By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Even as the final seconds of regulation ticked away, the decision had already been made.
So after Reeds Spring opened overtime with a touchdown, and then Mt. Vernon answered, there was no hesitation by the Mountaineers to leave their offense on the field and decide the game with one play.
Quarterback Gavin Johnston dropped back and fired a pass to the end zone – and Reeds Spring standout Caden Wiest was there to make the interception. With one big play, the visiting Wolves escaped with a 35-34 win on Friday night and locked up a conference championship with an unbeaten run through the Big 8 East.
“We have a word of the week every week and the word of the week this week was finish,” Reeds Spring coach Andy McFarland said. “We had several opportunities to do so but all that matters is in the end we finished the job. We made one play when we needed to make one play. I couldn’t be more proud of our guys.”
Reeds Spring, 7-2 overall and 6-0 in Big 8 East play, locked up the top seed in Class 3 District 6 in the process.
The Wolves missed a potential game-winning field goal from 28 yards with three seconds left in regulation, but wasted little time scoring in the overtime period. Preston Blubaugh gained 20 yards on first down and Jace Bolin punched it in from the 5 and Miguel Campos made it 35-28 with the extra point.
Then it was Mt. Vernon’s turn. The Mountaineers (6-3, 4-2) needed just two plays to score, with Braden Dodson gaining 10 yards on first down and Johnston throwing a 15-yard touchdown to Clayton Turner. Then came the two-point try.
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“There was 100 percent agreement,” Mt. Vernon coach Tom Cox said. “Everybody knew what we were going to run. Reeds Spring may have known what we were going to run. That’s fine, but we didn’t quite get it executed the way we normally would. We wanted to go for two, that had already been decided before the regulation game was even over. We were definitely going to go for two.”
Mt. Vernon jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter and threatened for more. Dodson scored both touchdowns on 1-yard runs, and the Mountaineers also turned it over on downs after driving to the Reeds Spring 32-yard line to open the game.
The Wolves, meanwhile, were scoreless on their first three possessions but then scored on four straight to take a lead in the second half. Blandy Burall threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Addison Abshire with 1:22 left in the first half, then the Wolves tied it on a 12-play drive that featured a fake punt run for a first down and ended with a 24-yard reception by James Dowdy.
An 11-play scoring drive and a 1-yard run by Burall made it 21-14 Reeds Spring in the final minute of the third quarter.
Mt. Vernon answered with a 9-yard touchdown catch by Turner to tie it with 11:04 remaining. Reeds Spring responded with a 20-yard touchdown catch by Dowdy to make it 28-21 with 8:15 on the clock.
The Mountaineers again answered, this time tying it on a 22-yard pass from Johnston to Turner with 4:46 left in the fourth.
After a punt, Mt. Vernon got the ball at its own 38 with 1:45 remaining but went 3-and-out and gave the ball back to the Wolves at their own 30 with 1:02 on the clock. They also went 3-and-out, and Mt. Vernon got the ball at its own 21 with 33 seconds left.
Bolin intercepted a deflected pass at the 24 with 14 seconds to go, and after a 13-yard run by Blubaugh, Reeds Spring went for the field goal.
“I’m so proud of our guys,” McFarland said. “We talked about finishing the job all week long but I can’t walk away from a game against a team we beat 42-nothing last year and they went 1-9 – talk about the great job that their staff did. Coach Cox is an amazing coach. Their players dedicated themselves obviously to improvement. The shift they made from last season to this season is incredible. They did a great job and I know they’re going to have future success.”
“(Caden Wiest) has garnered a lot of attention over the last three years really,” he said. “A D1 prospect for a class 3 school and definitely with the commitment to Missouri State he got the attention of a lot of people in our area. When your best player steps up in the biggest moment of a game and makes the play to seal the win, you’re so proud of him. You’re so happy that he was able to do that. Also sophomore running back Jace Bolin punching it in on our overtime possession, a big play by a young kid. That’s an amazing feeling for him and a great job by our offensive line to finish the game there.”
“I was proud of our guys the way they kept responding,” Cox said. “That’s a good football team over there and I feel like we’ve got a good team too. We just didn’t tackle as well as we have been in the last few weeks but I think Reeds Spring had something to do with that. They ran hard and had a good scheme. As good as we’ve been playing we just felt like we got lucky, I think, at the end missing the field goal. We didn’t execute there in the last couple of drives that we had. Just a good football game between two good teams.”
