By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Mt. Vernon’s football team turned in its third straight strong season in 2024, though fans may have felt a sense of déjà vu with how it ended.
The Mountaineers got off to a 6-1 start before a couple close losses, then rolled through district play before running into eventual Class 3 runner up Seneca in the state quarterfinals and finished with a 9-4 record.
“It was a good year, but I would say we were I think as a team collectively disappointed that we lost four games and that Seneca ended our season for the third year in a row so that always leaves a bad taste in our mouth,” head coach Tom Cox said. “We had some really nice players that bought into what we were doing and some of those guys have been playing since their freshman year so I was super proud of them and happy they had the success they did from the time they were sophomores through seniors and they won a lot of football games. They had a lot of support from the guys in that class below them who are now our senior leaders and they’re excited to see what they can do as a group with the other young guys coming up behind them. It was a good year, it wasn’t what we had hoped for but it was really fun.”
Even after graduating half a dozen offensive players who garnered all-conference honors in the Big 8, Cox said the Mountaineers return some “really good” contributors. The returners include senior Hunter Dawson, an honorable mention Big 8 tight end (and second-team punter).
“We had some really good players last year, but Hunter might have been our MVP because he could do anything,” Cox said. “He started for us at kind of a slot and tight end position, he punted for us, he stepped in as our place kicker when our outstanding kicker broke his arm at the end of the regular season. He could do just about anything we needed at any time.”
In addition to making 14 of 17 extra point attempts late in the year, Dawson averaged 41 yards per punt and caught 11 passes for 220 yards and 3 touchdowns. Now he’ll step in as the team’s new quarterback to replace Gavin Johnston (2,850 passing yards, 28-13 TD-INT).
“He’s 6-5, 220 right now and if he wants to go on to the next level it could be as a quarterback, but he excelled as a tight end/wide receiver last year just from a physical standpoint,” Cox said. “Good hands, smart player, knows the offense inside and out from being the backup quarterback last year.”
Senior Hunter Conway (47 carries, 211 yards, 5 TD, 71 receiving yards, 1 TD) backed up unanimous all-conference running back Braden Dodson (1,589 yards, 25 TD) last season and will take over as the starter this fall.
“We’re really excited about it,” Cox said. “He’s a more physical type runner. He’s about 5-11, 200 pounds and he’s got good speed.”
Senior Coy Felton returns at receiver after earning second-team Big 8 and third-team all-state honors following a junior season in which he hauled in 57 receptions for 877 yards and 2 touchdowns.
“He’s about as good a 50/50 ball player as you’ll see,” Cox said. “He’s got great timing, goes up after it and chances are he’s coming down with it.”
Senior Lucas Schoen will add some depth to the receiving unit after playing basketball the last two years. Junior Jakai Krueger is a “dynamite player” according to Cox who will also help offensively.
The offensive line features seniors Jakoby Wilson (honorable mention Big 8 guard) and Isaac Henry (honorable mention Big 8 tackle). Juniors Rhylee Martin and Anthony Creed will help fill the other positions.
“Offensively we look to be fairly solid again,” Cox said. “We’ve got some good depth. There are some other young guys coming in that are sophomores and juniors who are going to be good players. I think we’ve got a good first group and then we’ve got some good players at that next level who just don’t have the experience yet but I’m hoping we’ll be able to get them that experience because most of our guys are going to go both ways and that’s always tough. I’ve said this a million times over the years, Mt. Vernon football offensively is so much better and pretty hard to defend when you don’t know whether we’re going to run it or throw it. Where we’ve struggled is when everybody in the stadium knows on 4th and 1 when we’ve got to hand it off to get it. Our linemen have worked really hard this offseason to get stronger but also more explosive. We need the explosiveness from them and that’s one thing we’ve concentrated on this entire offseason. We set a bunch of Mt. Vernon records last year
with that group offensively and I don’t know if we’ll do that this year, but I think we’ll be very productive offensively.”
The Mountaineers defense will include plenty of new faces. They do return interior linemen in Wilson (second-team Big 8 defensive tackle) and Henry. Senior Landon Popa (first-team Big 8 kicker after making 36 of 38 PATs and 4-5 FGs) is vying for one of the end positions with “great quickness and a good nose for the ball,” Cox said. Junior Memphis Montgomery has the skills of a running back and uses that quickness and explosiveness on defense as he looks to contribute. Conway was a second-team Big 8 linebacker last season and will be back in the linebacking corps. Sophomore Griffin Cordray is another athletic player who could play middle linebacker. Felton will move from outside linebacker to strong safety. Juniors Krueger and Garrison Nordyke will help out in the defensive backfield, as well, and Schoen will play at safety.
“Chris Johnston is our defensive coordinator and does a great job getting our guys in the right positions and the right spots,” Cox said. “He’s a longtime defensive coordinator who really deserves all the credit he gets.”
“We’ve got a lot of young guys and our freshman group had a really nice career in junior high,” he said. “We all know that’s junior high, but we’re looking for those guys to step up and step in pretty quickly if we need them. They’ve got some size and some really good skill guys as well. I like our team and our chances but everybody says it every year, the oldest cliche, we just have to stay healthy. We don’t have a bunch of extra guys we can put in. The guys we have can play but we just don’t have very many of them.”
The Mountaineers open the regular season on the road at Aurora before hosting Seneca, a team that’s delivered Mt. Vernon 5 of its last 10 losses. The team will travel to Parkview for a non-conference game in October.
