Every loss hurts. Some hurt more than others. Then there’s Friday night’s football game in a never-ending, gully-washing downpour in Republic.
The Tigers endured an excruciating ending in a 14-10 loss to Carl Junction. They came within a yard of scoring the go-ahead touchdown on their final drive, but the Bulldogs’ defense forced a fumble just before Republic’s Cam Flood could cross the goal line after making what appeared to be a game-winning reception. Instead, Carl Junction recovered the fumble, returned it a few yards, fumbled it themselves–then jumped on top of the ball to take possession again, allowing them to run out the clock.
“This is the toughest one we’ve had,” says coach Dustin Baldwin of the loss. “Our defense, outside of two plays, played lights out. We just said we were proud of them, and let’s stick together. That’s all we can do moving forward.”
The Republic defense turned in a series of big plays in the second half to give the Tigers a chance to pull off a comeback. With about 6:00 left in the game, Blake Hulland intercepted a pass in the end zone to snuff out one Bulldogs drive. A little over two minutes later, after Carl Junction picked off a pass, Jaden Duvall did the same thing, intercepting a pass in the end zone go give Republic another shot at the win.
The Tigers turned to Riley Sigman, who’d scored their first touchdown in the first half. Sigman got the ball five times in a row, including rushes of 28 and 12 yards, to put the Tigers within striking distance of the end zone. After a nine-yard run by Flood and another short run by Sigman, Lucas Hayes completed his first pass of the night to Flood over the middle. Flood took the ball 24 yards before it was stripped away as he struggled to break free from a tackler, and Carl Junction recovered.
Sigman ended up with his best rushing night of the season so far, carrying the ball 27 times for 153 yards. Louis Wallace rushed the ball 13 times for 59 yards, and Flood had three carries for 34 yards. Republic had 229 yards rushing in total. But their passing game struggled in the rain, as Hayes completed just one of eight passes for 24 yards.
Carl Junction had 272 total yards, to 253 for Republic.
For the third week in a row, the game started with the offenses in high gear, only to turn into a defensive struggle down the stretch. Neither team scored in the second half, after lightning caused an extra half-hour to be tacked onto the halftime break. Most of the first half was played in a torrent of rain that fell so fast that even Republic’s new quick-draining turf field had water standing on it in places.
Carl Junction scored first when quarterback Joe Kennedy broke loose on the first play of the Bulldogs’ second drive. He scampered down the right sideline for 77 yards to make it 7-0 Carl Junction.
The Tigers tied the game on their ensuing possession, set up by a long kickoff return by Blake Hulland. The Tigers went 28 yards in two plays, scoring on a 25-yard run by Sigman with 7:50 remaining in the first quarter.
Republic took the lead on a 23-yard field goal by Drew Flippin early in the second quarter, after a five-play, 29-yard drive highlighted by another long Sigman run. But Carl Junction got into the end zone for a second time with about two minutes left in the half, when Kennedy scored on a two-yard run to make the score 14-10. The drive was aided by a personal foul penalty against Republic, after officials said the Tigers tackled Kennedy after the whistle had blown. That was the last of the scoring all night.
“The defense is just playing really good. We had two plays and a bad penalty, and the penalty was questionable,” says Baldwin. “Offensively, we’ve got to gain some consistency. There’s too many missed blocking assignments and missed communication. Until we gain a little consistency, we’re going to struggle to score points.”
Carl Junction improves to 1-2. The Tigers fall to 0-3, even though they have been outscored by fewer than five points per game. They’ll travel to Joplin next week to play the Eagles for the first time.