Performance of the Week – Republic's Ground Game

Republic ran the ball 68 times against Webb City Friday night and never threw a pass. The Tigers held the ball for 31 minutes of a 48-minute game, and they never punted.

Nolan Lashley carried 29 times for 158 yards and four touchdowns in the 33-14 win. Keiran Govan ran 14 times for 89 yards and a touchdown, Hayes Porter had 52 yards, Lincoln Caldwell had 43 and Cooper Cornelsen had 40. Baelor Cutbirth and Trenten Coleman carried once each. None of the 68 runs lost yardage, and the longest one went 18 yards. Republic got its 392 yards four and five at a time, behind seniors Brody Romines, Cory Kroth, Bryce Hein and Raleigh Verstraete, juniors DJ Phelps and Hudson Budd and sophomore Treyton Triplett, among others.

The Tigers’ first drive started at their own 1 after a fair catch, and three plays later they faced fourth-and-one at the 10. Coach Ryan Cornelsen kept the offense on the field. Cooper Cornelsen pulled the ball on a read play and ran 18 yards, and the drive went on for 20 plays and 99 yards. It survived three holding penalties and took 8:51 off the clock, and Govan finished it from the 6 on another fourth down.

“Our kids take pride in knowing, like, coach ain’t scared to go for it. He’s got faith we can get that yard, and we can do it multiple ways,” Cornelsen said. “They believe that coach is just crazy enough to call this thing and go for it. I think that shows my trust in them, but it also gets them pumped. They want to go for it. They don’t want to punt.”

Republic’s next drive went 80 yards in 14 plays, and Lashley scored on fourth-and-goal from the 1 with 2:46 left in the half. Webb City got the ball back, went for it on fourth-and-one at the Republic 39 and didn’t make it, and Republic ran out the half. Webb City’s offense ran 16 plays in the first half. Republic ran 37.

Then Webb City went a long time without the ball. Republic took the second-half kickoff and went 78 yards in 10 plays, and Lashley scored from the 4 with 7:13 left in the third quarter. The Tigers tried an onside kick and recovered it, then went 48 yards in 10 more plays, and Lashley scored from the 1 with 1:52 left in the quarter to make it 26-0. Webb City’s offense had run its last play with 1:42 left in the second quarter. Its next one came with 1:30 left in the third. So Webb City went about 12 minutes of game clock, almost a full quarter, without running a play, and Republic ran 23 plays in between.

Webb City scored twice in the fourth quarter and recovered an onside kick of its own to get within 26-14, and Republic answered with one more long drive. The Tigers went 51 yards in 11 plays, converted a fourth-and-one at the Webb City 28, and Lashley scored from the 4 with 3:17 left. That drive took 4:55. Every one of Republic’s five full drives went at least 10 plays, and every one of them ended in a touchdown. The Tigers went for it on fourth down five times and made all five.

Sixty-eight carries, no passes, no punts, 31 minutes with the ball and almost a full quarter where Webb City’s offense never took the field, and Republic’s ground game against Webb City is our Performance of the Week.