A rough football season came to a difficult end for Republic Friday, when the Tigers lost on the road at Neosho, 35-7, in the first round of the district tournament. The game was almost a carbon copy of the first meeting between the two teams, on the same field, when Neosho won 34-14.
Friday night, the Tigers had some success with a more power-oriented running game, giving the ball to tailback Jack Hayes or using him as a blocker for quarterback Devon Ward or wingback David Feil. But an inconsistent passing game and a slew of penalties were too much for the Tigers to overcome.
Neosho scored the first three touchdowns of the game: first on a 1-yard run by quarterback Coleman Scott; next on a 33-yard touchdown run by James Renfro; and then on a 19-yard touchdown pass from Scott to Jarvis Funk. The third touchdown came with 9:33 left in the 2nd quarter and made it 21-0.
Republic kept their hopes alive with a touchdown in the final seconds of the 1st half. The Tigers drove 65 yards and finished the drive on a 2-yard run by Ward. The extra point by Grant Holmes made it 21-7, and gave the Tigers hope going into the second half, because they would get the first possession of the 3rd quarter.
But both teams traded stops to begin the half, and penalties killed a potential scoring drive by Republic that would have made it a one-score game. Neosho took over on downs, drove the field for another touchdown, and stretched the lead to 28-7. The sequence mirrored Republic’s first game at Neosho, when the Tigers had a 1st and goal trailing by two touchdowns, but couldn’t score — then Neosho marched 98 yards to put the game away.
Yocum Automotive Drive of the Game
The only scoring drive of the game came as time wound down in the 2nd quarter. Republic took over on its own 35 yard line and marched methodically down the field. With under a minute remaining in the half, Devon Ward ran the ball in from two yards out to give Republic its only touchdown, cutting the lead to 21-7. That was the Yocum Automotive Drive of the Game.
Neosho tacked on one more touchdown late to account for the final margin. The Wildcats ended the game with 435 total yards to 200 yards for Republic.
“A football coach said one time that the ball’s not round; it takes some funny bounces. It took a lot of funny bounces for us this year. We didn’t do a very good job of creating opportunities for ourselves, and when we did get opportunities, we didn’t finish them off,” says coach Wes Beachler.
After the game, Beachler says, “We told them (we’re) proud of them and love them and we’ll do anything for them. We had a brutal schedule, a brutal conference, a brutal district, but if you did everything to the best of your ability in practice and in every game, then you should have no regrets…and you live to fight another day.”
The Tigers end their season at 2-8. Their two wins were against Bolivar (6-4) and Ozark (7-2).