Republic prepared all week for Ozark’s man-to-man defense, but it never got a chance to put any of that practice to use. Ozark, a traditional man-to-man defensive team, “threw a wrench” into Republic’s planning by switching to zone all night, and used that element of surprise to get a jumpstart on a 35-28 win.
Ozark led 21-0 before Republic made the necessary offensive adjustments to get on the scoreboard. And Republic twice got within a single score, but could never get the key play it needed to complete the comeback.
“When you prepare all week and you’ve always seen a team and they’ve played a man for years, then all of a sudden they’re playing zone all night, it definitely threw a wrench in our game plan. A lot of the stuff (we worked on) all week, we didn’t even run. Literally 90% of it, we didn’t even work on all week,” said Dustin Baldwin of his team’s offensive repertoire. “So I thought our kids adjusted well offensively – both Gavyn (Beckner) and Avery (Moody), and our linemen, too.”
Ozark scored on its first three possessions, on a two-yard touchdown run by Cannon Cox, a 42-yard pass from Cox to Owen Brockman, and a 56-yard run by Ethan Pritchard.
Republic finally scored with 2:47 left in the first half. Josh Sterling ran the ball in from three yards out to make the score 21-7.
In the second half, Republic punted twice, but the defense held Ozark in check until Republic scored on a one-yard run by Avery Moody, cutting the lead to 21-14.
On the next drive, Republic’s defense shut down Ozark and would have forced a punt, but a penalty for too-vigorous celebration gave Ozark new life. Instead of 4th and 10, Ozark took advantage of the first down and scored later in the drive on a 26-yard run by Jake Beets. That made it 28-14, and Ozark scored again after an interception of a Gavyn Beckner pass. At that point, with 7:05 left in the game, Ozark led 35-14.
“We did it out of excitement, and that’s good to be excited and enthusiastic about getting a stop and getting them to fourth and ten, but you can’t do it in an undisciplined manner and get a penalty. Sometimes you learn the hard way, and we learned the hard way right there. Hopefully we learned from it and don’t do it again,” said Baldwin.
But Republic kept fighting and scored twice to cut the lead to a touchdown again. The first score was at the end of a 10-play, 83-yard drive. It ended on a Moody one-yard run.
Ozark fumbled on its next drive and Jarrett Whitworth recovered, giving Republic the ball back. They drove 45 yards, sparked by two catches by Aidan Gregory, and scored on a Josh Sterling 9-yard run with 2:18 remaining. That cut the lead to 35-28, but that was as close the Tigers would get. Ozark recovered an onside kick and ran out the clock.
Beckner was 12-for-17 for 148 yards. Avery Moody had 19 carries for 86 yards and two touchdowns. Sterling had 10 carries for 75 yards and two touchdowns. Aidan Gregory had four catches, all in the second half, for 71 yards.
“I was proud of them. I told them they have to hate losing, and this has to make them better. But it also proved to them when we play, we can play with anybody,” Baldwin said. “There’s probably about five plays in that game, if you take out one of them, we win the game or we’re tied. You take out two of them, we win. But that’s why you’ve got to play four quarters and play every play like it’s your last.“
Republic had 360 total yards – 218 on the ground. Ozark had 421 total yards – 297 rushing and 124 passing.
Republic falls to 2-3. Ozark is 4-1. Republic goes to Joplin next week.