By Jordan Burton (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Each Saturday we’ll recap the week that was and look ahead to the upcoming Friday of games, as well as name a Player of the Week. Please tweet (X) @ozarksozone to nominate athletes for POTW.
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Player of the Week: Chris Daniels, Reeds Spring
To say that Chris had a day would be putting it lightly. On Friday he torched Marshfield to the tune of 374 yards and three touchdowns, which would unofficially be a new school record. He’s a one-cut-and-go back which is perfect for the Wolves offense.
Other Notables
- Spencer Ward, Nixa – My upset pick of Joplin over Nixa wasn’t far off, but Ward was that special. He had a monster touchdown run in the first quarter to help Nixa get off to a quick start then came up with a huge interception that he returned to the one that allowed Nixa to stretch a 14-13 lead to 21-13 going into the half. He changed the game on both sides of the ball and the emergence of senior Malachi Rider and junior Dylan Rebura as dynamic backs behind a dominant offensive line has allowed Ward to be an even more energized terror defensively.
- Jax Glendenning, Lebanon – It was a light day at the office for Glendenning, who finished with 186 yards and three touchdowns on 15 carries. He’s had five straight 100-yard games to start the season, all of which have been multi-TD performances. This season he’s turned just 84 carries into 870 yards and 13 scores.
- Bryer Guerin, Marionville – The sophomore quarterback was again brilliant in a game against a really good Diamond team. Guerin tossed a pair of touchdown passes and added another on the ground. Marionville is rolling and Guerin is a rising two-way star.
Conference Realignment: Ozarks Edition
It was announced on Friday that Reeds Spring, Hollister and Catholic will be joining the Mid-Lakes Conference after this season, leaving the Big 8 in flux. We’ve seen conference changes vastly shape the landscape of college football. While there are no major changes on the horizon and we haven’t heard anything about more realignment, below are some moves I think could work if more change does come.
- Ozark Conference Expands
I’d like to see Rogersville and Marshfield join their former COC-Small brethren in leaving the Big 8. Not that the merger wasn’t great, Rog and Marshfield joining the Ozark Conference, along with fellow Class 4 member Osage makes sense for the league and for the teams alike.
In recent years Bolivar and Central have joined the OC, giving the league a presence for smaller schools with West Plains and Hillcrest also falling in Class 4. The move would allow the OC to split and open up some scheduling flexibility as well. Each team gets six divisional games with a crossover game to end the season to decide places and one free game to schedule however they choose. The final game would be a recreation of the old Chevy Shootout from the early 2000s where we’d see the COC and the OC play head-to-head games. The bottom of the league would potentially get an additional open date due to the OC being larger than the COC.
Ozark Conference – North
- Bolivar
- Camdenton
- Lebanon
- Marshfield
- Osage
- Rolla
- Waynesville
Ozark Conference – South
- Central
- Glendale
- Hillcrest
- Kickapoo
- Parkview
- Rogersville
- West Plains
- Carl Junction rejoins the Big 8
When Carl Junction left the Big 8 for the COC, the landscape of each league was different. The Big 8 was full of “small” programs and the COC was full of teams that were like-sized. Fast forward to 2023 and CJ is significantly smaller than everyone else in the COC with just 735 students. The next smallest school is Branson at 1,050. But, in the Big 8 – following the departure of Reeds Spring, Hollister, Catholic, Marshfield and Rogersville – the league would drop to nine teams. Carl Junction gets it back to an even 10, allows the league to either go to a full schedule or split into divisions. I like the flexibility of a Large and Small division with three cross-division games and two open dates.
Big 8 – Large
- Carl Junction
- Cassville
- Monett
- McDonald County
- Nevada
Big 8 – Small
- Aurora
- East Newton
- Lamar
- Mount Vernon
- Seneca
- Miscellaneous Moves
There are a few other moves that could help give a little better balance to football in the Ozarks. The Southwest Conference is at nine teams and the Ozark Highlands is at five. Stockton joining Buffalo, Butler, El Do, Sherwood and Warsaw makes sense and strengthens the league overall… The Southwest Conference could then counter with two additions to get to 10 teams, which would be Greenfield and College Heights. Initially the argument was that neither played 11-man football but with Lockwood successfully dropping down and the emergence of 8-man in the Ozarks, those additions would get the league to 10 teams in every other sport.
5 and a Donut (Unbeaten Teams)
Just one team fell from last week’s list with Nevada knocking off Mount Vernon in a shootout. We are now down to eight perfect teams more than halfway through the season. We are two weeks from Marionville at Sarcoxie and four weeks from Seneca at Nevada. Those are the final two meetings of currently undefeated teams.
Class 6
Nixa
Class 5
Lebanon
Class 4
Nevada
Class 3
Ava
Seneca
Class 2
Fair Grove
Sarcoxie
Class 1
Marionville
Swing and a Miss on the Picks
The O-Zone crew is 61-3 in games we’ve selected unanimously and that third game came on Friday night with Thayer handling Houston in SCA play. I had a few (ha!) stray picks this week that would’ve added to our unanimous win total.
Keep an eye on Paxton Delaurent
Delaurent had an incredible career at Camdenton where he went 23-3, passing for 7,909 yards and 98 touchdowns. Underrecruited, he went to NAIA Central Methodist for two years, passing for 2,499 yards and 25 touchdowns in his second year, which paved the way for his transfer to D1 Southeast Missouri. Now Delaurent is making a national name.
In 2022 he started 10 games, throwing for 2,684 yards and 19 touchdowns, throwing for 277 yards in his FCS playoff debut against Montana. Through three games this season he has SEMO nationally ranked, totaling 731 yards and four touchdowns with zero interceptions in 117 attempts. He looked more than capable against Kansas State, completing 24 of 36 attempts for 213 yards.
Week 6 Games to Watch
Joplin (3-2) at Republic (4-1)
They’ve met five times since Joplin joined the COC. The Eagles have scored 40+ in every game and Republic hasn’t gotten within 14 points. Joplin is finally healthy and showed their top-end talent going toe-to-toe with Nixa. For Republic, this is a measuring stick game.
Camdenton (4-1) at Bolivar (4-1)
Shoutout to Parr Pitts for collecting win No. 100 on Friday, in a game that saw senior quarterback Kade Durnin account for at least five touchdowns for his third consecutive game. His 26 touchdowns in five games is crazy. Both of these teams are a surprising 4-1, especially with Bolivar being the smallest team in the league. They come in averaging a combined 80 PPG. This one could be a shootout.
Reeds Spring (4-1) at Seneca (5-0)
The Wolves are coming off of an epic state title game run and return several key pieces. Seneca has been the most dominant team in the Ozarks this year. And this one features two of the best signal-callers in the Ozarks with Gavyn Hoover guiding Seneca to 45.4 PPG and Blandy Burall leading Reeds to 40.8 PPG. They also share C3-D6 with Seneca sitting at first and Reeds at third. Going to Mount Vernon and to Seneca in November and walking away with a district title is a tall task. Stealing this one would shift at least one of those games to Reeds Spring.
Strafford (3-2) at Fair Grove (5-0)
One of the best rivalries in the Ozarks has yet another chapter with both teams playing great football. Fair Grove has won six of the last seven meetings and eight of the last 10 meetings overall. Strafford hasn’t won at Fair Grove since 2014. They’re both in C2-D4 meaning this could be the first of two meetings.
Thayer (3-2) at Cabool (3-2)
I’ll start by saying this should be a 2-meeting series this year with both teams being in C1-D1. Now they share it with state-ranked Marionville and Portageville, but we’ve seen this story play out several times with Thayer and Cabool hobbling through the SCA just to make a run once they actually play Class 1 teams. This meeting is unique in that Thayer has been DOMINANT, winning 11 straight in the series. Four times they’ve been shutout and three more times they’ve been held to just one score. This is an extremely talented Cabool team but they’ll have to start mentally rewriting history to make a deep November run.
