The Republic Tigers dominated the second half with a relentless running attack, and pulled away from Willard for a 34-13 season-opening win. Quarterback Nick Williams rushed for 89 yards on 19 carries, and threw for another 52 yards to lead the Tigers’ offense.
Jake Laswell rushed 18 times for 90 yards, and James Desjardins ran eight times for 54 yards and a touchdown.
The Tigers scored first when Laswell picked off a pass from Willard’s Justin Atchison and ran it back 35 yards for a touchdown.
Willard answered on the next drive, going 53 yards on five plays, and scoring a touchdown on Marcus King’s 1-yard run.
Republic retook the lead later in the half, when Laswell plunged in from two yards out to make it 14-7, where it stayed until the 2nd half.
In the 3rd quarter, Republic had the ball first and held it for seven minutes before Williams scored on a 6-yard run. The Tigers missed the extra point, and the score was 20-7.
After holding Willard on three plays, Republic took over again for another long drive that lasted well into the 4th quarter. They scored on a 5-yard touchdown pass from Williams to Curtis McCarty, and a 2-point conversion made it 28-7. At one point, Republic’s offense had run 31 plays in the 2nd half, compared to only three for Willard.
A Willard touchdown cut the lead to 28-13 before Republic scored for the final time on a 14-yard TD run by James Desjardins, making the score 34-13.
The Tigers racked up 303 total yards on offense–251 of them on the ground. Willard had 131 rushing yards, and 51 yards in the air. Willard’s vaunted tight end Skyler Frazier had only one catch for 12 yards.
Republic improves to 1-0 and will be on the road at Nixa next week.
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