By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
With a slew of new faces on both sides of the ball, and facing a new-look Monett squad, Nevada football coach Wes Beachler thought his Tigers showed “a lot of character” in Friday’s season opener.
Nevada got three scores from sophomores and withstood Monett’s aerial assault en route to a 44-22 victory in Big 8 Conference action.
“We only return four starters on offense, five starters on defense and went against a team that didn’t jamboree last week so we weren’t real sure what we were going to see,” Beachler said. “I thought our kids learned a new defense and executed really well, and then on offense, man, our sophomore backs and a few of our seniors really stepped up and a really young and inexperienced offensive line played pretty well, I think. I’m sure we’ll find some things on film we need to improve on, but I was really proud of our offensive line for how young they are.”
The visiting Cubs, who were winless last season, threw the ball close to 50 times on Friday night and scored more points than they did in all but one game last year. Nevada, fresh off a 9-3 season, played with a lead the entire game, though, after sophomore John Collins returned the opening kickoff around 75 yards for a touchdown and senior Gabe Smith tacked on the two-point conversion.
Nevada quarterback Kellen Braden, a junior, threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to senior Grady Stewart in the second quarter, and senior Bodie Thorpe added a 56-yard touchdown run and Collins added an 11-yard score before halftime to give the Tigers a 28-8 advantage going into the locker room.
Monett, which turned it over on downs twice and also punted in the first quarter, scored its first points of the season at the 7:16 mark of the second quarter when sophomore Dylan Washick threw a 41-yard touchdown to senior Landyn Brandt.
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The visitors seized the momentum after the half, when Monett opened with a 53-yard scoring drive capped by a leaping catch in the end zone by Brandt; junior Collin Umfleet hauled in the conversion pass to make it 28-16.
Then the Cubs surprised with an onside kick and recovered the ball at the 50. They drove as far as the Nevada 31 before stalling out after a penalty and incompletion. The Tigers then scored every possession in the second half (minus a knee at the end) to put it away.
Sophomore Will Jackson scored on a 10-yard run and Collins added the conversion to make it 36-16 with 3:57 left in the third. Then Nevada forced a turnover on downs at its own 43 and went to work bleeding the clock. Junior Jett Snyder scored on a 2-yard plunge early in the fourth and Thorpe caught the conversion pass for a 44-16 lead after eating up more than six minutes.
Monett’s Walker Bradow scored on a 2-yard run with 4:14 left for the final points of the game. That drive featured a 4th-and-10 conversion where Washick’s pass was deflected at the line, and ended up in the hands of sophomore lineman Braiden Castor, who rumbled for a 23-yard gain.
“I’m just proud of how our kids executed,” Beachler said. “Really just a lot of character. This is a much-improved Monett team; they’re well coached and we had a lot of question marks, a lot of guys starting for the first time on Friday nights and they came through big time.”
“We’ve got an entirely new offense, entirely new defense, entirely new coaching staff and playing against one of the powerhouses of the Big 8,” Monett coach Ben Mauk said. “We hung in there and I think they were impressed with how our kids responded and how they played. Our kids will bounce back and as soon as we eliminate those negatives and get more experience we’ll be a good football team.”
