By Dana Harding (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
MT. VERNON, MO – Seneca moved one step closer Saturday to a second-straight Show-Me Bowl appearance.
The Indians rolled for 438 yards on the ground (597 total) en route to a 55-26 win over Mt. Vernon (9-4), an all-too familiar postseason opponent in recent years.
Saturday’s result marks the third-straight playoff victory over the Mountaineers and fourth-straight overall following a 35-14 result in week two earlier this season.
Seneca head coach Cody Hilburn talked about the team’s effectiveness running the ball during postseason play.
“It starts with our offensive line,” Hilburn said. “We returned four of our offensive linemen from last year’s state championship run there and returned our tight end, as well. I think when you get to November and December, you have to be able to run the football when that weather starts to cool down, and that’s kind of who we hang our hat on right now.”
While Seneca put up video game numbers throughout the game, Mt. Vernon was the early aggressor on the scoreboard and a pesky opponent with 434 total yards of its own.
On the opening possession, the ‘Neers put together an 11-play, 68-yard drive finished by a 9-yard touchdown pass from Gavin Johnson to Coy Felton.
An unfazed Seneca squad wasted little time responding – as in, just over 90 seconds.
Brodie Probert’s 21-yard touchdown run capped a 3-play, 61-yard drive to square the score at 7-7.
Seneca added back-to-back scores on a 24-yard pass from Seneca’s Kaden Clouse to Tyrone Harris, and then a 1-yard rush by Roman Miller.
Despite being down 21-7, Mt. Vernon would not go away quietly.
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With 4:17 left in the half, Johnston found Hunter Dawson for a 20-yard touchdown strike to cut the lead to a single possession. The senior quarterback finished the game with 263 yards passing and four touchdowns.
After forcing a three-and-out, the ‘Neers drove the ball down the field to the Seneca 27 with a chance for a potential game-tying score; however, a Johnston pass was picked off at the goal line by Harris in what would prove to be the game’s largest momentum swing.
“I can’t really explain it,” Harris said. “It kind of happened in a flash, but I knew we just needed that stop. I saw he was going in there for that post and went back out. I saw the ball, saw my chance and went and made it.”
Seven plays and just over a minute later, Seneca capitalized on the mistake with a 17-yard touchdown pass from Clouse to Hagen Ginger – a score set up by a Blaze Graham 87-yard reception.
For Hilburn, the interception and subsequent scoring drive marked a significant shift in the game’s momentum.
“That’s huge,” Hilburn said of the series. “That’s one of those moments where the defense can check it in and say, ‘let’s get our offense back on the field,’ but they didn’t do that. That’s a couple weeks in a row now that we bowed our back and got a big red zone stop.”
In the second half, Seneca’s ground game took over thanks, in part, to Miller’s effectiveness.
The junior workhorse scored three more times on runs of 50, 19 and 7 yards to finish the day with 159 yards on 17 carries and four touchdowns.
Probert added a fourth second-half rushing touchdown, his second of the day, late in the fourth to seal the victory for the Indians.
Hiburn praised his team for responding to the early deficit and then turning back repeated Mt. Vernon rallies.
“We haven’t faced a ton of adversity, and that’s something that worries you a little bit as a coaching staff,” Hilburn said. “So, I was proud of our guys today, and they found a way to win that game.”
For Mt. Vernon and head coach Tom Cox, the quarterfinal loss – while disappointing – doesn’t eclipse a solid season of hard work and the program’s first district championship since 2018.
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“The message was, we’re still proud of them,” Cox said of his postgame huddle speech. “We’d rather have Mountaineers on the front of our jerseys than anything else and, regardless of whether we win or lose, we’ve got good kids that work hard. Our offensive production this year was very good but, in the end, we just didn’t have enough gas in the tank.”
Up next for Seneca (12-0) is a semifinal round matchup Nov. 30 at home against Lift for Life Academy (8-5). The Hawks defeated Dexter 50-12 in their quarterfinal matchup.
For Hilburn, the opportunity marks the biggest step in the program’s quest to return to the Class 3 Show-Me Bowl, following a 48-38 loss in last year’s final to Central-Park Hills.
“We got all the way there last year, and we didn’t feel like we played our best,” Hilburn said. “And then we lost some really good players and kind of heard that we’re going to have a hard time getting back there, and it didn’t sit well with the guys we had coming back. So, they came back with a mindset that we’re coming back. They put in the work; they understand it just doesn’t magically happen. There’s a process to getting back here, and they understand it.”
