By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The Carl Junction football team won its first three games in the new Ozark Mountain Conference last fall, and got off to a 4-1 start overall before finishing with a 6-5 (4-2) record––the program’s first winning season since 2017.
It was year two at the helm for head coach Todd Hafner, who previously coached the Bulldogs from 1997-2000 and later spent 19 seasons coaching William Penn University in Iowa.
“The move to the new conference really helped give us some confidence week in and week out knowing we could compete,” Hafner said. “I think with the added confidence comes a little bit better preparation and some of those things. We were able to put some wins together early that helped us, and we ended the season a little bit short of what we wanted but I thought our kids reached their potential and they gave us some momentum going into this year.”
“I think the biggest thing is we’re still continuing to grow as a program,” he said. “We’re in year three of kind of building this thing back to where everybody wants it. Our senior class has done a really good job of showing up for our summer workouts and different things like that. If they continue to be good leaders for us and help us move the program in the right direction, I think there’s going to be plenty of success that lies ahead.”
The Bulldogs return some valuable experience in 2025, including all five starters on the offensive line, quarterback Mason Gilbert and running back Marcus Lopez-Durman (2nd team OMC honors), though they have to replace several of their top receivers from last year.
“This summer we’ve tried to put an emphasis on finding the right guys for that position,” Hafner said. “The young kids have done a good job along with our older kids of showing up and trying to show us what they can do. To this point we feel good we’ve found some kids who can play that position and hopefully we’ll be just as good if not better than we were last year.”
The veteran offensive line includes two all-conference players in senior Gavin Beachner (first-team OMC, second-team all-state) and senior Ben Stevens (second-team OMC). Junior Aidan
Lundien returns at center, senior Cody Walton returns at guard and senior Blake Starks returns at the other tackle spot.
“A couple of these kids have been starting since their sophomore year, so they’ll be three-year starters,” Hafner said. “We made some changes year one to year two in what we were doing up front and being able to carry that over to this year will help us be able to move the offense forward. With the experienced quarterback you can move things a little but further along. With all of those guys coming back there are things we’ve added and we’ll do a little differently and we can do that because we aren’t having to reteach everything again.”
Gilbert was the backup quarterback as a sophomore and then took over the starting role last year and passed for 10 touchdowns with only 2 interceptions. He also earned second-team OMC honors as a punter.
“He did a really good job, and a really good job of protecting the football,” Hafner said. “His completion percentage we’d like to see move up, but we did a lot of play action and tried to throw the ball over the top quite a bit. We’ll do some things a little bit different this year to help with his completion percentage. He has the arm strength to do some things and we’ve talked about trying to fit some balls in some tighter windows and do things like taking a few more risks. Hopefully we can move the ball down the field a little bit better in our passing game.
Lopez-Durman is a strong, bowling ball-type running back according to Hafner.
“He’s a wrestler so he has good balance. “He’s tough and so he carried the ball over 200 times for us last year and we’ll probably see the same thing out of him this year. He’s just a good football player, knows how to play and takes care of it. He had one fumble last year in I think 225 carries. Just a good football player who knows where to go and has good vision. We’re looking for maybe even bigger things from him than we got last year.”
Sophomore Bryant Hanks has “shown a lot” in summer workouts at receiver and could fill a starting role there. Sophomore Tadem Jones could also be a varsity contributor in the backfield and at other positions. Freshman Kage Stewart is a “great wrestler” with a 6-foot-2, 265-pound frame and could contribute as an offensive or defensive lineman.
“He really has the potential to be a special player, and we don’t know if he’s going to fit in with us right out of the gate but at some point during the season he’ll get some playing time,” Hafner said.
Defensively, Carl Junction returns first-team all-conference end Kane Clark (11.5 sacks) who’s bigger and stronger and now around 6-foot-2, 225 pounds as a senior.
“He’s done everything he can to make himself a better football player and fortunately for us he’s on our team because he’s a high motor guy and does a lot of really good things disrupting the passing game and run game,” Hafner said.
Junior Sayre Sundy earned honorable mention OMC honors at linebacker and will start at Mike linebacker. Senior Jojo Ballard returns as a starting safety.
“It’s one of those situations where those kids being good leaders are going to have to really step up,” Hafner said. “We’re going to be a little bit younger on defense so it may take some time for those younger kids to get going. If those kids can get going and lead the way and put us in good situations and rally to the football, hopefully we can hold our own until those young guys figure out the speed of the game.”
The Bulldogs host a jamboree with Carthage and Nevada and then host Capital City and Heritage (Rogers, AR) to open the season. Carl Junction plays another non-conference game at Seneca in October.
