By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Before Thursday’s Central Ozark Conference tilt at Carl Junction, Webb City football coach John Roderique noted how quiet his players were during warmups.
“It was real somber down here on our end,” he said. “Sometimes you think, are they really focused and locked in when they’re not hooting and hollering? Didn’t seem real excited.”
Turns out, the Class 5 No. 2 Cardinals were just that focused. “Definitely ready to play,” Roderique said.
They proved it early in a dominant 47-7 win against the Bulldogs by capitalizing on numerous Carl Junction mistakes and building a 20-0 lead in the first quarter.
Carl Junction (1-1) fumbled after gaining enough yardage for a first down on its first possession, giving the Cardinals the ball at the 31. Quarterback Landon Johnson soon scored on a 26-yard run.
Then the Bulldogs punted from their own 9-yard line and, with an unfortunate bounce, ended up giving Webb City possession at the 7. Omari Jackson punched it in from the 1 to make it 12-0.
And then after Carl Junction finally gained a first down, Kaylor Darnell intercepted a pass the very next play in Webb City territory.
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Later in the first, when the Bulldogs punted, Dante Washington fielded the kick and sprinted 89 yards for a touchdown to make it 20-0 after Jackson added a two-point run.
Carl Junction coach Doug Buckmaster was focused on those early mistakes.
“Number one, I think our kids really played hard. We competed and played hard,” he said. “We just let the ballgame get away from us in the first quarter … two physical turnovers and two unfortunate things on a kickoff return (bobbled near the goal line) and the short punt. We let the ballgame get away from us. I actually thought that if we could have mustered any offense and hung in there offensively, our defense played plenty well enough to win a football game like this but unfortunately offensively we were just not very good. They did some things we hadn’t seen from a week ago and the things they did were very sound and they were problems for us to handle so hats off to them as far as their scheme on defense and again, we’ll learn from that.”
Carl Junction had eight full possessions in the first half and punted four times to go along with a fumble and three interceptions.
For Webb City (1-1), Washington added a 37-yard touchdown run at the 7:13 mark in the second quarter and Cole Cavitt scored on a 21-yard run in the final two minutes to make it 34-0 going into the half.
Aidan Alberty scored on a 30-yard run early in the third, and then Breckin Galardo scored from the 5 midway through the fourth to make it 47-0. Carl Junction got on the scoreboard with 2:30 remaining when Tony Stewart scored on an 11-yard run.
The Cardinals out-gained the Bulldogs 326 to 184 in total offense, and ran eight fewer players. Webb City rushed 39 times for 269 yards, an average of 6.9 per carry.
Six different Cardinals scored touchdowns in the game.
“I didn’t even realize that to be honest with you. That’s great,” Roderique said.
“We have some depth at running back,” he said. “A couple of them are little bitty guys but they’re tough little suckers. That’s the position I coach so I want to make sure we’re prepared and I thought those guys really have stepped up great in the first two weeks.”
Webb City’s defense, after allowing 42 points in a loss against Nixa last week, limited Carl Junction to just 3.3 yards per play and only 2.7 yards per rushing attempt, in addition to the four turnovers.
“Just outstanding,” Roderique said. “We had guys everywhere they needed to be. We just played with so much energy. We had a great team defensive effort tonight. There were probably some outstanding players, I’m sure we’ll recognize those as we watch the film. I thought just overall the defensive effort was outstanding.”
Johnson completed 3-of-6 passing attempts for 52 yards for Webb City and led the rushing attack with four carries for 64 yards. Alberty rushed nine times for 51 yards, Cavitt had 38, Washington had 34, Galardo had 32 and Jackson had 25.
Carl Junction quarterback Dexter Merrell completed 7-of-21 attempts for 96 yards and rushed for 30.
