By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Webb City may have been the underdog on Friday night, but the Cardinals sure didn’t look like it.
Webb City capitalized on three Carthage fumbles in the first half and then pulled away in the second to earn a 42-28 win on the Tigers’ home field in the Class 5 District 7 championship game.
The Cardinals, who have ended Carthage’s season in the district finals four times in the last five seasons, advance to host Platte County in the state quarterfinals next week after a regular season filled with adversity.
“I think the best thing that happened to us, you know, we’re getting beat but five of our losses were by 6, 3, 2, 1 and 1 and one of those was in overtime so we never felt like we were a bad football team,” Webb City coach Ryan McFarland said. “We just felt like a team that couldn’t take advantage of some opportunities and things just weren’t going our way. Those close losses built character for us and built character to where we got in a game like tonight and we don’t feel a lot of pressure. We’re used to fighting the adversity. We got a district championship out of it.”
The Cardinals, at 6-6, are back to .500 for the first time since starting the season 1-1. They lost 14-13 to Carthage in October, and entered district play as the third seed. The Tigers, meanwhile, came into Friday as the district’s No. 1 seed and had won six in a row. They finished with a 9-2 record.
Carthage jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the rematch with Webb City. Landyn Collins scored on a 6-yard run and then quarterback Brady Carlton threw passed to a wide open Trent Yates over the middle for an 84-yard score later in the first quarter.
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And then the Cardinals punted for the third straight possession. But Mason Williams recovered a fumble on the return deep in Carthage territory and then Isaiah Tela got Webb City on the board with a 2-yard plunge with 38 seconds left in the first.
Things spiraled for Carthage––the Tigers fumbled the ensuing kick return, setting the Cardinals up just 24 yards from the end zone. This time Jackson Lucas passed to Cohen Epler for a 21-yard score to tie the game.
And then Carthage fumbled the kick return again, with Gauge Heilbrun recovering the ball at the 24. Five plays later, Lucas scored on an 11-yard run and suddenly the visitors held a 21-14 lead.
“We spend a lot of time on our special teams and coach (Joseph) Decker is our special teams coach and he coordinates a lot of that,” McFarland said. “It’s a huge emphasis for us. We know we’re not real explosive offensively so we’ve got to try to steal possessions and special teams we’ve got to play with extra effort and tonight that really saved us. You get down 14-0 early and things aren’t looking well and special teams makes a couple plays and all of a sudden you’re back in the game.”
Carthage put a stop to the bleeding with a Carlton-to-Gael Gallegos touchdown for 9 yards with 14 seconds left in the half to send the teams to the locker rooms with the score tied.
Webb City didn’t let up after the break. The Cardinals opened the third with a quick 60-yard scoring drive and led 28-21 after Lucas’ 48-yard touchdown run.
Carthage punted, and the visitors drove 71 yards for another score to lead 35-21 with 1:56 left in the third. Again it was Lucas finding the end zone, this time after a 20-yard run.
The Tigers went for it on 4th and 3 from their own 40 on the first play of the fourth but a pass went for no gain.
After that, Webb City somehow managed to stretch a 40-yard scoring drive into 12 plays that ate nearly seven-and-a-half minutes from the clock. That included a 4th and 4 conversion and two third down conversions before Slade Hurd scored from the 5 to make it 42-21 with 4:27 left to play.
Carthage answered with a 4-yard score by Collins and then recovered an onside kick, but Webb City’s Mason Williams intercepted a pass to help put the game away.
Webb City had the advantage in time of possession by nearly eight minutes. The Cardinals rushed 56 times for 255 yards and were 7 for 19 on third down and 3 for 3 on fourth down. Carthage totaled 105 yards on the ground and 259 through the air. The Tigers were 2 for 9 on third down and 1 for 5 on fourth.
Lucas led Webb City’s ground game with 160 yards and three scores on 30 carries. Tela added 55 yards and a score on 13 rushes, and Hurd had a touchdown and 25 yards on seven carries. Lucas completed 3 of 6 passes for 32 yards and the touchdown to Epler.
Carthage’s Collins rushed 16 times for 96 yards and two touchdowns. Carlton completed 15 of 26 passes for 259 with two scores. Yates made seven catches for 180 and a score.
“Hats off to the offensive line,” McFarland said. “Jackson Lucas, what a stud. He’s been doing this all year for us, carrying the load for us offensively. He checks a lot of plays at the line of scrimmage for us. The thing offensively that’s kind of been our achilles heel all year is we’ve made mistakes on long drives and tonight, I don’t know, I’m sure we made some mistakes. We didn’t make any big mistakes. We were able to stay ahead of the chains and get first downs and run the clock which we wanted to do and finish drives which has been a struggle all year.”
