Webb City overcomes early deficit to claim 22nd straight district title

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By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)

Friday’s district championship game at Carthage was new territory for visiting Webb City.

Sure, the Cardinals have played for a few district titles over the years. But rarely as the underdog.

And that’s what the Cardinals were on Friday night against an undefeated Carthage team that throttled Webb City 42-14 in the regular season and entered the postseason ranked second in the state.

“When we played here before we weren’t a very good football team,” Webb City coach John Roderique said.

But the Cardinals showed they’ve improved since September, shaking off an early 14-0 deficit and shocking Carthage 28-21 for the District 6 title – Webb City’s 22nd in a row.

“Through the course of the season we’ve become a little bit better all the time,” Roderique said. “I told them it’s kind of like life is sometimes, you show up and you’ve just got to battle every single day of your life. It’s not going to be easy, you’re going to have setbacks. You’ve just got to keep battling. That’s what life’s about. We try to make this game kind of a microcosm of life sometimes and that’s kind of how it was. They kept battling, kept battling, got a little bit of energy here and there and were able to just make one more play maybe than they did.”

The game was tied at 21 with 4:13 remaining when Webb City (8-3) went three-and-out and punted. But two plays later, the Tigers (10-1) fumbled at their own 40.

That set up Webb City’s game-winning drive. The Cardinals had the ball inside the 10 with less than a minute to go and snapped the ball on a third-and-1 with 32 seconds remaining. Quarterback Cohl Vaden kept the ball and plunged four yards for the go-ahead score with 27 seconds on the clock.

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Dante Washington intercepted a deep pass by Carthage quarterback Caden Kabance to end the game.

Roderique said the outcome showed how resilient his team has become.

“Every day you’ve got to get up and battle and work and just keep going,” he said. “I think that’s really what we did tonight. It wasn’t spectacular play at times for sure but don’t worry about the last play, work on the next play. They just kept going. We got a little break at the end there and our offense was able to go 30 or 40 yards to put it in.”

The finish was a far cry from how the game started – disastrously for the Cardinals.

Webb City fumbled twice within its first three plays from scrimmage, leading to a 14-0 Carthage lead less than six minutes into the game. The first was recovered by Max Williams at the 33 and led to a 1-yard touchdown by Kabance.

Williams also recovered the second fumble and this time he picked it up and ran more than 30 yards for the score.

“I really couldn’t imagine the start would have been that bad,” Roderique said. “Gosh, we’ve done a really good job taking care of the ball recently. I don’t think it was us, I think it was them. I think they just had guys make great plays, taking the ball away, stripping it. The second one someone might have gotten a hand on the ball in the mesh. That’s probably what you’re most proud of, just being able to overcome that and even just get tied with them in the first half.”

With the momentum firmly on Carthage’s side, Webb City mounted a 67-yard drive to get on the scoreboard following a 1-yard touchdown by Cade Wilson. But the extra point missed.

Carthage drove to the Webb City 35 on its next possession but threw incomplete on a fourth down. The Cardinals answered with a 65-yard scoring drive, moving the chains on a fourth-and-1 and then scoring on a 38-yard pass from Vaden to Washington. Dupree Jackson added the two-point run to tie it up.

It remained a 14-14 game well into the second half, thanks in large part to Webb City’s defense, which held Carthage scoreless on six-straight possessions.

The Cardinals scored early in the third but the touchdown was nullified by a holding penalty and the team later turned it over on downs. Another touchdown was brought back due to holding on Webb City’s second drive, which put the Cardinals into a third-and-43 situation. Vaden ran for 39 to get the first down, then scored on a 4-yard run to make it 21-14 with 6:36 left in the third.

But Carthage answered and tied it on a 24-yard Luke Gall run. Then came Webb City’s three-and-out and Carthage’s fumble with time running low.

“We certainly had some opportunities and missed a couple shots we took but give them credit, too,” Carthage coach Jon Guidie said. “Man, they came out and certainly played a really physical game. I felt like they were better in the trenches than we were and we knew that was going to be a huge key. They just made it tough on us. Hats off to them.”

“They came out with a lot higher level of physicality,” Guidie said. “That’s what I noticed right away.”

Webb City out-gained Carthage 332 to 286 in total offense, with the Cardinals rushing for 243 and the Tigers for 248. Wilson led Webb City with 25 carries for 157 yards and a score and Vaden added 13 for 59 and two touchdowns. He completed 4-of-11 passes for 89 yards and a score. Washington had three receptions for 67 yards and a touchdown.

The 21 points were a season low for Carthage, which entered the night averaging 43 and allowing only 13. Gall, who had 1,766 yards and 28 touchdowns on the ground in the first 10 games, was limited to 131 on 19 carries. Kabance added 16 rushes for 102 yards, while completing two passes for 38.

Roderique said he didn’t have answers for how Webb City stifled Carthage’s offense.

“I know our coaches did a great job,” he said. “Coach (Darrell) Hicks, our defensive coordinator, and all of our coaches on the defensive side had our kids really well prepared. Our kids played – obviously kids make plays. You only do so much as a coach and the kids make the plays out there on the field. Couldn’t have done a better job. We watched (Gall) for 10 games and they’ve done that to everybody. They did it to us. What a great effort by our defense.”

Webb City will host Lebanon (10-1) next Friday in a Class 5 quarterfinal.

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