Kevin O’Neal not only was a proud coach his first game back with North Callaway but also a proud father.

His son, senior quarterback Braydn O’Neal, scored four touchdowns to lead the Thunderbirds to a 28-0 win at Westran, giving the Hornets’ offense its second straight shutout tracing back to the 38-0 season-ending loss to Highland.

North Callaway’s defense shut out a team for the first time since Sept. 17 when it shut out Van-Far 56-0 at home. The Thunderbirds forced three turnovers – three interceptions and two fumbles – and held Westran to five yards rushing on 22 carries.

O’Neal threw for 197 yards and three touchdowns while adding 29 yards and one touchdown on the ground. Kevin O’Neal said his son did a good job leading the offense even during times of struggles.

“His hard work in the offseason paid off tonight,” O’Neal said. “He made some passes that were pretty tough passes – changed a couple routes actually before the play.”

O'Neal started the scoring with a 13-yard run with about three minutes left in the first quarter and threw his first touchdown pass to junior Sergio Moreno for 26 yards with about five minutes left in the first half.

Kevin O’Neal said his son called one of his audibles on the touchdown pass to Moreno, demonstrating some early chemistry with his receivers.

“Him and Sergio Moreno kind of have a thing where they adjust their routes,” O’Neal said. “They made one audible on Sergio’s touchdown catch that was pretty big.

“The chemistry’s starting to come together. There were times offensively where we stalled out and didn’t play really well. He stepped up and was a leader when he needed to be.”

O’Neal said North Callaway has to make better adjustments up front as shown by its matchup with Westran’s experienced line led by reigning all-state player Langden Kitchen.

“They’re definitely big up front,” O’Neal said. “They were moving to gaps, slanting and doing some different things that we didn’t adjust to really well. We’ve just got to shore up our blocking schemes and making sure what our assignments are.”

North Callaway led 14-0 at halftime and equaled that total in the fourth quarter alone. It didn’t matter as the Hornets weren’t making anything happen offensively.
O’Neal said it could simply be summed up as playing sound defensively

“They were flying to the ball,” O’Neal said. “We got to shore up some of our pass coverage and get a little bit better there, but we did have three interceptions, caused two fumbles and had two fumble recoveries. Anytime you can get five turnovers defensively and hold a team to five yards rushing, that’s pretty solid defensive play.”

O’Neal said having assignments down will be especially important for North Callaway’s home opener at 7 p.m. Friday against Macon (1-0), who defeated Kirksville 27-14 at home in Week 1. He said Macon is returning several athletic and quick players in the secondary and skill positions.

“I think our effort is there,” O’Neal said. “We just got to make sure we play assignment football. They’re not quite as big (as Westran), but they have a little more athleticism.”

Volleyball

Ladybirds can't overcome fundamental Russellville, lose in 3 sets

North Callaway just couldn't make Russellville blink.

The Ladybirds dropped their season opener at Russellville on Monday, losing all three sets by scores of 25-12, 25-17 and 25-19.

Head coach Andrew Klein said North Callaway hoped Russellville, whose record has improved two straight years until the Lady Indians were 12-10 last season, would make more errors but played clean.

"We tried to make Russellville make mistakes," Klein said. "Unfortunately, they were very fundamental and did a great job keeping the ball in play."

Junior Riley Blevins led the Ladybirds with 22 digs, and sophomore Natalie Shryock had four kills.

North Callaway hosted New Bloomfield on Tuesday in what was the Lady Wildcats' debut as a program, and the Ladybirds face reigning Eastern Missouri Conference champion Montgomery County on Thursday.