By Jordan Burton (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
What were some of the biggest stories from Week 5 of the football season? Where do the conference races currently stand? Which games are the biggest of Week 6? Jordan Burton takes a look back at last night’s action with the things that stood out the most to him and looks forward to next week.
WEEK 5 FOOTBALL ROUNDUP – CLICK HERE
TOP 100 PHOTOS OF WEEK 5 FOOTBALL – CLICK HERE
PHOTOS: FANS OF WEEK 5 FOOTBALL – CLICK HERE
What We Learned…
Nixa is the best team in Southwest Missouri. The Eagles took down Joplin in a shootout on Friday and are loaded with talent and depth at each position group. We’ll talk more about the dominance of Ramone Green a little later, but Nixa has been putting in work offensively and that’s with Kael Combs largely being held in check. John Perry has so many weapons at his disposal, with a high-level offensive line and an experienced quarterback. While their secondary is still finding itself, the Eagles are loaded in the front seven defensively. It would take a modern-day miracle for Nixa to not run the table at this point and Lee’s Summit North trailed them by nearly six full points in the district standings. That’s the equivalent of the gap between LSN and No. 5 Ray-Pec… Classes 1 and 2 are loaded locally with several teams that figure into the state championship picture. Six of the nine undefeated teams locally are in one of those two classes, and that doesn’t even include teams like Lamar and Lincoln who are really good and have suffered losses to elite competition. As it stands now, you could potentially have district championship games featuring matchups like Marionville-Sarcoxie (both undefeated) and undefeated Cole Camp and Lincoln (who upset No. 5 Adrian). Class 2 is even worse, where you could see state-ranked district showdowns with Liberty-Mountain Grove, Seneca-Mount Vernon and Lamar-Warsaw… We love the points in the Ozarks this year. We’ve seen more explosive offenses but maybe not such a collection of them. On Friday night 16 state-ranked teams played. Of that, 12 scored at least 35 points. That doesn’t count explosive performances by Warsaw (57), Rolla (55), Fair Grove (50), Republic (49), Rogersville (48) and Pierce City (47). We’d gotten accustomed to the OC having shootouts, now it’s happening all around the area.
Big man on Campus: Ramone Green, Nixa Senior
Last year Ramone Green’s season ended in Week 2 against Joplin. Joplin won that game 28-25 and ended Nixa’s season in the district semifinals, a 24-13 win. Green was relegated to the sidelines for seven of those eight quarters played and he made up for every single play missed on Friday night, torching the maroon Eagles for 301 yards and six touchdowns on 35 carries. Obviously it was a big night, but how he got the yards was even more impressive. Nixa is elite on the offensive line without question and freshman Jackson Cantwell is better than advertised. But Green had all of his wiggle and burst back, and then some… while also running with power. He’s been dominant in three games against high-level competition and if you think he’s not a D-1 back you’re not watching close enough.
Have a Night…
Bear Shore, Camdenton Senior
In what was the biggest game of the season to this point, Shore was masterful in Camdenton’s 31-14 win over state-ranked West Plains. The senior quarterback completed 11-of-19 attempts for 193 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed for 105 yards and three more scores. All of this coming against a defense that had allowed just 42 points in four games.
Drew Ripko, MV-BT/Liberty Senior
Coach Holland was adamant that Ripko would have a monster senior season and so far the senior athlete has proved him right. On Friday he turned seven touches into six touchdowns and nearly 200 yards. On the season he’s recorded a passing touchdown, rushing touchdown, receiving touchdown and defensive touchdown. His 41 touches have turned into 661 yards from scrimmage and 13 touchdowns. Every third time he touches the ball it’s a score.
Jackson Marrs, Seneca Junior
There was zero doubt that Marrs would be one of the area’s top two-way players as a junior and so far he’s been as dominant in the Big 8 as anyone we’ve seen in recent years. Seneca cruised to a 55-20 win over Monett with Marrs racking up five touchdowns in the game’s first three quarters. The crazy part is many people think he’s even more impactful on the defensive side of the ball.
5 and Oh…
The Ozarks currently have nine unbeaten teams spread across four classes with Houston being in action today (Saturday). Over the next several weeks seven of those nine will see another currently unbeaten team.
Class 6
Nixa
Class 5
Camdenton
Lebanon
Class 2
Houston
MV-BT/Liberty
Seneca
Class 1
Cole Camp
Marionville
Sarcoxie
Conference Races
Ozark Conference
Favorite(s): Camdenton & Lebanon
In The Hunt: West Plains
Darkhorse: Glendale
We’re down to two unbeatens in rivals Camdenton and Lebanon, which doesn’t give us too much help due to the fact they don’t meet until Week 8. Camdenton will likely be undefeated going into that game. The Jackets will see Glendale and West Plains prior to meeting Camdenton so we can’t get too far ahead of ourselves yet. Just know that the Falcons will have a major say in who wins the league. Glendale is playing lights out football on both sides of the ball and they still haven’t seen Camdenton or Lebanon yet. While Glendale is a game back in the standings, that can quickly be erased with road wins over Camdenton and Lebanon. West Plains is still in the hunt and a win over Lebanon in two weeks would keep the Zizzers right in the thick of things.
COC
Favorite: Nixa
This race is essentially over. Nixa knocked off all the western powers – Carthage, Joplin and Webb City – in the season’s first five weeks. The Eagles still have four games remaining but it seems like a longshot that they wouldn’t finish the season unbeaten. Right now there’s not a better team in Southwest Missouri.
Big 8 West
Favorite: Seneca
In The Hunt: Lamar & Nevada
Darkhorse: McDonald County
This conference is an absolute mess and will be must-see TV over the final four weeks. Seneca is the favorite and already has wins over Cassville and Lamar, but still has dates with state-ranked Reeds Spring, McDonald County and Nevada. All three are significantly larger than the Indians as well. The good news is Seneca currently has a one game cushion in the standings, so opponents would need them to lose twice to not have to share the title. Lamar and Nevada are in equally awkward spots after suffering losses to Seneca and McDonald County respectively last week. They also can do each other solids by beating those two programs in the coming weeks… Lamar still has Class 4s McDonald County and Nevada, as well as trips to Cassville and Hollister. Nevada has trips to Lamar and Seneca, as well as hosting Cassville next week… McDonald County has the fortune of getting Lamar and Seneca at home to end the season.
We’ll know much more about this race in two weeks.
Big 8 East
Favorite: Reeds Spring
In The Hunt: Mt. Vernon
Darkhorse: Rogersville
Reeds Spring has won three straight since its lone loss to Nevada, but their final four games include the best team in the Big 8 (Seneca), as well as the two teams in the East that are directly trailing them in the standings (Mt. Vernon and Rogersville). Those two games won’t come until the final two weeks of the season. However, former COC-Small rival Marshfield may play spoiler before that point comes. The Jays play Rogersville (Oct. 7) and Mt. Vernon (Oct.14) prior to Reeds. Marshfield has also been playing its best football of the season as of late and all three of its losses have come against state-ranked programs. Don’t be shocked to see them play spoiler down the stretch.
SCA
Favorite: MV-BT/Liberty
In The Hunt: Houston
Darkhorse: Mountain Grove
Entering the season we figured it would come down to Liberty and Grove, which it has, but there’s a twist. Grove is playing catchup, trailing Liberty due to a loss to Ava. So, a Grove upset would possibly force the league into a three-way tie. The outlier to all of this is Houston, who enters Saturday’s game with Thayer undefeated. The kicker is that Houston hasn’t played Ava, Grove or Liberty. The Tigers have a chance to make the conference race extremely interesting.
SWC
Favorite(s): Marionville & Sarcoxie
Both are sitting at 5-0 and should head into their Week 7 clash unbeaten with the winner taking the Southwest Conference championship and top seed in Class 1 – District 3. No one else is really in the race at this point.
Mid-Lakes
Favorite: Forsyth
In The Hunt: Strafford
Darkhorse: Fair Grove
This one is going to be a wacky race so buckle up. Forsyth is in just its seventh varsity season and the Panthers are quickly closing in on the program’s first conference championship. Sitting at 4-1, Forsyth has won three straight with wins over perennial Mid-Lakes powers Fair Grove and Skyline coming by a combined two points. The only hurdle standing between them and the MLC crown is a visit from Strafford on Oct. 7. But, should Strafford pull off that upset, things could get crazy. The Indians are currently unbeaten and take on rival Fair Grove on Friday. A win by Fair Grove followed by a Strafford upset of Forsyth could force a three-way tie in the league.
Week 5 Games to Watch
Glendale (4-1) at Lebanon (5-0)
This is a game that could close the door for many in the Ozark Conference or kick it wide open. Lebanon and Camdenton are trying to run away with it. West Plains and Glendale are both one game back. A win here by the Falcons makes things extremely interesting going into the final three weeks of the season. As always, this is one of the real chess matches in the area. Few teams run it better than Will Christian and company, nobody throws it better than Mike Mauk’s squad. Christian has absolutely had his way against Glendale, with Lebanon winning 15 of the last 18 meetings. Lebanon hasn’t lost at home to Glendale since 2016.
Mountain Grove (4-1) at MV-BT/Liberty (5-0)
These two are like the Hatfields and McCoys and while Grove won handily last year, it has been all Liberty historically with the Eagles winning 14 of the last 17 meetings. This one is intriguing because of Grove’s size and physicality in the trenches. Ethan Means will have to dominate this one upfront for the Panthers to have a shot at the upset. Tyson Elliott is more than experienced enough to help the Panthers keep pace offensively, but Grove will have to slow down an explosive Liberty offense averaging 47 PPG and rolling behind the three-headed monster of Drew Ripko, Carter Pruett and Gavin Reese. Grove hasn’t won at Liberty in a decade, this is a must win for both teams in terms of conference and district races.
Seneca (5-0) at Reeds Spring (4-1)
If you like Big 8 Football then you’ll love this one, as it pits the leader of the Big 8 East against the leader of the Big 8 West. Both are state-ranked and both are seemingly the favorite to make a run in their respective classes. Because the Big 8 schedules are unbalanced, these two have only met twice since the COC-Small and Big 8 merger. Those two meetings were split, with Reeds Spring winning the 2019 playoff matchup as well. Reeds Spring is one of the only programs in the Big 8 East that has the physicality upfront to compete with the top teams in the west, led by D1 commit Caden Wiest. They’ll need every ounce of that toughness to slow down Jackson Marrs.
Lamar (4-1) at McDonald County (4-1)
In all likelihood, Lamar got its one egg out of its system. The Tigers have lost multiple games in the regular season just once since 2013. In the last three seasons the only teams that have beaten Lamar in conference play are Seneca and McDonald County. And, Lamar’s loss came in Anderson. What’s at stake on Friday is remaining in the conference race or being eliminated. Mac County has won four straight games since losing to Mount Vernon to open the season. This is the third game in a brutal stretch for the Mustangs.
Houston (4-0) at Ava (4-1)
Houston is undefeated but the combined record of its opponents was 5-18 entering the Tigers matchup with Thayer on Saturday. It’s still a wait and see approach with where Houston is, but there’s no denying Ava’s resume. The Bears drilled Mountain Grove, beat a really good Buffalo team on the road and went toe-to-toe with Strafford. This is a barometer game for Houston. Win and prove you belong or lose and firmly place Liberty in the driver’s seat of the league.
Fair Grove (3-2) at Strafford (2-3)
This one is always fun regardless of where these two are in the standings. But don’t get it twisted, these two are both talented. Strafford might be the best 2-3 team in Missouri with their losses coming on the road to undefeated Liberty, Class 5 Central and a really good Borgia team. Fair Grove lost to Mountain Grove to open the season, when the Eagles were breaking an entirely new roster. The loser of the game is out of the conference race for good. Fair Grove has won six straight against Strafford and haven’t lost to the Indians since 2017.
