By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
In a Big 8 Conference clash between two state-ranked teams, Nevada took advantage of some costly mistakes by Reeds Spring and turned in a convincing 34-7 victory on Friday night.
The Tigers, tied for third in Class 4, actually trailed early but claimed the momentum when senior linebacker Brayden Koenig intercepted a pass and returned it about 20 yards for a touchdown. Later, he recovered a blocked punt and scored to help put the game out of reach in the third quarter.
“Probably one of the best players I’ve coached,” Nevada coach Wes Beachler said. “This is my 31st year and he might be one of the best players pound-for-pound that I’ve coached. He’s not very big but he’s smart, he plays hard and he’s strong for his size. He’s special. He does a lot of nice things for us.”
His two touchdowns helped the Tigers win big in a game that Reeds Spring coach Andy McFarland felt was closer than the final score.
“Nevada’s a very good team and they’ve had a ton of success over the last couple years,” he said. “I don’t know the exact number but they’ve got almost every starter back from last season, a team that won nine games. Teams like that, especially at home, it doesn’t matter if it’s week two or week 10, if you make a mistake a good team will capitalize. That’s kind of the story of the game tonight. We feel the score doesn’t tell the whole story about how close it was at times but ultimately you can’t turn the ball over, you can’t give up a blocked punt or the score’s going to look the way it looks tonight.”
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The seventh-ranked team in Class 3, Reeds Spring opened with a 64-yard scoring drive and took a 7-0 lead on a 28-yard touchdown run by Preston Blubaugh.
Then the Wolves forced a Nevada three-and-out, but two plays later Koenig came up with the pick-6.
It was a 7-6 game after a quarter but Avious Steadman scored the first of his three touchdowns early in the second and Case Sanderson threw a reverse pass to Drew Beachler for the two-point conversion to make it 14-7.
The Wolves threatened to tie it up and moved from their own 30 to the Nevada 21 before turning it over on downs. Two plays later, Steadman struck again, this time for 79 yards down the home sideline.
The Tigers lead 20-7 at the half.
Nevada turned it over on downs inside the 10 to start the third, but then came the blocked punt with Reeds Spring lined up at its own 26. After Koenig ran it in for the score, Cade Beshore passed to Steadman for 2 to make it 28-7.
The Wolves’ last chance to get back into it ended with another turnover on downs, this time inside the Nevada 20, and Steadman scored on a 25-yard run with 7:38 remaining to put the game out of reach.
CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO OF THE GAME
“I think our offensive line did a nice job,” Beachler said. “When you’ve scored like we scored the last two years and one week now – tonight was a little bit less – I think everybody expects big numbers every night but our offensive line still played really well and our backs ran the ball hard. We just killed ourselves with a couple bad penalties at big times and also a couple fumbles that we didn’t gain any yards on. We clean that stuff up, I think we have a pretty good offensive night.”
“I thought between the 20’s we were great and then we struggled in the red zone,” McFarland said. “Sometimes that’s what happens early in the season. We struggled with that a little bit last week and it’s definitely something we’re going to spend a ton of time on going forward.”
Nevada improves to 2-0 and hosts East Newton on Thursday night. Reeds Spring (1-1) will host Springfield Catholic on Friday.
