The Branson Pirates hold an important place in the football history of Cassville. The Wildcats came into their Week 1 matchup riding a couple of impressive winning streaks: 20 consecutive home victories and 29 consecutive regular season wins. 

The last team to garner either a win at Cassville or defeat them outside of the playoffs?  Branson. 

The Pirates went to Barry County and got a 42-13 win over Cassville in Week 1 of the 2009 season, and were hoping to repeat that feat tonight.

From the onset, Cassville flexed its defensive muscle as Branson’s six first-half possessions resulted in four punts, a turnover on downs, and a fumble that was recovered by Cassville.
 
The Wildcats received great field position on their first possession as Cody Frana partially blocked Branson’s punt, which rolled to a stop at the Branson 21 yard-line.  But the Pirate defense stiffened and stopped Cassville’s Hayden Prater on fourth down at the 8 yard line. 

On Cassville’s next possession, the Wildcats again turned the ball over on downs. Branson would put together its best offensive possession of the first half, driving 46 yards in eight plays, but the Cassville defense held as Chandler Hall’s fourth-down pass fell incomplete. 

Wasting no more time, Cassville strung together a 10-play, 69-yard drive to open the scoring midway through the second quarter.

Cassville running back Chris Dunker would cap the drive with a 1-yard plunge for a 6-0 lead as the extra point was no good.  Dunker would strike again as he dashed 62 yards for his second score of the night to make it 13-0 Wildcats.

From that point on, the only thing that stopped Cassville’s offense was the horn signaling halftime. The Wildcats would score on every second-half possession.  Junior running back Brent Thompson had a huge second half rushing for 119 of his team leading 145 yards and scoring on runs of 14 and 7 yards.   

Cassville would find the endzone four times in the fourth quarter to push the lead to 41-0 and set the turbo clock in motion. Both teams would find the endzone once in the final period to give Cassville the 48-7 win and keep both of itswinning streaks intact.

Cassville dominated on the ground,outrushing Branson 404 to 111, and had command of the line of scrimmage all night. 

Hall led the Pirates with 34 yards rushing, and added 94 yards through the air. But he was only 6 of 18 passing.  Branson next faces COC Small Division rival Bolivar, while Cassville will travel to McDonald County.