Webb City wins showdown at Carthage for 21st-straight district title

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By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)

For at least 21 years John Roderique has worn the same hat. 

It’s got a red “WC” on the front, white panels and a red bill. He wore it in the year 2000 when the Cardinals won a state championship, and again on Friday night as Webb City won its 21st-straight district title with a 42-21 victory at Carthage. 

“I haven’t washed it in probably eight years because it would disintegrate,” he told his players after the game. 

“It certainly doesn’t have anything to do with the hat,” he said later. “Has to do with a hell of a lot of great players.”

Whether the hat makes another appearance at a downtown celebration this year remains to be seen, but the Cardinals took an important step forward on Friday with a convincing win against a bitter rival in the Class 5 District 6 finals. 

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME

The Cardinals jumped out to a 28-7 lead in the first half and led by as many as four touchdowns in the second as Webb City continued to torment the Tigers in the month of November. 

In the first 14 seasons of this century the Cardinals went 6-1 against Carthage in win-or-go-home contests, and won three more times when the Tigers’ postseason hopes were already gone. Carthage played spoiler in the 2007 sectionals. 

For the last six years, though, the teams only met in the regular season after Carthage’s jump to Class 5. The Tigers made four appearances in the semifinals and won a state championship in that span. 

Now Webb City has joined them. 

An interception on Carthage’s first drive was a sign of things to come. The Cardinals got the ball just 28 yards from the end zone and scored in three plays on a 15-yard run by senior Devrin Weathers. Senior Cameron Clark’s extra point made it 7-0. 

Webb City added a 1-yard touchdown by junior Dupree Jackson on its next possession. 

Leading 14-7 after Carthage senior Justin Sneed returned a kick for a touchdown, the Cardinals marched 80 yards for another score and led 21-7 after senior quarterback Cole Gayman found junior Cohl Vaden for a 36-yard touchdown pass. 

With barely two minutes remaining in the half the Tigers had Webb City pinned at its own 21 and facing fourth-and-long. Carthage coach Jon Guidie called a timeout, sensing an opportunity for his offense, but the Tigers failed to catch the ensuing punt and after a mad scramble, the Cardinals recovered the ball at the Carthage 43-yard line. 

Two plays later Gayman threw a 40-yard touchdown to senior Mekhi Garrard to make it 28-7. 

“That was a big one,” Roderique said. 

“It was huge,” Guidie said. “That’s something we worked on all week long was our punt return. We didn’t like where we were at with it. We put two kids back to ensure we were going to field it. He tried to come up and make a play on it, missed it and then we give up the big fade for a score there. Not much fun at halftime but challenged them to come out, have some pride in themselves and I thought they came out and battled pretty well the second half.”

The Tigers made some noise, but not before Webb City opened the third quarter with another 80-yard scoring drive to lead 35-7. Weathers broke free for a 39-yard touchdown on the 11th play, after conversions on third and fourth down, and after the Cardinals had eaten nearly six minutes from the clock. 

“That’s normally what we do coming out of halftime,” Guidie said. “Put drives together and chew up clock but they were able to do that. They converted on some third downs, maybe even a couple fourth downs, and kept us off the field.”

Carthage threw incomplete on a reverse pass on a fourth-and-goal from the 6 on its next possession, but added scores on a 5-yard Patrick Carlton run at the 8:04 mark of the fourth and a 9-yard Carlton-to-Hudson Moore pass with 57 seconds remaining. 

Webb City’s Vaden added a 9-yard reverse for a touchdown with 4:31 left. 

“Just amazed at the kids’ effort, how hard they played,” Roderique said. “We had a fantastic week of practice and I’m just proud of them. Just so, so proud of our players and our coaches for the effort they played with tonight.”

“One of the things we found out, you don’t really know a lot about yourselves sometimes but when you play really good people – I remember talking to the coach from Nixa after their game and I said we haven’t played that well all year against anybody the way we played that game,” he said. “I felt like playing that team brought the best out in us and I kind of had that feeling, a little bit of that tonight. Playing a good opponent and it felt like it really brought the best out in us. Just can’t say enough about the effort of our kids.”

“Obvioulsy we made some mistakes and give them credit for a lot of those,” Guidie said. “We had two bad snaps on our first drive in the second half and didn’t score on fourth down. We muffed another punt back there which gave them a short field. A lot of mistakes by us but you give them credit too because they force you into making those mistakes.”

The Tigers struggled to maintain drives, especially in the first half. They turned it over after six plays on their first possession, punted after eight plays on their second, punted after six on their third and punted after four on their fourth. 

The teams were balanced in the box score. Webb City totaled 349 yards and Carthage 325. The Cardinals rushed for 246 and Carthage for 202. 

Carlton completed 9 of 20 attempts for 123 yards and a score for Carthage, and Gayman was 4 of 7 for 103 and two touchdowns. 

Carlton added 126 yards on the ground, while Weathers led both teams with 152 yards and two scores on 19 carries. 

Of all the games played between the schools in the last 100-plus years, few were as highly anticipated and had more on the line than this one. 

Both teams entered as defending state champions. Carthage was 9-0, the No. 1 school in the Class 5 rankings and the top seed in the district. Webb City was 9-1, ranked second in the state and seeded second in the district. 

And the regular season contest was canceled as Carthage grappled with quarantines, leaving claims to the Central Ozarks Conference championship up in the air. 

Webb City tried to embrace its role as an underdog. 

“Yeah, we put on our scouting report this is the defending state champions, undefeated, number one seed in Class 5 District 6,” Roderique said. “Yeah, why not?”

But Gayman said the Cardinals never really felt like an underdog. 

“I really don’t think we did,” he said. “We know what happened earlier in the season with them not being able to play us. We kind of took that to heart and kind of showed it tonight.”

“We had to go at their defense and we just had to stop their offense,” he said. “Our offensive line carried us tonight. They were the most physical aspect on the field tonight and we stopped Patrick as much as we could and that was a big factor, too.”

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