchdown.
And Lamar’s offense rushed for 192 yards in the first quarter alone while building a 20-0 advantage. The Tigers finished with an astounding 520 yards on the ground while rushing 41 times. Five different players scored touchdowns.
“Every coach just wants their guys to come out and play fast and play physical in week one,” Beshore said. “You know there’s going to be some mistakes and our guys did what was expected mistake-wise but they came out and played ball and you can’t really ask much more than that in week one.”
Catholic found itself at a bit disadvantage early. Lamar junior Austin Wilkerson opened the scoring with a 43-yard run less than four minutes in, then the defense – helped out by some Catholic penalties – pinned the Irish at their 5-yard line and forced a punt from the back of the end zone.
That gave the Tigers possession at the 30 and junior quarterback Joel Beshore scored on a 5-yard run less than a minute later. Sophomore Jose Juarez’s point after made it 13-0.
After another punt, Lamar marched 78 yards in just five plays and scored on a 7-yard run by senior Trace Willhite with 49 seconds left in the first quarter.
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Then came Catholic’s drive to the goal line. The Irish got the passing game going early with Northrup, a sophomore, finding senior Liam O’Reilly for 24 yards and then again for 28. But the drive ended with the fourth-down stop.
“We got down 20 in the first quarter, you’re definitely playing catch up,” Rehagen said. “I know we did have a nice drive in the second quarter and got the ball moving a little bit. Getting behind against that kind of football team makes it really tough.”
Junior Logan Crockett’s 94-yard touchdown made it 26-0. Wilkerson’s first interception came a few possessions later and set up a 64-yard scoring drive. Beshore scored from the 5 to make it 33-0.
Three plays later Wilkerson did it again and this time returned it all the way to send the Tigers into the half leading 40-0.
Junior Terrill Davis added a 3-yard touchdown in the third quarter for the final score.
Both coaches found plenty to work on next week. For Rehagen it was self-inflicted mistakes.
“In the second half we had some times where we did not have 11 guys on a punt team, we had to call a timeout because we didn’t have enough personnel on defense,” he said. “Those are things we have to take care of. Those are easy things. We have a very young football team and I know they’re going to learn off of this.”
“Penalties. Discipline,” Beshore said. “Discipline on the penalties is huge. We played a very sloppy game I thought penalty-wise. I don’t know how many we had but we had a lot. A lot of that was just getting outside the shoulders on blocks, a couple offsides penalties. We’ll get that cleaned up. That’s something to be expected every season but we hold our kids to a high standard. We want to get that fixed as soon as possible.”
Northrup finished 6-for-13 passing for Catholic. O’Reilly had two catches for 60 yards, junior Reece White had two for seven and senior Quinn Roubal had a 10-yard reception.
Beshore was 2-for-4 passing for 20 yards for Lamar, while adding 116 rushing yards. Wilkerson rushed for 98 yards on just two carries. Crockett had 115 on three rushes.
