By Chris Parker
Republic’s chase for the program’s first state title came up one game short with a 38-25 loss to Cardinal Ritter in the Class 5 state championship game.
The Tigers dominated time of possession in the game holding the ball for 36:15 to Cardinal Ritter’s 11:45, but explosive plays by the Cardinal Ritter offense proved too much.
The Lions took the opening kickoff and scored on a four-play, 55-yard drive to take an 8-0 lead just 2:11 into the game.
That score remained the same until the 6:56 mark of the second quarter when Wyatt Woods plunged in from two yards out to cap off a 15-play, 54-yard drive pulling the Tigers within one-point at 8-7.
Cardinal Ritter responded with a touchdown 1:22 later to stretch the lead out to 16-7. Republic had the answer in the form of a nine-play, 64-yard drive finished off by a Woods pass to Caide White from 14-yards out to pull Republic within three at 16-13.
That left 44 seconds on the clock until half, which proved plenty of time for the Cardinal Ritter offense.
The Lions scored on a four-play, 44-yard drive to take a 22-13 lead into the half.
“That (score right before half) was a tough one,” Republic head coach Ryan Cornelsen said. “When they are that talented you know they are going to score. To say we were going to come in here and shut them out was probably a false dream. That got us behind the score-for-score concept. That is what we were trying to is take the clock and score for score and push it to the fourth quarter. Usually, these guys will find a way to win.”
Cardinal Ritter posted the only score of the third quarter to extend its lead to 30-13.
Republic answered early in the fourth quarter with a Wyatt Woods three-yard touchdown run the cut the lead to 30-19 with 10:36 left in the game.
The Lions scored one more time with 90 seconds left to get the score to 38-19.
Republic did not stop playing. On the final play of the season, Woods hit James Rexroat for a 31-yard touchdown to make the final score 38-25.
“They didn’t want to quit. If we were going to go out, we were going to go out swinging and go out to the final play. That is why I called a timeout. Let’s have our final play and take a shot. We knew the game was over, but there is no quit in our kids and I think that is a perfect example of they will play to the final whistle no matter what the score is.”
The loss marks the end of a historic season for a Republic program that finished 12-3 and brought home the program’s first state runner-up finish led by a large group of seniors who saw the program grow by leaps and bounds in their three seasons under Cornelsen.
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“A lot of these guys have played since their sophomore year. We have been through a lot of battles and ups and downs,” Cornelsen said. “We have had big wins and tough losses like today, but we stick together. I think that is the most special thing about it. It is a group of kids you won’t see point their fingers. There is just none of that. They believe in each other. They believe in what we do. To me that is what makes it special is how close-knit they are. It is not surprising that our community got so excited about this year because the group of kids we have are easy to be excited for them.”
The Republic community was fully behind their football team on Friday with the largest crowd of the day cheering their team on.
“I told our kids to turn and hold their helmets up (to the crowd after the game). It had to be half the town was there,” Cornelsen said. “It has been awesome through this whole run. It was really special. I think that is what makes it the hardest. We wanted to do everything we could to pull this off. We knew we were kind of underdogs, but we thought we could come in and do but we came up a little short. It doesn’t take away from the season. What an amazing group of kids. They played hard for each other and played hard for their town. I couldn’t be prouder of them.”
The noise of the Republic faithful stood out even on the field.
“It was really loud. When we were at Republic the last two weekends, I thought it was really loud, but there is something about this stadium that we couldn’t hardly hear in our headsets,” Cornelsen said. “What an amazing community to come out and be that loud. They told us when we came that it wasn’t going to look like we have any people because the stadium is so big. It looked like a lot of people whether that stadium was big or not. They (the players) lit a spark and it lit a flame, and there is no doubt the excitement was awesome.”
The Republic seniors hope that crowd had more than few kids who will one day get to make the trip to Columbia to play in their own state championship game.
“Hopefully little kids are looking up to it and want to get more involved and try to do better than we finished off,” Republic senior Kanon Krol said. “It is just cool when you are a little kid and seeing guys above you do it. It makes you want to be up there in that game. Hopefully it inspires some little kids.”
“Like Kanon was saying, the spark that we put in those little kids’ eyes. I have a little brother, and nothing is cooler than seeing him after a big win. All week he was amped up that we were going to Mizzou. Just the spark that we put in those little kids because when we were growing up, we weren’t very good,” Woods said. “Just seeing those kids being able to enjoy the games and seeing that they can do what we are doing the same way.”
Woods and Krol led the Tigers on offense with Woods carrying the ball 28 times for 120 yards and two touchdowns while throwing for 133 yards and two more touchdowns. Krol took another 19 carries for 60 yards. The duo combined to carry 47 times for 180 yards against a physical Cardinal Ritter defense.
“Those are two really tough kids. Football means a lot to them (Woods and Krol), and our community means a lot to them,” Cornelsen said. “You can’t run that many runs and get hit like that if it is not down deep. It is really important to them. I couldn’t be prouder of our team, but those two show a lot of heart every week.”
Republic finishes the season with a 12-3 record overall.
“I just couldn’t be prouder of my team, my coaching and community,” Woods said. “What we have done these three years since he (Cornelsen) has gotten here has just been amazing and unbelievable. I couldn’t be more proud of my teammates and community.”
