By Derek Shore (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
AURORA — Senior Garrett Ewing knows how to be in the right place at the right time. That was evident late in Friday night’s game.
Junior running back Kyle Bailey busted out of a pack of defenders and ran 44 yards but the ball was knocked free at the Aurora 45-yard line. Ewing, running right behind Bailey, scooped up the ball on the bounce and finished off the play with a 37-yard scamper for the touchdown as Cassville took a 22-7 lead with 5:07 left in the game.
That touchdown run proved to be enough cushion to help the Wildcats (2-0) hang on for a wild 22-19 victory over the Houn Dawgs at Kelley Football Field.
“Coach has always preached hustle down the field and be there for your teammates, always hustle down the field,” Ewing said. “(The ball) just happened to fall in my hands, and I was there. That’s what we work on during practice. We condition for that. We have to make those types of plays.
“It was a crazy feeling. I didn’t expect it. Winning a game like that was crazy.”
It marked the 20th straight victory for Cassville over Aurora, setting a school and conference record. The Wildcats have not dropped a game to the Houn Dawgs since 2004.
“Kyle had a rough night holding the football for whatever reason,” Cassville coach Clay Weldy said. “Garrett hustled and ran it back for a touchdown. It was that kind of game tonight. A lot of weird things were happening. It didn’t make sense. It was just an odd night. There were momentum shifts over and over again.
“When you have a young team, those kinds of things will happen. I told our kids we are going to face adversity. I didn’t think it would be that kind of adversity where it’s constantly off the wall stuff. We found a way tonight. We gotta win. I’m proud we got a win. We got a lot of things to work on.”
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After Ewing’s big play, Aurora’s rally was ignited by quarterback Thomas Lara, who rushed in a 1-yard TD to trim the deficit to nine with 2:34 to play in the game. The Houn Dawgs went for the two-point conversion in hopes of making it a seven-point ballgame, but failed.
Cassville went three-and-out on the ensuing drive, but was able to whittle the clock down some. Aurora drew closer as a 1-yard TD run by Lara made it a three-point game with 55 ticks remaining in the game.
Aurora’s PAT was no good.
The Houn Dawgs went for an onside kick, but Ewing recovered it. Cassville quarterback Bodee Rose kneeled twice to milk the remainder of the clock as the Wildcats escaped with the win.
“We had to battle, for sure,” Ewing said. “We faced a lot of adversity. We were there and we battled through it during practices all summer. We train to push through adversity, so we’ll be the better conditioned team and the more physical team. That worked out in the end for us tonight.”
Cassville running back Bryson Jacobson got the scoring started with a 12-yard TD run with 7:49 to play in the second quarter. Linebacker Masin Bryan then returned a 16-yard pick-6 over one minute later as the Wildcats took a 15-0 lead after Rose ran in a two-point conversion.
Impressively, Bryan is just a freshman and recorded a pick-6 in his first varsity series.
“That’s a nice way to start a career,” Weldy said. “His future is bright. I’m glad he got one early.”
Aurora didn’t get on the board until Lara found paydirt from 11 yards out with 8:07 left in the third quarter.
The Houn Dawgs outgained the Wildcats 254-200.
Bailey paced Cassville with 62 yards rushing on 10 carries. Rose netted 38 rushing yards on 13 carries while completing 4 of 11 passes for 30 yards. The junior had two interceptions.
Jacobson added 22 yards on the ground in five attempts with one TD. Ewing, who capped off Bailey’s run with a 37-yard score, also caught a pass for eight yards while Cosmo Rhoads had a catch for 11 yards.
Lara led the Houn Dawgs (0-2) by completing 8 of 15 passes for 118 yards and he was picked off. He tallied 30 yards on the ground in 12 carries with three TDs, while Prater ran the ball 14 times for 59 yards and had two catches for 37 yards.
Evan Hartwigsen rushed for 44 yards on 11 carries and caught three passes for 26 yards.
“Our guys have grown up a lot. This time last year, that would have been an embarrassing 45-0 loss,” Aurora coach Brandon Pitts said. “We went in at halftime and made a couple of adjustments offensively, so we were able to move the ball. We talked about our reads and alignments on defense, and man they answered. All of a sudden, it’s 15-0 in the first half and then 19-7 in the second half. We outscored them, and they had a lucky bounce.
“Good teams jump on opportunities. I’m proud of our guys and how they fought. We just got to get better.”
Cassville plays at Seneca in Week 3 while Aurora travels to Mt. Vernon.
