Seneca bests Cassville in district semifinals

It was not the scoreline Cassville had hoped for on Friday, but the Wildcats hope to take experience gained this season into 2024, having finished at 6-5 with a postseason win and a district semifinal loss to Seneca, 48-0.

Clay Weldy, Cassville football coach, said the Wildcats succeeded in some areas on Friday, but the Indians proved to be too much in the long run.

“The thing we wanted to do was take away any big pass plays,” he said. “They hit a few, but we were there to tackle them. We wanted them to make long drives and earn it against us, and they did.

“It was not as clean as we wanted, and we didn’t play as well as we wanted, but Seneca is a good team and good teams can expose your weaknesses. That’s what they did on Friday. We’d hoped to do better, but they are very good, especially defensively. They are fast, which makes it hard to throw the ball, and that’s the best group of linebackers in the conference. We had success at times, but just could not sustain it.”

Seneca took the opening kickoff and drove 73 yards in 11 plays, converting a fourth-and-8 near midfield, to score on a 1-yard push. The Indians scored again with 2:58 left in the first quarter.

Cassville’s first drive ended with a punt, and its second, down 14-0, resulted in a turnover on downs at the Seneca 34.

The Indians put the game largely away in the second quarter, converting a 3-yard touchdown run; returning an interception to Cassville’s 18-yard line and scoring from 3 again; and putting a fifth score on the board via a 4-yard run with 1:53 left in the first half.

In the second half, Cassville received and moved it within the Seneca 30-yard line, but an interception at the 10 sent the ball the other way. With the turbo clock activated, the Wildcats held the Indians scoreless the remainder of the third quarter, giving up a 23-yard passing touchdown with 10:38 to play. An interception allowed Seneca to drive one last time, scoring again from the 7.

Weldy said although the halftime scoreline was hefty, the talk in the locker room and performance in the second half was valiant.

“At halftime, we talked about the program and what this team has done all year,” Weldy said. “We went out trying to win the third quarter, which we struggled with all year for some reason. We came out, fought and put a drive together, and they did not score in the third. We showed some heart, and I’m proud of that because we could have laid down, but we didn’t. I’m proud of that effort.”

Bryson Jacobson, senior running back, said he felt the Wildcats could have played better all around, but they did have their moments.

“The offensive line was giving me some holes, and I was able to read them,” he said.

Joey Craft, senior receiver, said consistency in the attack was difficult to maintain.

“I felt we’d have one good play, then two or three bad ones,” he said. “I wish we could have been more consistent with the one good play more often.”

Ending the season with a winning record, Weldy said Cassville met its key goals of starting the year on the right foot and playing their best ball in the fall.

“One of our goals was to play well at the beginning of the season, and we opened with two wins,” he said. “Another goal was to be playing our best at the end of the season, and I think we did that. To have our best overall game against our arch rival and to beat a hot Aurora team with five wins in a row, being able to do that showed how far we’d come.”

Craft said he felt good about the season performance as a whole, not doing as well as he wanted but getting better as the year went on. Jacobson added the experience gained for the younger players is a big positive.

“We had a couple young guys on the offensive line, and with experience, they got better,” he said. “They definitely improved the most.”

Craft and Jacobson agreed there was one major highlight to the season — bringing back the Barry County Brawl trophy with a 42-7 win over Monett in Week 9 at home.

“We were all fired up and ready to get that trophy back,” Jacobson said.

“Beating Monett, I feel that’s the game we played out best,” Craft said. “That was when we had the most communication, were most ready to go and had the most fun.”

Weldy said the final three games at home, wins over Springfield Catholic in Week 7, Monett in Week 9 and Aurora in the district playoff opener, are all highlights in his mind.

“Those last few games at home, we started playing better,” he said. “Versus Monett, we showed what we were capable of doing, and to beat Aurora again after a tough game and how close it was the first time — those last two to three games were really good.”

Weldy and the Wildcats will say goodbye to Craft and Jacobson, as well as seven other seniors: lineman Joseph Reuter, receiver Dakota Bowen, tight end Cosmo Rhoads, kicker Ashton Wheeler, kicker Malachi Vincent, lineman Richard Fohn and lineman Colton Blankenship.

“It’s not a big group, but what’s unique and rare about them is every senior contributed in a meaningful way this year,” Weldy said. “They all played vital roles and were all starters. That will be tough to replace. They also became bigger leaders vocally by the end of the season, and i’m proud of how they got better and progressed in their maturity through high school and how much better they got on the field.”

Jacobson and Craft agreed over their time with Cassville, nothing will leave a more lasting memory than the friendships they made.

“The friendships off the field and in the locker room, it’s a lot of fun to just be with your friends,” Jacobson said.

“It’s the friendships for me, as well,” Craft said. “But, it’s also learning how to work hard and fight through it to be successful.”

With so few seniors, the Wildcats were forced to play a bevy of underclassmen this season, which Weldy hopes will pay dividends in the future.

“We played a lot of young kids out of necessity, and on paper, we will bring back quite a bit of experience,” he said. “You can’t buy experience, so I hope that’s one of our strengths next year. But, we have a lot of holes to fill from these seniors leaving, so we’ll see who goes where and we hope to bring everyone back.”

As senior leaders, Craft and Jacobson hope they have left an example for younger players to follow.

“I hope they learn to be good leaders, not freak out when something goes wrong and to help the younger players,” Craft said.

“I hope the younger players learn there is a count of how many games you have,” Jacobson said. “It seems like you’ll get to play football forever, but there’s really only a few games you get to play.”

Weldy said looking ahead to 2024, the Wildcats will be a year more mature and experienced.

“The big thing this year was we made so many silly mistakes,” he said. “At times we were our own worst enemy, and it’s hard enough to beat one team, let alone two if you have to beat yourself. Moving forward with this experience, we hope to get rid of those things like penalties and turnovers. We will be more mature and an older team next year.”