By Staff

Cassville upends Mt. Vernon with district seeding on the line

By John Miller (Ozarks Sports Zone)

MOUNT VERNON, Mo. – If you’re looking for a team trending in the right direction heading into districts, the Cassville Wildcats might be for you.

After thumping Aurora 34-13 on October 6, Cassville held off Mount Vernon 27-19 on the road Friday, cementing itself as the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Class 3 District 4 tournament.

Cassville will host Hollister on Friday, October 20th. Mt. Vernon, seeded fifth, will travel to Aurora.

“We’ve won back-to-back games against very tough football teams,” Cassville coach Lance Parnell said. “I think we’re playing good football late in the year and looking forward to moving onto district play.”

Cassville (6-3) led 27-19 with 1:51 remaining, but had to withstand a two-minute drill from Mount Vernon (5-4) to come away with the victory. Mountaineers quarterback Ty Boswell led his team from its own 23 yard-line to the Cassville 12 before a fourth-and-10 pass was knocked away, cementing the win for the Wildcats.

“This team doesn’t give up,” said Cassville quarterback Shannon Haney, who rushed for three touchdowns and 140 yards on 26 carries in the win. “As you can see, through the end, fourth down, they made a stop. They won’t quit.”

It looked like Cassville would pull away and dominate for the majority of the first half on Friday. On its opening drive, the Wildcats steered a 12-play, 75-yard drive that lasted 5:11 and ended with Haney scampering into the endzone from five yards away. Their next drive only took three minutes but covered 67 yards with Haney sprinting in from 13 yards out to cap it off. Later in the half, they chewed 6:23 of clock on a 14-play, 62-yard touchdown drive. They dominated time of possession in the first-half thanks to over 16 minutes of combined drives.

Yet, they couldn’t separate from the Mountaineers.

Mount Vernon initially struggled offensively but got a large boost from its special teams play. Kick returner Andrew Montemayor ripped off returns of 90 and 53 yards – both leading to Mount Vernon scores. Running back Sammy Robinson gashed the Cassville defense for 221 yards on only 19 carries and scored all three Mountaineer touchdowns. He ripped runs of 42 and 46 yards and had seven carries go for 10-plus yards.

“He’s a very good back and he had a very, very good football game,” Parnell said.

Robinson capitalized on Cassville’s three-man defensive line, aimed at slowing down Mount Vernon’s passing attack. Boswell completed only 10 of 25 passes for 64 yards, but Robinson had a day on the ground.

“We worked all week on the passing game, and I thought we shot that down pretty well,” Haney said. “We did a three-man front so their run game could hit some holes. I knew they were a good team. I have tons of friends on that team. We’ve been mouthing back and forth. They played a great game. Can’t take anything away from them.”

Cassville led 21-19 at halftime, and the game appeared to be headed for a shootout. The second half was a different story. Of the nine drives in the second half, six ended in punts. Mount Vernon missed a 27-yard field goal out of halftime that would’ve given them the lead.

Still in front 21-19 with eight minutes remaining, Cassville mounted a drive to help put Mount Vernon away. Beginning on its own 39 yard-line, Cassville ate over six minutes of clock. Anthony Tolbert’s one-yard touchdown run extended the lead to 27-19. The extra point – which would have put the game out of reach – was blocked, leaving the door ajar for Mount Vernon.

“Our line set the tone,” Haney said. “Whenever the line sets the tone, you know the game is going to go good for the offense, and we like when that happens.”