The last time Neosho came to Republic for a playoff game, it was the final varsity game at the old stadium at the middle school. Neosho won 42-21. That was 2017.
The two teams meet tonight for the Class 5 District 6 championship. Republic is 9-1 and the top seed. Neosho is 10-1 and the second seed, and its only loss came at Republic on Sept. 25, when the Tigers won 47-35. The winner plays in the state quarterfinals next week.
Nolan Lashley ran for 368 yards and six touchdowns in that first game, and Republic ran for 519 yards as a team. The Tigers led 47-21 with less than three minutes left before Neosho scored twice at the end.
Neosho hasn’t lost since, but it hasn’t been easy. Four of the Wildcats’ six wins since then have been decided by a touchdown or less, including a 51-48 win at Carthage and a 34-31 win over Branson in last week’s semifinal.
“They are a good football team,” Ryan Cornelsen said on this week’s REPMO Football Show. “Any team that’s 10-1 in our conference is saying something. Them being 10-1 tells you they’re really good.”
Neosho scores 45 points a game, and it starts with quarterback Blayne Patterson. He has thrown for 1,767 yards and 22 touchdowns and run for 1,168 yards and 17 more. Lincoln Howard has run for more than 1,400 yards and scored 23 touchdowns, and Westen Richardson has 52 catches for 810 yards.
Game page →“Their quarterback is what makes them go. He’s extremely fast. He puts the ball on the money, and they’ve got four guys that can go up and catch it,” Cornelsen said. “And the running back runs physical and he’s a good runner. It’s the most dynamic [team], as far as athletes go, in the conference. Even including Nixa, these guys have the most… guys that are capable of hurting you in multiple ways.”
Republic won’t do anything different. The Tigers run for almost 400 yards a game, and Lashley has 1,627 yards and a school-record 30 touchdowns. He needs 191 yards to pass Jerney Jones for the school’s single-season rushing record.
A big question for Republic might be who’s healthy. The Tigers needed three overtimes to beat Carthage 32-30 last week, and they came out of it with more then the usual share of bumps and bruises.
“This is by far the most banged up we’ve ever been since I’ve been here,” Cornelsen said. “This is the first time we’ve really had to adjust practice and who’s doing what and who’s sitting. A lot of guys [are] non-contact because of injuries. Tuesday was rough. And then Wednesday got better, and we had a good practice Wednesday.”
Cornelsen said the first game between these teams won’t mean anything tonight.
“I tell our kids, it doesn’t matter what happened the first game or any games before this. We have to play our absolute best game if we want to win this one,” he said. “So that’s the challenge. Can we play our best game? And if we do, you feel like you got a chance to be successful, but the margin of error is very small.”
Kickoff is at 7:00 at Republic. The broadcast is on MSHSAA.tv. Find all the details at republictigersports.com/live.
What to watch:
The quarterback: Keiran Govan and Cayden Pacheco both intercepted Patterson in the first game. Republic turned the first one into a touchdown and the second into a 17-play drive. Patterson has thrown only one other interception all season. Can the Republic secondary get to him again?
The clock: That 17-play drive took more than eight minutes off the clock. The best defense against Neosho’s offense might be keeping it on the sideline. Can the Tigers stay on the field and finish drives?
The record: Lashley needs 191 yards to break a rushing record that has stood since 2015. He had 368 the last time he saw this defense. Does he get there tonight?
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