Cassville preparing for Lamar test on Friday
BY KYLE TROUTMAN ktroutman@cassville-democrat.com
The Cassville football team is aiming this week to shed its Jekyll and Hyde routine this season, welcoming perennial power Lamar to Wildcats Stadium after suffering the first loss to East Newton in two decades, 42-21.
Friday’s game started with a bang, as the Patriots (2-1) returned the opening kickoff 70 yards to take a 7-0 lead only 11 seconds into the game.
After trading punts, the Wildcats found the scoreboard with its own big play, a 56-yard touchdown strike from Tristan Thompson. The Patriots then completed a 53-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run with 10:00 left in the first half.
Cassville answered with a 57-yard drive capped with a pair of Thomson runs, scoring from 13 out to give the Wildcats their only lead of the game, 17-13.
From there, things started to go south.
East Newton went on another 55-yard drive and scored on a 3-yard catch, then on the ensuing kickoff, a big hit caused a Wildcat fumble recovered by the Patriots at the Cassville 26-yard line. East Newton took advantage, overcoming a third-and-25 for a first down and then hitting an 8-yard touchdown pass to take a two-score lead into halftime.
Cassville’s woes continued after the break, with another kick return fumble going East Newton’s way and resulting in a 5-yard touchdown and 35-14 Patriots lead.
A turnover on downs led to East Newton’s final score midway through the third, and Cassville added a 7-yard Bodee Rose touchdown rush with 8:23 left in the game for the final scoreline.
Clay Weldy, Cassville football coach, said on Monday, he’s not entirely sure what caused the lapses Friday, but it’s best the Wildcats forget and move in.
“Obviously it was a frustrating night,” he said. “It was one of those games where it’s hard to explain what happened. We had a lot of turnovers, and special teams has been good this season, but a kickoff return and two fumbles accounted for three of East Newton’s touchdowns. We also had them on thrd-and-long repeatedly and they would get a first down because of a missed tackle, broken coverage or penalty. I see it as we did it to ourselves and lost the game.”
Riley James, who has an interception and a pair of pass break-ups in the game, had a similar diagnosis.
“We played terrible in the first half,” he said. “We couldn’t run or pass, and everything we did, we were killing ourselves. I just didn’t want to have a bad game. I tried to help get everyone hype, and we didn’t start playing like us until the fourth quarter.”
The Patriots’ excitement for the win was not understated, as it was the first for East Newton over Cassville in nearly two decades, predating Missouri State High School Athletics Association records dating back to 2009.
Despite the Cassville win streak, Weldy said he did not get any sense from his players they were taking the Patriots lightly.
“That day and that night going to the game, I felt the kids were focused and had no sense they were overlooking this game,” he said. “Sometimes, you do get a feel for that, but that’s not the feeling I had. It kind of blindsided me how we played, because I thought we were ready. But once it got going, everything snowballed and we couldn’t get out of it. That was frustrating because we were playing some pretty good offense in the first half.”
Weldy said if nothing else, he hopes the Wildcats can learn from Friday’s mistakes and become more consistent week-in and week-out.
“That’s the big thing we’re addressing [this week] — we can’t be a Jekyll and Hyde team,” he said. “We’re on a roller coaster right now, and I hope it was eye-opening for the guys that we have not prepared ourselves week-in and weekout. We talk about how all season, our schedule is too tough to not come in focused every week.”
Weldy credited East Newton’s play, saying the squad is much-improved and played a good game. The result, he said, goes to show how competitive the Big 8 Conference can be.
“Every team can beat us, but we can beat every team, too,” he said. “It’s all based on preparation.”
That will be the theme this week as Lamar (3-0) comes to town boasting wins over McDonald County, 32-29, East Newton, 34-24, and Tipton, 44-0.
“We have to have a good week of prep and forget East Newton,” Weldy said. “There are things we will learn from and hammer home this week, but we have to move on. Lamar is healthy right now, and their quarterback is one of the better players in the conference. We have to set ourselves up to compete and play well at home versus how we’ve played twice on the road.”
Against East Newton Friday, Rose was 7-for-12 through the air for 50 yards and one interception. He added 14 rushes for 59 yards, with 1 touchdown and a fumble.
Tristan Thompson rushed 8 times for 117 yards and 2 scores, and Colton Roark caught 3 passes for 27 yards, losing 2 fumbles on the day.
Defensively, Chance Freed, Carlos Barrientos and Easton Hughes each had 4 tackles, and Barrientos added an interception. Zach Myers and Roark each forced a fumble.
As a team, Cassville produced 280 total yards, 50 through the air and 230 on the ground. East Newton managed 269 yards, 156 passing and 113 rushing.
Kickoff against Lamar this Friday is at 7 p.m. The Wildcats last defeated the Tigers in 2018 by a score of 24-21.
