By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Republic football coach Ryan Cornelsen thought about how his team wasn’t accustomed to playing on a Saturday before the Tigers kicked off against Webb City in the district semifinals.
“I laughed before the game,” he said. “Their players are thinking this feels like quarterfinals playing on a Saturday. Our kids felt like youth football. We’ve never been in those kinds of games. That’s the kind of challenge that we were up against with tradition and experience versus a team that’s hungry. I felt like we had a good enough team to beat them, it’s just not easy to do that in Webb City.”
But the visiting Tigers found a way – they recovered two onside kicks and forced a safety in the second half and scored 23-unanswered points on the way to a 30-21 win to earn a rematch with Carthage next week.
The win was Republic’s first ever in 25 games against Webb City, and the Tigers put an end to the Cardinals’ streak of 22 district titles in a row in the process.
Republic used a monumental momentum shift to get it done. Less than two minutes into the third quarter, Webb City led 21-7 after covering 73 yards in just six plays and scoring on a 10-yard run by Breckin Galardo. Then Republic turned it over on downs at the Webb City 30, and the Cardinals drove to midfield threatening to make it a three-touchdown game.
But Republic’s defense forced a punt and the offense showed off its big-play capability with quarterback Wyatt Woods completing a 28-yard pass to Aidan Gregory on first down, and a 53-yard touchdown pass to James Rexroat on the next play to make it 21-14.
Then the Tigers surprised with an onside kick and recovered it at the 50. Six plays later, Woods passed to Gunner Ellison for a 9-yard touchdown and the game was tied with 11:11 remaining.
Then the Tigers did it again. This time Ezekiel Meads recovered an onside kick at the Webb City 49. Republic went on to punt, but pinned the Cardinals at their own 1 and on first down Kendell Curbow tackled Aidan Alberty in the end zone for a safety to give the Tigers a 23-21 lead.
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“That’s always a part of what we do,” Cornelsen said of the onside kicks. “We’ve done it before. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes you look like you know what you’re doing and sometimes you look crazy. We always have that in and if we feel like it presents itself then we do that.”
Getting the ball back after the safety, Republic drove 78 yards and scored again on a 5-yard run from Woods to lead 30-21 with six minutes left in the game.
Webb City drove to the Republic 30 but threw incomplete on fourth-and-4, and the Tigers ran out the clock to end it.
“Just told them we loved them and we’re proud of them,” Roderique said of his post-game message. “What do you say? We didn’t get it done today. That really starts with me as a head football coach not having them ready. We had a long two weeks to practice but you’ve got to give Republic credit, they made plays. The two onside kicks were just great calls and certainly caught us off guard. I’m just so proud of our guys. Today kind of epitomized our season a little bit. We lose a couple guys, we look out there and we’ve got sophomores out there in the secondary. Just kind of one of those seasons where you have a lot of adversity, you battle through, you battle through, keep thinking it’s going to turn out all right. Sometimes it doesn’t.”
“Our kids have been resilient all year,” Cornelsen said. “We’ve had some bad things happen and found ways to make plays in the end down the stretch. I just couldn’t be prouder of their discipline and staying with the assignment, staying with the plan, play the next play, wait for something good to happen and eventually it did and then when it did they didn’t look back. They just kept going. We kept taking shots, we played aggressive and that’s how you get momentum to turn.”
Republic, 8-3, finished with 373 yards of offense. Woods completed 8-of-19 attempts for 174 yards and two scores, Rexroat had three catches for 111 and a touchdown and Connor Sandridge rushed 19 times for 118 yards. Woods added 69 yards and two scores on the ground. Ellison had three catches for 23 yards and a score. Cooper Douglas led the team with 10 solo tackles.
Webb City, 6-4, finished with 304 yards – 297 on the ground. Galardo had 189 yards and two scores on 19 carries, Omari Jackson rushed seven times for 69 and a score and Johnson had 10 rushes for 40 yards. Rowdy Webb had eight solo tackles.
