By Derek Shore (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
CASSVILLE, Mo. — A gritty performance earned the Cassville Wildcats another week of playoff football.
Cassville capitalized on three first-half turnovers by Aurora, building a 21-0 halftime lead and held on for a 24-14 triumph in the Class 3 District 6 quarterfinals on Friday night at Wildcat Stadium.
The fourth-seeded Wildcats, improving to 6-4, travel to face top-seeded Seneca next Friday night in the district semifinals.
“We had a few big plays there,” Cassville coach Clay Weldy said. “Most of the time, it was a grinder type game, which I knew it would be. Aurora has such big kids on both sides of the ball. Our kids fought hard. They were gritty and got it done.
“A lot of teams are done playing after tonight and turned their gear in. We asked our kids, ‘Let’s get another week.’ We earned another week. It’s a good opportunity to get better and another opportunity to play a full game.”
Cassville couldn’t have scripted a better start.
The Wildcats got on the board first after Hunter Morse recovered a fumble that resulted in a 1-yard touchdown run by Bryson Jacobson with 2:14 to play in the first quarter.
On the ensuing drive, Colton Roark intercepted Aurora quarterback Thomas Lara with 34 seconds to go in the first quarter. Ten seconds later on the first play from scrimmage, Kyle Bailey scored on a 46-yard run, extending the hosts’ lead to 14-0.
The Wildcats third score of the first half came from Cosmo Rhoads, who had a 12-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown with 11:09 remaining in the second half.
Aurora came out firing in the second half as Josh McKinley returned the opening kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown, cutting the deficit to 14. Cassville padded its lead to 24-7 after Ashton Wheeler nailed a 24-yard field goal with 3:56 to play in the third quarter.
“That was huge,” Weldy said of Wheeler’s field goal. “When they scored, it was still a two-score lead. It makes them have to do some different things they don’t want to do. It was a huge, huge field goal for him. It was only his second attempt all year.”
The Houn Dawgs trimmed the deficit to 10 when Lara connected with Jax Prater for an 8-yard touchdown strike with 7:58 to play in the fourth quarter. However, that lead proved insurmountable as the Wildcats defense stepped up down the stretch.
“It’s frustrating. We shot ourselves in the foot,” Houn Dawgs coach Brandon Pitts said. “Hats off to Cassville for how they responded and how they took advantage of the opportunities. If we don’t spot them 21 points, we are in the game. It’s different. We don’t have to do things so differently than we did.”
Weldy praised his team’s defensive effort after the game.
“We were flying around,” Weldy said. “I thought we played physical. Aurora has been lining up and running the ball at people for the last six weeks. I thought we did a great job getting them out of that. We held on with our pass defense. The guys were rallying to the ball. They had to play a lot. They did a great job keeping Aurora out of the end zone as much as they did.”
The Wildcats ran 41 plays and had 253 yards of total offense, with 240 coming on the ground.
Quarterback Bodee Rose rushed for 98 yards on 15 carries. Bailey added 66 yards on 10 carries, while Jacobson finished with 55 yards on nine carries. Wheeler made three extra-point kicks.
“I was proud of the first half. I thought we did a great job in all three phases — offense, defense and the kicking game,” Weldy said. “We created turnovers. I thought we played physical. The second half was what we’ve done all year being a young team. We make a lot of silly mistakes, but we’re still learning. Credit to Aurora. They did a lot of good things and made a few adjustments in the second half. They played a great second half.”
Aurora, which finished 5-5, ran 56 plays for 219 yards. Lara completed 13-of-27 passes for 133 yards.
Prater tallied 45 yards on 12 carries and caught four passes for 33 yards. Matthew Cutbirth netted 30 yards on seven carries and hauled in three passes for 31 yards.
Eduardo Castillo converted two extra-point kicks for the Houn Dawgs.
“We played a good team,” Pitts said. “It’s a team that’s budding, kind of how we were. I’m proud of our kids. We started 0-3 and ended up .500. That’s big for our program going forward.”
