Republic turned the ball over five times and Branson took advantage of those mistakes in a 34-13 district victory at Republic. The Branson win flipped the script from Week 9, when Republic had traveled to Branson and won 34-28 to earn home field advantage in the opening round of the playoffs.
From the opening minutes, the Tigers seemed out of sync after playing a crisp game at Branson last week.
“We didn’t have school today. It kind of got us out of our routine,” said coach Dustin Baldwin. “We tried to get the kids up. We just didn’t feel like in the pregame we had that enthusiasm that maybe we had last week. I thought we were tight tonight from the beginning.”
Republic’s defense played well in difficult situations at times, and stopped Branson for negative yardage ten times throughout the game. But Branson’s success on several third-and-long plays was costly to the Tigers. That included a 3rd and 22 in the first quarter on which Branson gained 21 yards – setting up a conversion on 4th down and an eventual Pirate touchdown. Branson scored first on that drive with 8:38 left in the first quarter on a three-yard touchdown pass from Tristan Pierce to Cristian Berumen. The extra point was no good.
Later in the quarter, Payton McCormick scored on a 5-yard run and Branson made the extra point to go up 13-0.
Republic took advantage of a fumble by Branson to score its first touchdown. Tommy D’Andrea picked up the ball after Pierce fumbled and returned it to the Branson 40-yard line. From there, Connor Sandridge busted loose for a 40-yard touchdown run. Marco Donjuan’s extra point made it 13-7.
Republic’s defense got a stop and the Tigers had an opportunity to take the lead with a drive at the end of the second quarter. But Republic went three-and-out, and Branson got another score before the half. David Hadaller rushed the ball in from 34 yards out with 2:40 remaining in the second quarter to put Branson ahead 20-7.
In the second half, Branson again took advantage of a Republic turnover — intercepting a pass and punching the ball into the end zone after a short drive. A pass from Pierce to Brady Blackwell put Branson up 27-7.
Republic’s second score of the night came on a 27-yard touchdown pass from Beckner to Landon Porter as time expired in the third quarter. The extra point was no good, and the score was 27-13.
Branson finished out the scoring on a two-yard touchdown by Pierce to put the game away.
“You look at missed tackles and penalties – we just played way too sloppy to beat a good football team,” Baldwin said. “Watching last week’s film, I thought we probably had some fortunate breaks last week, and that this week, we didn’t get any.”
Total yardage was much closer than the scoreboard would indicate. Branson outgained Republic 287-261. Gavyn Beckner was 14 for 25 for 140 yards passing and a touchdown. He threw two interceptions. Connor Sandridge had 15 carries for 136 yards and a touchdown. Landon Porter had three receptions for 57 yards and a touchdown.
“The sad thing is the career comes to an end for guys that have really worked at it. There’s several guys that are hurting right now,” Baldwin said. “But I appreciate those guys. This has been a year like no other with the protocols and all the things that we’ve done. So I’m really happy to get ten games in.
“I wanted to keep playing, and our kids wanted to keep playing. We felt like we were going to win the game if we played good, and we didn’t make it happen. But I’m really grateful that our seniors got to have a season. It wasn’t what we wanted from wins and losses, but it was fun. We competed and I’m glad they got to have those times they could never get again.”
