Ryan Cornelsen watched the Ozark-Webb City film this week and came away impressed. Ozark held an unbeaten Webb City team to 21 points and had the game within reach until a late interception, and Cornelsen says the team that visits Republic tonight at 7 p.m. is a different Ozark than the one the Tigers have seen the last few years. Republic comes in after a 49-6 loss at Nixa.
“They’re a good football team,” Cornelsen said. “They had a guy who was banged up, one of their key guys, and now he’s back and he’s going.”
Ozark comes in 1-2. They opened with a 49-23 loss to Neosho, beat Willard 48-12, and then lost 21-18 to Webb City last Friday. Both of those losses came against teams that are still unbeaten. Webb City runs an offense a lot like Republic’s, with a line Cornelsen calls “extremely good,” and Ozark’s defense mostly shut it down.
“Webb City struggled to move the ball, and it’s obviously a very similar offense to what we do,” Cornelsen said. “Trying to create the push that Webb normally creates, they weren’t able to do it. That just goes to show you Ozark’s offensive and defensive line. And they’re separate kids — it’s not like they’ve got guys playing both ways. They’re massive. They’re big, they’re strong, they really anchor. It’s by far the best O and D line they’ve had. And you mix that in, they’ve got two good linebackers behind it that stay free because they’ve got those big bodies up front, and those guys are able to run.”
Webb City won last week’s game after Ozark threw an interception with the game still in reach.
“It was a battle to the very end,” Cornelsen said. “Ozark threw a pick there late, and that was probably the difference. They had them on the ropes. It’s definitely a different feel to Ozark from what it’s been in the past.”
Game page →Ozark is in its first season under head coach Ray Godfrey, who took the job in late May. Republic won last year’s game 55-33. Cornelsen remembers the Tigers were hurt by a backup quarterback who entered the game late, and who is now the starter.
“This guy, he can really throw it. He’s got a great touch on the ball. He came in last year and diced us a few times. So he can really throw the ball. Big challenge,” Cornelsen said.
Republic is 2-1 after opening with a 35-0 shutout of Lebanon and a 54-10 win over Kickapoo. The Nixa game was the first time this season the Tigers trailed, and they never recovered from a 47-second stretch of the third quarter that turned a 21-6 score into a 35-6 margin. Republic ran 70 plays and held the ball for more than 34 minutes, but it went 0-for-4 passing with two interceptions and lost a fumble.
“We’ve got to bounce back after a loss. We got banged up,” Cornelsen said. “We were down to our fifth tackle, so we’ve got to figure out what that looks like, what plays we can run with that group. And defensively, another tough challenge. Big offensive line, good skill guys.”
Safety Fisher Moore said the week of practice hasn’t shaken the team’s confidence.
“We just know that they’re a good football team, and we’re going to have to play really good to beat them,” Moore said of Ozark. “We still have a lot of confidence. We all still think we’re a pretty good team. We just have to keep getting better every week and keep grinding.”
Cornelsen said the schedule doesn’t ease up from here. Ozark, Neosho and Carthage are all better than they’ve been, and he’d rather have it that way this week.
“When you’re coming off a loss, you want a challenge, right? We don’t want to play somebody that’s not any good,” Cornelsen said. “We’ve got to have challenges, and we’ve got to go show we can win against good teams. And they’re definitely that.”
The Republic Tiger Sports broadcast starts with the pregame show at 6:45 pm.
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