Ozark’s Caleb Essick scored a touchdown on the opening kickoff, then scored three more, to help Ozark beat Republic 49-27 in a COC showdown at Ozark. Essick’s touchdowns came in four different ways. Besides the 89-yard kickoff return, he ran for a score, threw for another, and caught a pass for a touchdown.
But despite the performance by Essick, it was turnovers that cost Republic more than anything. The Tigers gave up three easy scores in a row after fumbling the ball away, even as they outgained Ozark for the game, 403 yards to 393.
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“They’re a very good team offensively, and the one thing we couldn’t do is make a lot of mistakes, and we did that,” says coach Wes Beachler. “And those are things that, unfortunately, are going to happen. This is the third game of my tenure here, and not everything’s going to be perfect the way we want it right now.”
Beachler says it’s possible for a team to come out with too much emotion, and that may have happened to Republic.
“If you play with emotion and not discipline, you’re going to be in trouble,” says Beachler. “But if you play with discipline and a little bit of a lack of emotion, you’re going to be okay.
“I’ll go to my grave saying discipline is more important than emotion in a football game. We have to realize we have to discipline ourselves to work hard in practice, discipline ourselves to work hard in the weight room…and we’ll get there.”
After a James Desjardins TD run tied the game at 7 and the defense got a stop, Ozark recovered a fumble on the Republic 16 yard line and marched in for a score to make it 14-7.
On the ensuing kickoff, Republic fumbled again, giving Ozark a short field. Thirty-eight yards later, Ozark was in the end zone again and led 21-7.
On the next series, Republic fumbled the ball away for a third time in a row, and Ozark took over at its own 44 yard line. Caleb Essick took a lateral and tossed a 51-yard pass to Wyatt Mitchem to make the score 28-7.
Republic threatened on its next drive, but failed to get it into the end zone and stalled out on the Ozark 1-yard line. Ozark took the ball 99 yards before the end of the half and made the lead 35-7 at the break.
In the 3rd quarter, Ozark extended its lead to 42-7 before Republic punched the ball into the end zone again. Desjardins scored for a second time on a 23-yard run with 1:49 left in the 3rd to make it 42-14.
Another Ozark touchdown — a 1-yard run by Clint Godfrey — made it 49-14 with 10:11 left in the game.
Two more Republic touchdowns, a 28-yard run by Tryston Ellison and a 10-yard pass from Zach Hall to Ellison — made the score 49-27.
Desjardins led the Tigers with 119 yards on 20 carries. Jace DuVall added 81 yards on six carries. Tryston Ellison rushed four times for 59 yards, as the Tigers ran up 313 yards on the ground.
Zach Hall, who started at quarterback in a lineup shuffle caused by the absence of Colton Peltz due to injury, completed six of 12 passes for 90 yards.
Republic falls to 2-1 on the season. Ozark is 3-0.
Republic travels to Webb City next week.
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