Republic moved the ball down the field in the first half without much to show for it. But the Tigers turned their offensive success into points in the second half, exploding for four touchdowns in the third quarter on the way to a 35-0 win at Joplin.
The Tigers led 7-0 at halftime after a couple of mistakes kept them out of the end zone. But they scored touchdowns on their first four possessions of the second half. Nolan Lashley opened the third quarter with a 34-yard touchdown run, and the Tigers ran for 422 yards while holding Joplin to 122.
Joplin quarterback Trenton McCadney ran for 88 yards and kept the Eagles on the field for much of the first half. Republic coach Ryan Cornelsen said that was how Joplin had stayed in the game against Nixa and Carthage.
“They’re hard to get off the field because [McCadney’s] that good,” Cornelsen said. “He kept the drives alive and kept their offense on the field, and just basically drained the clock. Kind of played our game.”
Republic’s first drive reached the Joplin 29 before Cooper Cornelsen was ruled to have fumbled and Joplin recovered. Replay showed Cornelsen was down before the ball popped free, but Joplin followed with one of its best drives of the night. The Eagles’ nine-play drive included a 40-yard run by McCadney on fourth-and-one, but the Eagles turned the ball over on downs at the Republic 10. It was Joplin’s only trip inside the Republic 20 all night.
Trenten Coleman intercepted McCadney to set up Republic’s only score of the first half. Republic went 77 yards in nine plays, and Lincoln Caldwell scored on a five-yard run with 3:44 left in the half. Joplin reached the Republic 35 on its next drive and turned it over on downs again.
Game page →“We stalled out once and had to punt. We fumbled once, so really I felt like we were able to move the ball,” Cornelsen said. “We just didn’t have the points to back it up.”
Cornelsen said Republic didn’t change anything at halftime. “We just played hard and kept running our same stuff, and it just happened to break open and find ways to put it in the end zone,” he said.
Republic took the second-half kickoff to its own 47, and Lashley went 34 yards for a touchdown four plays later to make it 14-0.
On the next drive, Kordel Riley scored the first touchdown of his varsity career on a 16-yard run to make it 21-0 with 6:35 left in the third. Riley said Republic installed the reverse this week, and he had already been running it on JV. He put it in the end zone even though things didn’t go according to plan.
“I ran into my blocker twice, and instead of going outside, I cut back in, broke a tackle, and scored,” Riley said. “Good feeling.”
Cooper Cornelsen threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Brennan Overstreet with 3:33 left in the third to make it 28-0. Lashley scored on a 27-yard run with 10:16 left in the game to finish a 72-yard drive and make it 35-0. Lashley now has 20 touchdowns this season.
Joplin punted on all four of its second-half possessions. Uriah Drew, who spent much of the night in the Joplin backfield, said the defense stuck to its plan.
“Defensively, we had a plan, assignment sound, and when we stick to the plan and we just execute it, everybody makes big plays,” Drew said. “Getting past some bigger dudes, like when you know you’re smaller and still making the play, it’s just a great feeling.”
Lashley finished with 173 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries. His total put him over 1,000 yards for the season.
Caldwell ran 11 times for 70 yards and a touchdown, Cooper Cornelsen had 77 yards on six carries, and Riley had 41 yards on three carries. Hayes Porter added 33 yards on nine carries. McCadney completed three of 16 passes for 24 yards and an interception.
The shutout is Republic’s third of the season, after a 35-0 win at Lebanon and a 49-0 win over Ozark.
The win was also the 50th by head coach Ryan Cornelsen since he arrived in Republic in 2021. That puts him third on Republic’s all-time wins list among coaches, behind Eddie Miller (122-45) and Jim Chambers (63-18-1).
Republic improves to 5-1 and hosts Webb City Friday, Oct. 9, at 7 p.m.
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