Football

Wilkerson, defense powers Centralia to 26-20 win vs Hallsville

Centralia had plenty of motivation Friday.

The Panthers were not just hosting a district opponent in Hallsville but facing the team that eliminated them in the district semifinals a year ago. They earned their revenge in a 26-20 victory that was powered by 270 yards and two touchdowns from Kyden Wilkerson and four turnovers by the defense.

Centralia lost last year’s district matchup 38-36 and gave up a game-tying score with just less than six minutes left in the fourth quarter as Hallsville’s Gauge Harbison ran it in from nine yards to knot it at 20.

“Our kids were focused,” head coach Tyler Forsee said. “You don’t have to motivate them to try to beat Hallsville. “With a minute to go, everybody had written us off. We’re not trying to keep it close, we’re trying to win. We were literally one minute away from doing that last year, and they made plays.”

For much of the game, the Panthers struggled to contain quarterback Colton Nichols, who ran for 216 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries, but the same could be said about the Hallsville defense against Wilkerson. At about every snap during Centralia’s game-winning drive, Wilkerson punched the ball up the middle until a two-yard score with one minute left in the game.

“He’s a wrestler,” Forsee said. “He’s state champ. Those guys find a way to overcome a little bit of adversity like cramps and all that stuff. He had a lot of holes to run through, and that offensive line did a lot of slugging tonight. We can’t forget about those five up front that set the tone, and honestly, controlled the game to an extent.”

Centralia (2-0) hosts its Clarence Cannon Conference opener Friday against Palmyra (0-2), who lost 71-12 to Bowling Green in Week 2.

Mexico evenly matched with Southern Boone, lose 14-6

Mexico knew it would be more of a battle Friday.

Defensive battle, in fact.

The Bulldogs lost 14-6 Friday at district foe Southern Boone as Eagles quarterback AJ Evans threw two touchdown passes. Andrew Runge scored Mexico’s lone touchdown on a 29-yard run in the fourth quarter, making it 7-6 at one point.

Head coach Steve Haag said while Mexico’s offense had a much better day in last season’s 32-7 win, these were different teams now as the Bulldogs are breaking in younger players and Southern Boone returned much experience from last year.

“I thought, going in, we’re probably pretty comparable,” Haag said. “Last year, we might have had a couple more athletes on the field. Too little, too late for our side, but there may be a chance we get to face them again down the road in districts.”

Haag said he was concerned about Evans and his ability to throw, which burned the Bulldogs twice for scores. Before halftime, Evans scrambled to find Tristan McKee 30 yards for the touchdown and then added another score to Chase Morris – who set the school single-game receiving yard record last week at 313 yards – on a slant route for 51 yards in the fourth quarter.

Mexico (1-1) plays Friday at Odessa (2-0), who defeated Clinton 49-20 in Week 2.

North Callaway line bested by physical Macon, lose 33-0

Westran’s line presented a challenge last week for North Callaway, but Macon’s on Friday was a different animal.

The Thunderbirds lost their home opener 33-0 to their first ever meeting with the Tigers after allowing 318 yards rushing – 164 to Maurice Magruder and 102 to quarterback Mykel Linear.

Davis Woods led North Callaway with nine tackles, and Brandon Speight had a fumble recovery.

Head coach Kevin O’Neal said Macon’s lines brought a physicality that North Callaway didn’t come close to matching Friday. The term pushover also didn’t apply to the Tiger runners.

“They had big, physical runners. They were physical up front,” O’Neal said. “They were doing a good job at misdirection, and we’ve got to get better with our reads defensively.”

The Thunderbirds fell behind 21-0 at halftime, allowing Magruder and then Linear to run in the endzone for scores in the first quarter.

While the offense found success in last week’s 28-0 victory at Westran, the ball wasn’t moving as much this time around as the Thunderbirds rushed for 87 yards and threw for 51 yards. Quarterback Braydn O’Neal had 197 yards through the air last week.

“We struggled to move the ball, and players tend to try to do too much in that situation and don’t really focus on their keys,” O’Neal said. “They were aggressive and physical up front, and we tried to do too much instead of our assignments. The game was too fast for us tonight.”

O’Neal said North Callaway (1-1) wasn’t blocking enough, weren’t making the correct reads at quarterback and receivers were running wrong routes, so it will look to address these things Friday at South Callaway (1-1) – looking for the school’s second straight Callaway Cup victory after defeating the Bulldogs 26-6 last season. The Bulldogs lost 20-0 at Hermann in Week 2.

Van-Far grounded in 19-6 loss at Russellville

Van-Far thought fullback Brandon Eoff ran the ball better than last week but need more parts to fall in place.

The Indians’ passing game was mostly absent Friday in their 19-6 loss at Russellville, which was compounded by Van-Far falling behind early for the second straight week.

Head coach Lucas Gibson said Russellville didn’t give quarterback Nikos Connaway much room to get in a passing groove.

“Their pass rush was good. I’ll give them that,” Gibson said. “They had great athletes on defense.”

Van-Far fumbled a snap to give Russellville a short field and eventually a 6-0 lead that turned into a 13-0 halftime advantage.

As soon as the second half started, Gibson said his team played much better as evidence by Van-Far scoring on the opening drive on a 20-yard run by Gage Gibson, who took an option pitch from Connaway to make it 13-6. He felt, however, the Indians could have made it a closer if they cashed in on some more opportunities.

“Most of it was just us making little mistakes at the wrong times,” Gibson said. “We had it inside the red zone or real close to the red zone at least three times where we should’ve scored – silly mistakes like we jumped offsides once that we need to clean up some more.”

Van-Far (0-2) returns to its Eastern Missouri Conference schedule Friday against Montgomery County (0-2) – who lost 46-13 at home against Monroe City in Week 2 – but the next game is even more special as it will be the first game on the Indians’ new field. The previous home opener date against South Callaway in Week 1 had to be moved to Mokane because the field wasn’t ready. After the power is put in this week, Gibson said the lights in Friday Night Lights will be ready.

Paris, Utterback nab first win in 36-0 game at MMA

The Paris offense picked up where it left off from last week.

While last week was a 33-13 loss to Grandview, the Coyotes scored two touchdowns in the second half of that game and scored all of their points in the first half of Friday’s 36-0 win at Missouri Military Academy.

Quarterback Leo Bounds followed his two touchdown passes in Week 1 with two against the Colonels, going 5-for-7 for 89 yards with no interceptions. Gatlin Fountain ran for 69 yards on 10 carries, and Drew Williams had 48 yards on eight carries and a touchdown. Colton Kendrick caught three passes, including a touchdown, for 50 yards while adding a rushing touchdown on a jet sweep.

Head coach Joseph Utterback’s night was special as it was his first win as a head coach after spending five years as an assistant in Paris before being hired to replace 11-year head coach and current athletic director Gary Crusha.

“It means a lot to me personally to have my first win as head coach in the town my whole family’s from,” Utterback said. “Really, the focus is on our kids. They had an outstanding game in all three phases.”

The Coyote defense and special teams contributed to Paris working with short fields much of the night in MMA’s home opener. When the offense took over, the line was leading the charge, Utterback said.

Paris (1-1) returns home Friday for its Lewis and Clark Conference opener against also district foe Salisbury (1-1), who won 66-6 at Carrollton in Week 2. 

MMA nursing injuries after 36-0 loss vs Paris

One Colonel after another seemed to be leaving the field Friday night.

In Missouri Military Academy’s home opener against Paris, the Colonels lost 36-0 and also 11 players to injury. The already small MMA roster was depleted, making the focus for next week getting healthy.

Head coach Robert Rosenbaum said several skill players like quarterback Gabriel Canonico and Michael Moss had to leave early, forcibly changing MMA’s offense and making survival the priority.

“The injury bug jumped up and got us last night,” Rosenbaum said. “When you’re playing freshmen and sophomores against a team that has 10 seniors on it, you’re putting children out against some grown men sometimes. I got to commend them boys for going out there and doing it because that’s part of the game and that’s part of the growing and learning process.”

Canonico sustained a helmet to his throwing arm that leaves his status for next week uncertain, but Moss will definitely be out 6-8 weeks with a torn ligament in his hand. Another player has to go through concussion protocol before he can return, making last night and the near future “a puzzle game,” Rosenbaum said.

Despite all of the negative news MMA received Friday about injuries and falling behind 36-0 at halftime, Rosenbaum said there were positive steps in the inexperienced Colonels’ development as football players.

“We took a big step forward,” Rosenbaum said. “We really played a lot more physical. The defense really had a good game as far as I was concerned because they learned to play in the scheme better.”

The Colonels’ defense was making stops on defense and forced Paris into some third-and-long situations, Rosenbaum said, but had “mental breakdowns” in the secondary that led to costly gains.

Rosenbaum said MMA eventually resorted to using a double-tight offense due to the lack of skill players available – boiling down to a few possible plays – and also because of running back’s Daniel Johnson’s time at quarterback. Since the Colonels didn’t want to throw their green junior varsity quarterback in the game and risk him getting hurt too, the more built Johnson helped the team out in a big way.

“He’s played quarterback in practice a few times like that,” Rosenbaum said. “He’s one of my bigger, more physical guys. Mainly, putting him there last night was to protect my JV quarterback because he’s a freshman, he’s a little guy and it wouldn’t have gone well.

“I’m really proud of Johnson – his effort, him being a complete team player and stepping up and taking the leadership role whenever we were needing it.”

Missouri Military Academy (0-2) is scheduled to host Knob Noster (2-0), who defeated Salem 25-7 in Week 2, on Friday.

Softball

Mexico overrun by Battle, Gleba in 14-3 loss

Chelsea Gleba set the tone for the Battle Lady Spartans.

Mexico pitching had difficulty getting her out Friday night when the Lady Bulldogs lost 14-3 in six innings at Battle in Columbia as she went 3-for-4 with three RBI, a home run and a double. Two more Lady Spartans finished with three hits and every one but one had an RBI.

Maddy Feger led the offensive effort for Mexico, going 2-for-3 with a stolen base, Abby Bellamy had an RBI triple and Brooke Teel also drove in a run.

Mexico had the first lead in the first inning when Bellamy drove in Lexie Willer, who reached base on an error. The lead quickly evaporated as Battle scored five runs in the bottom half of the inning and scored in every inning except the second and fourth innings.

Teel followed Feger’s bunt single in the fourth inning with an RBI single to make it 9-2, and then Feger’s hit was mishandled to allow Hannah Loyd to cross to make it 11-3 in the sixth inning.

Mexico (5-3) plays in the Spartan Softball Round-Robin today before hosting Macon on Labor Day.

Cross country

Centralia’s Bostick repeats as Mexico meet champion, Mexico, MMA runners in top 5

Many of the area runners converged in Mexico on Friday.

In the latest edition of the Mexico Cross Country Invitational, Centralia's Jozelynn Bostick won the girls race with a time of 21:10.46 — outrunning runner-up Jocelyn Dorsey, of Hannibal, by 55 seconds to win the event for the third straight year. In the boys race, Mexico’s Thomas Peuster and Missouri Military Academy’s Bryson Powell finished back-to-back in the top five.

Kenedee Moss gave Centralia another girls top-five finisher with her fifth-place time of 22:51.14. In respective 11th and 13th places, Shelby Lewis and Annie Robinson appeared in the top 20 to medal for the Lady Panthers, who finished in second place as a team with 55 points to fall behind Macon.

The Centralia boys also finished second as a team with 59 points, trailing Bowling Green and individual winner Ben Chance’s 16:42.82, thanks to five medalists. Jennings Lesher had the best boys finish with a ninth-place 18:05.37. Landon Moss, 11th, Carter Moss, 13th, John Holiman, 14th, and Elijah Hill, 17th, were the other medalists.

The Mexico girls finished right behind Centralia in third place with their 57 points. The Lady Bulldogs had four medalists that were led by Maggie Ramsey’s sixth-place time of 23:01.19 and followed by Sidney Turlington in ninth place, Kalea Henneberry in 10th place and Viviana Benjamin in 16th place.

On the boys side, Mexico finished fourth as a team and were led by fourth-place finisher Thomas Peuster’s time of 17:55.66. Tyler Grimes finished 12th with a time of 18:49.63 to give the Bulldogs another medalist.

MMA’s Bryson Powell was close behind Peuster with his fifth-place time of 17:56.55. He and Gerardo Quiroga’s 18th-place time of 19:20.07 gave MMA two medalists and a fifth-place team finish.

North Callaway’s Pressley Schmauch ran to a 14th-place time of 23:38.95 to give the Ladybirds a medalist. Grace Rasmussen had the girls’ next best finish in 33rd, and Brendan Reinhard had the highest finish for the boys in 37th.

Van-Far had two runners participate in the invitational as Erin Childs finished 38th in the girls race, and Richard Hayden was 79th in the boys race.

Community R-6’s Callie Jennings finished 54th in the girls race.

Check out the full stories in the Wednesday, September 7, 2022, edition of The Mexico Ledger.