By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
In a matchup between state-ranked heavyweights Nixa and Webb City, the key number on Friday night at Cardinal Stadium was five.
Five as in five touchdowns by Eagles running back Dylan Rebura––who wears No. 5––and five unanswered scores for visiting Nixa, which rolled to an impressive 55-21 victory in Central Ozark Conference action.
“We’re pretty good on offense,” Nixa coach John Perry said. “I think we’re going to be hard to stop as long as we halfway do things right. I wasn’t happy with the way-too-many penalties and we were sloppy on defense to start the game, sloppy on the first kickoff. So many things that we can clean up but I’m grateful for the win and I’m grateful for this pizza we’re fixin’ to get.”
Class 6 No. 6 Nixa, now 2-0, won for the 13th time in 14 games and extended its winning streak against the Cardinals to four. Friday’s win was by far the biggest margin, but it wasn’t shaping up that way in the first half against a Cardinals team tied for second in Class 5.
Webb City, after a long kick return to start the game, took a 7-0 lead and led 14-6 late in the first quarter. A 3-yard plunge by Rebura got the Eagles back within a point, and they took their first lead after both teams tried some trickery. For Webb City, that was a fake punt on 4th-and-6 in its own territory. The Eagles sniffed it out, though, and then on first down from the 44, junior Maddox Gibson took a direct snap and heaved a deep touchdown pass to quarterback Adam McKnight.
The Cardinals answered with a 70-yard scoring drive and a 1-yard score by Andrew Elwell to lead 21-20 with 4:17 left in the half. It was all Nixa after that.
“We thought if we could score then––we were going to get the kickoff to start the second half, and if we could score again and go up two scores, we thought that would be a little bit of a back breaker for them to go down two scores and that’s kind of what happened.”
Nixa’s final drive of the half didn’t get off to a great start; the Eagles were flagged four times before running their second play, and faced a 2nd-and-23. McKnight scrambled for 20 yards and then Rebura moved the chains, and then senior Keivon Flint’s 47-yard catch-and-run score put the Eagles on top for good.
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Rebura finished Nixa’s first drive after the half with a 2-yard score to make it 34-21.
After that, with Webb City once again driving, the Nixa defense got in on the action. The Cardinals got as far as the Nixa 26-yard line before quarterback Jackson Lucas fumbled, and Nixa’s Parker Mann scooped up the ball and raced down the home sideline for a touchdown to lead 41-21.
“The big one was knowing they got the ball second half, we were trying really hard to get that stop just before halftime, just not to give them those back-to-back scores,” Webb City coach Ryan McFarland said. “Even after that, I thought we put together a really good drive and our guys did a good job responding and then we had the fumble, and it turns into a scoop and score. At that point, and this is on me, we needed to do a better job of just rallying the troops a little bit, and we didn’t do a good job making adjustments from that point forward.”
Rebura added a 5-yard touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter, and then a 40-yard touchdown a few minutes later that saw him emerge twice from heaps of defenders, including a group of four would-be tacklers at the 15.
And Nixa’s defense added another exclamation point in the waning minutes when the Eagles stuffed Webb City on a 4th-and-goal at the 1.
“We did not get off to the fastest of starts on defense,” Perry said. “They were getting us a little bit but I thought they were a whole lot better in the second half and we got a defensive score which is always helpful.”
“I thought the first half we played awesome, especially on offense,” McFarland said. “That’s a really good football team and there’s a reason they’re ranked high in Class 6. I don’t know if we’ll see anybody, especially offensively, who’s better than them. To be able to play with them for a half, that was good for us and it’ll be good for our confidence moving forward.”
Despite running 30 fewer plays, Nixa out-gained Webb City 387 to 325 in total yards. The Eagles were also penalized 10 times for 79 yards.
Rebura finished the night with 228 yards and five scores on 24 carries.
“Fantastic,” Perry said. “Hats off to the offensive line and the tight ends for blocking. Half of those yards were probably without contact, but as you keep watching him he’s hard to tackle. He’s hard-nosed, he’s tough. He’s paid his dues and he deserves it, no doubt. Fantastic night.”
