By David Kvidahl (Special to OzarksSportsZone.com)
COLUMBIA, Mo. – It’s the first weekend of December and John Roderique would love nothing more to be at practice Monday afternoon.
The longtime Webb City football coach has done this dance many times and led his team to the very edge of the season. Some years you’re ready for it to be over. Some year’s you’re not.
Even after 20 weeks together, this year was the latter.
“There’s not very many times you get to this point in time and you wish you could practicing, keep playing,” Roderique said. “We have fun every day.”
None of those days were quite as fun as Friday night as Webb City held off Holt’s fourth-quarter rally to win the Class 5 state championship 26-21 at Faurot Field on the campus of the University of Missouri.
The No. 4 team in the Missouri Class 5 poll, Webb City (11-3) won its state-record 16th state championship and first since it won Class 4 in 2019. This is the Cardinals first state title in Class 5 and it came much like the titles before it – behind a dominating rushing attack.
Running its veer option offense with lethal precision, Webb City chipped away at Holt one four-yard carry at a time. The Cardinals racked up 277 yards on the ground on 59 carries. Senior running back Cade Wilson led the way with 162 yards on 31 carries and scored two twice. Senior running back Dupree Jackson rolled up 104 yards and two touchdowns of his own.
It was a clinic on how to break a team not just physically but mentally. The Cardinals faced 15 third downs and converted nine of them. On fourth down they were even better as they converted on three of four and the only time they didn’t was late in the fourth quarter when they punted for the first time.
Even if the Cardinals only chewed up just more than four yards per carry, they refused to give up the ball. Webb City dominated the time of possession by holding the ball for 32 minutes and 19 seconds compared to Holt’s 15:41.
Stopping the Cardinals was like trying to hold off an avalanche that’s slowly – inevitably – going to bury you.
“It’s Webb City and it’s great football, that’s what they do,” Holt coach Ethan Place said. “They’re going to limit your opportunities. That kind of kills you. You’re trying to fight for those snaps.”
The No. 3 team in Class 5, Holt (13-1) was making its title-game debut and playing without its senior starting quarterback Cooper Brown who fractured his collar bone early in last week’s semifinal win over Fort Osage. That night junior Owen Merrell stepped in despite having only one touch during the regular season.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
On Friday he was given his first varsity start and proceeded to lead the Indians down the field. Senior running back Kyle Wuebbeling broke through space in the middle of the defense for a 23-yard touchdown to give Holt a 7-0 lead with 8 minutes and 26 seconds to play in the first.
Wuebbeling would rush for 120 yards.
Without much film of Merrell to scout, Webb City was at a loss as to how best prepare for the backup quarterback.
“That was one thing we were certainly concerned with, half a game was all we had,” Roderique said. “It makes it more challenging certainly.”
Webb City proceeded to punish Holt with back-to-back 13-play touchdown drives. Wilson capped the first with a 1-yard touchdown run. Dupree capped the second with a 3-yard score.
Webb City led 14-7 at halftime and proceeded to grab the game by the throat in the third quarter.
The Cardinals received the ball and marched 64 yards over 7 minutes and 40 seconds. Jackson scored his second touchdown to make it 20-7.
On Holt’s third play of its ensuing drive senior receiver Scott Ginnever was stripped and the Cardinals recovered.
“I saw the ball right there, reached my hand in there and I just pulled as hard as I could,” senior linebacker Gavin Stowell said. “Lucky play.”
Four plays later Wilson had his second touchdown, this one a 13-yard run to the end zone to make it 26-7 with 1:25 to play in the third.
Holt ran three plays and punted. It held the ball for a total of six offensive plays and 1:53 in the third quarter.
“When you’re playing teams like this they’re going to keep the ball from you, they’re going to limit your snaps, they’re going to limit your possessions so you have to make the most of every possession you have,” Place said. “If you let one or two of those go it can cost you.”
Webb City appeared on the cusp of finally burying Holt when it cobbled together another long drive, this one a dozen plays to open the fourth quarter. Only on the 13th play, Webb City quarterback Cohl Vaden was intercepted at the 5 by Holt junior safety Caden Duke. It was the spark the Indians needed as Merrell led them down the field for their second touchdown of the game. This time he connected with senior receiver Jackson Smith for an 18-yard score to cut the lead to 26-14 with 2:32 to play in the game.
Roderique was beside himself when he thought of the potential ramifications after it was his call to throw the ball deep in Holt’s territory.
“That was one of those I was so glad they saved my butt on that. That would be one hard thing to live with,” Roderique said. “We had a chance to finish them right there and that’s a stupid call. It’s on me, 100 percent.”
Holt tried an onside kick and recovered it at the Webb City 45. Three plays later Merrell hit senior receiver Isaiah Slaughter for a 31-yard touchdown to make it 26-21 with 1:46 to play.
The Cardinals recovered the ensuing onside kick but couldn’t get the game-clinching first down as Holt’s defense forced a punt for the first time Friday night.
Cooper Crouch’s punt settled at the Holt 13. The Indians had to go 87 yards in 80 seconds with no timeouts.
Roderique was not feeling particularly comfortable.
“That’s the way they’ve been all year. They come back, they fight. There were a lot of similarities between these two teams,” he said. “You could tell their team chemistry, how they competed. They competed every game.”
Holt managed to get inside Webb City’s 30 but senior defensive end Braxton Surber came up with a monster sack despite the Cardinals using just a few rushers.
Holt got to the line and snapped the ball for one final play but Dupree snagged the pass out of the air short of the end zone.
Webb City had won its 16th championship and its defense was a huge reason why.
“We just knew the last couple games before that we’d let up a pretty big number,” Crouch said. “We knew that if we wanted to keep winning football games we were going to have to make that number a lot smaller. We hustled and we grinded hard every single day at practice.”
