By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
With the regular season waning in the middle of October, the Webb City football team stood at 4-3 and another deep playoff run seemed in doubt.
But the Cardinals keep winning.
Last week, a seven-point win at Carthage gave Webb City its 22nd straight district championship and set up a Class 5 quarterfinal rematch with Lebanon. And on Friday night at Cardinal Stadium, Webb City scored three unanswered touchdowns in the game’s final 14 minutes to roll to a 35-13 victory.
“It’s almost surreal right now to think about where we’re at,” head coach John Roderique said. “And just getting an opportunity to play again. Coach (Scott) Bailey has brought something to our kids about playing tonight for a seven day contract, which is eight days since we’re going to play Saturday. He’s been preaching that the last few weeks and our kids have really bought into it.”
Webb City, 9-3, will host unbeaten Jackson next weekend in a semifinal clash after improving to 19-1 in quarterfinal games this century.
The Cardinals took advantage of good field position early on Friday to score on their first two possessions. The first came after Lebanon went for it on a fourth-and-two from its own 35 and was stopped short just two minutes into the game. A 35-yard pass from Cohl Vaden to Trey Roets set up a short plunge by Dupree Jackson, and Dante Washington’s extra point made it 7-0.
Lebanon tied it after a 67-yard drive and a 4-yard touchdown by Cade Muscia, but Webb City got the ball back at its own 46, gained 48 yards on a Vaden-to-Washington pass and then made it 14-7 on a seven-yard run by Cade Wilson.
But that would be the Cardinals’ last score for nearly two quarters.
Lebanon, meanwhile, made it 14-10 on a 40-yard field goal by Quinton Doughty and went into the half down 14-13 after Doughty booted a 23-yarder as time expired.
Finally, though, after three punts and an interception, Webb City’s offense got rolling late in the third. Another fourth-down stop gave the Cardinals possession at their own 34 and they needed 10 plays to cover the 66 yards in front of them. Dupree Jackson scored on a four-yard run to make it 21-13 with 1:29 left in the third and Webb City never looked back.
Vaden threw a 29-yard touchdown pass to Washington early in the fourth to make it 28-13, and Vaden added a 37-yard touchdown with 3:15 remaining for the final score.
Webb City’s defense, and several fourth-down stops, were critical. There was the turnover on downs to start the game, but Lebanon converted on three of four fourth-down attempts in the first half. The Yellowjackets turned it over on downs at the Webb City 34 to open the third, at the Webb City 46 midway through the fourth, and at the Webb City 49 in the game’s final minutes.
“We like to go for it on fourth downs a lot ourselves and those were tremendous plays,” Roderique said. “Tremendous defensive plays because that team, their conversion rate on fourth down is incredible for the season. You’ve got a good idea they’re going to try it. They’re good at it. Just a phenomenal effort by our guys and our defense to do that.”
“The first drive of the game was a situation where maybe I should have punted,” Lebanon coach Will Christian said. “Obviously with how it turned out it didn’t look like the right decision. We’ve been really good this year with converting those and I’ve got a lot of confidence in our offensive line and I still do. We just didn’t make the play. It’s one of those things where you’re a hero if it works and a goat if it doesn’t. I would still make that decision though. We would have been punting into the wind, they have very dangerous punt returners and there were other factors that played into it but obviously when it doesn’t work then it doesn’t look like the right decision.”
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Roderique said Webb City’s ability to put teams away was missing earlier in the season.
“We’ve just kind of developed that here,” he said. “It starts with good defense. If the offense can score, and we struggled there in the second quarter – after we got that first score we really struggled offensively. But when your defense is playing like that it’s like, hey guys, we’ve got a job to do and I felt our guys really did a good job in the second half offensively. And when the offense scores that gives the defense a boost playing with a lead.”
Roderique said Lebanon has players who could suit up for any team in the state, and he thought the Yellowjackets would compete “really well” in the Central Ozarks Conference.
“They’re a great team,” he said. “They’ve got some physical guys all over the place. I was really impressed early defensively how fast their linebackers and secondary players were moving around. That was really challenging for our offense.”
Christian said Lebanon just needs to keep “knocking on the door” of the state semifinals after back-to-back quarterfinal losses.
“First and foremost, congratulate Webb City,” he said. “Outstanding program and team. Coach Roderique does a phenomenal job year in and year out. Man, it’s hard to come in here and win, no doubt about it. I’m really incredibly proud of our kids, they played their guts out. Things didn’t go necessarily our way all the time and that falls on me but our kids played their guts out.
“We’ve been in the quarterfinals several times and we haven’t broken through this year,” he said. “We’ve got to keep getting here and keep knocking so that’s where we’re at.”
Lebanon out-gained Webb City 318 to 290 in total offense, but ran nearly 30 more plays. The Yellowjackets rushed for 233 yards to Webb City’s 132 and possessed the ball virtually twice as long as the Cardinals.
Vaden led the Cardinals with 158 yards passing while completing 7-of-16 attempts and added 10 carries for 56 yards. Wilson rushed 12 times for 56 yards and Washington had four receptions for 91 yards.
For Lebanon, Austin Hendrix passed for 63 yards and quarterback Peyton Mitchell added 22 through the air. Jax Glendenning rushed 11 times for 89 yards and Muscia added 30 for 78.
