By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
LAMAR, Mo. – As he spoke to his team in the south end zone, Ava coach Dan Swofford admitted he hadn’t really prepared for next week.
There’s no school all week. The Bears will meet on Monday to watch film and they’ll probably have to practice on Thanksgiving, Swofford told the players.
It’s uncharted territory for Ava, which punched a ticket to its first-ever state semifinals appearance with a convincing 26-14 win at Lamar on Saturday afternoon in the Class 2 quarterfinals.
“We wanted to win this game,” Swofford said. “This is the one we had to win to get there. I wouldn’t say the semi’s is our goal but this game is our goal. We’re just doing great and I want to keep it rolling is all I can tell you.”
Saturday marked the third-straight season the two teams met in the state quarterfinals. Lamar won by six points two years ago and by five last season. Ava’s senior quarterback Nate Swofford said last year’s loss was a feeling he never wanted to feel again.
“We left it all out there and we still couldn’t get the win,” he said. “And there’s nothing like that feeling when you try your hardest and you still don’t win so we knew we didn’t want to feel like that again.”
The Bears scored first on Saturday and trailed for less than two minutes in the first quarter before opening up a 10-point halftime lead.
Swofford accounted for three touchdowns in the game, including a 74-yard run on the second play of the game to make it 6-0 and a 54-yard pass to junior Zach Mendel to make it 12-8 later in the first quarter.
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Lamar quickly moved 51 yards on its first possession and scored on a 1-yard run by senior Donte Stahl; the Tigers led 8-6 after senior JD Bishop added the two-point conversion.
The Tigers offense struggled after that, though, turning it over on downs and punting in the second quarter.
“They kind of went right through us at first,” said Dan Swofford. “We kind of got a feel for what they were doing and Josh Bray and Kayden Myers, they just ate it up. We made plays when we had to make them.”
Ava took control with a 14-play, 82-yard drive that lasted more than seven minutes. It ended when senior Kayden Myers scored from the 3-yard line with 16.7 seconds remaining in the half, giving the Bears an 18-8 advantage.
“We’ve always gone in about two touchdowns down and I didn’t know how to respond,” Dan Swofford said. “I thought, ‘Hey, we’ve never been in this spot, maybe we’ll win this one.’ And sure enough we did so that was a lot better than what we’ve been in the past.”
Nate Swofford spent halftime trying to collect his nerves, he said.
“I felt pretty good but we didn’t want to relax because Fair Grove was in the same position so we just made sure not to relax. I was a little tired, not gonna lie. I was running a lot that first half.”
Things went from bad to worse for Lamar when the Tigers fumbled at midfield on their first possession of the second half. Three plays later Swofford outran the defense for a 45-yard touchdown and added the conversion to make it a 26-8 game with 7:54 left in the third.
“That was a big momentum changer for us,” said the elder Swofford. “My son Nate did a great job of executing and making plays today. I was proud of him.”
Lamar’s offense finally got going for a possession later in the third quarter with a 55-yard scoring drive. Junior Case Tucker punched it in from the 1 with 2:30 left to make it 26-14.
The Tigers defense kept them in the game, forcing three-straight Ava punts and recovering a fumble late in the fourth quarter, but the offense couldn’t come through again.
Lamar punted twice in the fourth quarter, including on a fourth-and-28 with 3:59 remaining after the Tigers committed two penalties.
“In the second half our defense got us the stops that we needed to get back into the game and hopefully have a shot at winning it but the offense just could not be consistent,” said Lamar coach Scott Bailey. “We couldn’t generate anything. After that opening drive where we looked really good it was real inconsistent as to what we were trying to get done. Defense did their job in the second half. I felt like they did really well as far as getting us the ball back when we needed it. We just could not get the offense going.”
Asked what Ava did to limit the Tigers offensively, Bailey said the Bears played “extremely fast.”
“They’ve done it for three years now,” he said. “A very well-coached football team. Kids that look undersized when you see them but play extremely hard. Very well-coached, well-played game by Ava.”
Ava, 13-0, finished with 347 yards of offense including 280 yards on the ground. Swofford was 2-for-4 passing for 67 yards. The Bears had 12 first downs.
Lamar, 10-3, had 210 yards. Stahl completed 7-of-16 passes for 82 yards. Five of those moved the chains and Lamar finished with 14 first downs.
“It feels awesome,” Dan Swofford said. “You get a chance to play such a great tradition in Lamar and to do it the way we did it, it was just awesome.”
“We just came ready to work,” Nate Swofford said. “Every single practice was another day to get better and we came ready. We had our scheme set up but we knew we were going to have to get after it because they’re the most physical team in Missouri so we knew we were going to have to come ready.”
Lamar, after winning seven-straight championships, now stays home for the second year in a row.
Ava will host Clark County next Saturday in the semifinals.
