By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Visiting Lebanon had seven more first downs, nearly 100 more yards of offense and well more than double the time of possession, but it wasn’t enough to knock off Webb City in Friday’s season opener.
The Cardinals overcame a 14-7 deficit in the second half with help from some key defensive plays and held off the Yellowjackets for a 28-20 win.
“Our energy and effort was great even though it was sloppy at times,” Webb City coach Ryan McFarland said. “We’ve got a lot of things to work on in practice to fix but I’m just really proud of our effort the whole night.”
The Cardinals led 7-0 at halftime after Mason Williams broke loose for a 53-yard touchdown in the first quarter, and Webb City received the kick to start the second half. But Lebanon’s Joe Simmonds scooped up a fumble on the return and took it to the end zone to tie the game with Rhett Rhoades’ extra point.
Then, after forcing a 3-and-out, Lebanon covered 75 yards and took the lead on a 38-yard touchdown run by quarterback Beckett York that made it 14-7 less than four minutes into the third quarter.
“Really proud of how the guys came back in the second half,” McFarland said. “You go into halftime you’re up 7-nothing, you’re getting the ball and thinking hey if we can score here and make it a two-score game we’ve got a chance. Next thing you know you fumble the kickoff, they score, they get the ball back and score again on a long run and then all of a sudden you look up it’s 14-7 and you’re behind. Proud of the kids for fighting back all night.”
Webb City tied the game with 3:21 left in the 3rd on a 1-yard plunge by quarterback Gabe Johnson to cap a 67-yard drive; Jared Castro made the extra point.
Lebanon kept the pressure on, though, driving from its own 13 to the Webb City 27. But the momentum shifted on a first-down fumble, which Webb City linebacker Bryson Bard picked up and returned for a touchdown to make it 21-14 with 10:50 left in the game.
“That was a huge play,” McFarland said. “We kept telling the kids something good’s going to happen for us. Every time we’ve got a big play there’s a penalty. We fumble the kickoff, they return it for a touchdown. Just kept on our kids to keep playing hard and something good’s going to happen and it was a great job by our defense. Bard’s scoop and score there was a great job. He’s a senior leader for us and he’s kind of waited his turn so it was good to see him get a big play tonight.”
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The Yellowjackets responded with a 15-play scoring drive that took nearly 8 minutes off the clock and featured four 3rd-down conversions. Brayden Christian punched it in from the 1 for the score with 2:48 on the clock, but a two-point conversion pass fell short and left the visitors trailing 21-20.
Johnson added a 36-yard touchdown run with 58 seconds on the clock to make it an 8-point game.
Lebanon converted on 4th-and-1 in the final minute and got as close as the Webb City 43 before Slade Hurd came down with an interception inside the 10 to seal the win.
“Webb City’s a great football team, a tremendous program,” Lebanon coach Will Christian said. “I thought we battled tough on the road. Obviously they made more plays than we did tonight. We didn’t capitalize on some opportunities. I know one stat that’s going to jump off the page is the number of plays we had on offense in comparison, and the number of first downs and the time of possession. That just goes back to we’ve got to take care of the football better than them and we were darn close tonight.”
“I’m really proud of our kids,” Christian said. “I thought they battled their tail off and a game like this is good for us. A week one game like this is going to make us a better football team in the long run. That’s really what we’ll wrap our head around. It stings a little bit but we’ll bounce right back and just keep battling.”
Lebanon out-gained Webb City 326-232 on offense. The Yellowjackets had 66 offensive plays, compared to the Cardinals’ 32, and held an 18-11 advantage in first downs. Lebanon possessed the ball for 33:45 compared to Webb City’s 14:15.
Mason Williams led the Cardinals with 11 rushes for 130 yards and a score. Johnson rushed 8 times for 50 yards and two touchdowns.
“Lebanon did a really good job of just keeping the ball out of (Johnson’s) hands tonight,” McFarland said. “You could tell with our option game they were deliberately trying to make sure he didn’t carry the ball very often.”
“I’m really proud of him, he fumbled a couple snaps and you can tell there’s a lot of rust there he’s got to knock off but he’s going to be pretty good once he gets that rust off.”
Lebanon’s York totaled 118 rushing yards and a score and Christian rushed 28 times for 108 yards and a touchdown. York completed 7 of 12 passes for 96 yards, with Simmonds catching 3 for 50.
Lebanon will host Joplin next week. Webb City travels to Nixa.
