By Derek Shore (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
It isn’t how you start the season, but how you finish.
Reeds Spring proved that in a big way in a rematch with Cassville in the Class 3, District 4 semifinals.
Three-seeded Reeds Spring knocked off two-seeded Cassville on the road, securing a spot in the district championship game against Mount Vernon next week with a 42-7 victory on Friday night.
“We have definitely progressed as a team,” senior fullback Kelly Newton said, who scampered for a whopping 210 yards on 11 carries while punching in three touchdowns runs. “We made some adjustments with our team. We have just gotten completely better all-around.”
Extending their winning streak to nine games, the Wolves are excited to have home-field advantage for at least one more home game.
“It’s awesome,” Newton said. “I didn’t know if we would have another one. We played Monett, they were saying that it could be our last home game, it was sad. Now we’re back.
“It feels amazing. It’s awesome. I’m glad we get to move on. I glad we pulled it off here. When we play good, we are a really good team.”
Head coach Lance Gosch echoed his running back.
“You get this far in the season and we are playing better,” Gosch said. “It is just the nature of the beast – this is when you hope you are playing your best football at this point in the season. I think right now we are. We just got to make sure we are continuing to do things to get better.”
The Wildcats looked to have the upperhand from the start of the contest with quarterback Shannon Haney finding DJ White for a long pass. Though, White fumbled and the Wolves followed with a 16 play drive for 92 yards capped by a three-yard touchdown run by senior Austin Staugaard to put Reeds Spring on the board in the first quarter.
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Cassville quickly answered back – which would be their final touchdown of the 2017 season – as Bowen Preddy hauled in a play action pass from Haney, going 72 yards for paydirt.
On the ensuing drive, the Wolves were forced to punt, but an illegal participation penalty on Cassville gave the ball back to Reeds Spring which set-up a 54-yard touchdown run for Newton on the next play, taking a 14-7 lead at that point.
The Wildcats turned it over once again on its next possession as Newton followed with a 79-yard rushing touchdown to put the Wolves up 21-7 in the second quarter.
Cassville caught a break when Reeds Spring quarterback Blake Gronvold connected on a 54-yard touchdown pass with Logen Plumb, but a stripped fumble gave the Wildcats a touchback in the endzone before time expired in the first half.
That said, the Wolves took over in the second half, shutting down the Cassville offense and retrieving two interceptions off Haney. Reeds Spring running back Seth Stamps added a 60-yard strike and Gronvold snuck in a one-yard TD to put the nail in the coffin.
“At this time of the year, any win is big,” Gosch said. “It was good to come over here to a place that we haven’t always played really well and we played well. That is a tribute to our kids. Our kids do such a great job of working and staying focused during the week.
“It was a big win for us.”
Newton’s final touchdown scamper came via a 43-yard rush to help seal the 42-7 win for the Wolves.
“He works his butt off in the weight room,” Gosch said. “He is a strong kid. He has got good speed. He has got really good vision and then the guys up front do a great job for him.
“I thought our guys up front did a really good job. We were really physical and kind of owned the line of scrimmage. That enabled Kelly to get to the second level.”
On offense, Newton was supported by Gronvold and Stamps in the backfield, who ran for a combined 144 yards on 27 carries. Gronvold completed four of five passes for 140 yards, including one for a touchdown.
Reeds Spring lost to the Mountaineers by a final of 35-20 in the season-opener. They approach next week’s game with plenty of momentum and confidence.
“(We plan to) come into work on Monday and get better,” Gosch said. “We have seen them before. They took it to us week one. We need to get into film and make sure we’re ready to go. I guarantee you Coach Cox will have them ready.”
“(We) are just going to go in like every other week and play like we do,” Newton said.
Cassville was led by Haney, who completed 15 of 23 passes for 213 yards and had one touchdown and two interceptions. The junior also ran for 40 yards on 11 rushes. Receivers White and Preddy caught six and four passes for 89 yards, respectively.
They say goodbye to a number of a quality seniors from a 7-4 season.
“It’s not a big group – there’s ten of these young men,” head coach Lance Parnell said. “They’re good kids. They stayed the course all the way through. I told them down there when they came in as freshman and went out as seniors – played as well as they have and have the type of the season they had this year – they wouldn’t have believed me.
“It was a group that struggled a little bit in their younger years, but they kept working. They came to work and came to practice everyday with great attitudes. They developed into leaders and played in some key roles in several spots to lead us to a good football season this year.”
