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It took the Webb City offense a couple series to get rolling Friday night, but once they did it was apparent that this year’s matchup with St. Thomas Aquinas would be different than a year ago.
The Cardinals won 34-26 last October in a closely-contested game at Aquinas, but on Friday it was all Webb City as the Cardinals moved to 7-0 with a 35-0 shutout of the Saints.
Webb City got the ball to start the game but could only move 20 yards before the Cardinals were forced to punt. Then, Webb City went 3-and-out on its second possession.
“I think we were just getting used to them,” senior running back Jamison Cady said afterward. “Every time we step on the field there’s that nervousness. After we got rid of that we just played football and stuck to what we do.”
After a pair of Aquinas punts, however, the Cardinals put it all together on their third possession, which started at the 42-yard line.
The nine-play drive which took three-and-a-half minutes off the clock featured six runs by junior running back Phoenix Johnson, who capped it off with a 7-yard touchdown run at the 2:27 mark in the first quarter.
Junior Alex Easley’s extra point made it 7-0 Webb City, and from then on out it was all Cardinals.
Cady scored from 17 yards out with 6:40 left in the first half, and Johnson added a six-yard touchdown run just more than three minutes later. Cady scored on a nine-yard run with .54 seconds left in the half to give the Cardinals a 28-0 halftime advantage.
Aquinas, meanwhile, couldn’t get anything going on offense. The Saints punted on their first six possessions of the game, and only ran two plays on the seventh before time expired in the second quarter.
Aquinas got as close as the Webb City 48 at the end of the first quarter, but three-straight incompletions ended the drive. The Saints also completed just seven of 20 first-half passing attempts, a statistic not helped by an injury to starting quarterback Paul Heit late in the second quarter. He was replaced by junior Austin Scherzer.
Webb City, on the other hand, had scoring drives of 62, 65, 64 and 74 yards. The only hiccup was an interception thrown by senior quarterback Breckin Williams early in the second quarter. Williams made up for the pick, though, on the Cardinals’ final drive of the half, which started at their own 26 with 1:52 on the clock.
It took the Webb City offense a couple series to get rolling Friday night, but once they did it was apparent that this year’s matchup with St. Thomas Aquinas would be different than a year ago.
The Cardinals won 34-26 last October in a closely-contested game at Aquinas, but on Friday it was all Webb City as the Cardinals moved to 7-0 with a 35-0 shutout of the Saints.
Webb City got the ball to start the game but could only move 20 yards before the Cardinals were forced to punt. Then, Webb City went 3-and-out on its second possession.
“I think we were just getting used to them,” senior running back Jamison Cady said afterward. “Every time we step on the field there’s that nervousness. After we got rid of that we just played football and stuck to what we do.”
After a pair of Aquinas punts, however, the Cardinals put it all together on their third possession, which started at the 42-yard line.
The nine-play drive which took three-and-a-half minutes off the clock featured six runs by junior running back Phoenix Johnson, who capped it off with a 7-yard touchdown run at the 2:27 mark in the first quarter.
Junior Alex Easley’s extra point made it 7-0 Webb City, and from then on out it was all Cardinals.
Cady scored from 17 yards out with 6:40 left in the first half, and Johnson added a six-yard touchdown run just more than three minutes later. Cady scored on a nine-yard run with .54 seconds left in the half to give the Cardinals a 28-0 halftime advantage.
Aquinas, meanwhile, couldn’t get anything going on offense. The Saints punted on their first six possessions of the game, and only ran two plays on the seventh before time expired in the second quarter.
Aquinas got as close as the Webb City 48 at the end of the first quarter, but three-straight incompletions ended the drive. The Saints also completed just seven of 20 first-half passing attempts, a statistic not helped by an injury to starting quarterback Paul Heit late in the second quarter. He was replaced by junior Austin Scherzer.
Webb City, on the other hand, had scoring drives of 62, 65, 64 and 74 yards. The only hiccup was an interception thrown by senior quarterback Breckin Williams early in the second quarter. Williams made up for the pick, though, on the Cardinals’ final drive of the half, which started at their own 26 with 1:52 on the clock.
Williams completed five of six passes on the drive, with senior Jarvis Jones making three receptions, and Cady scored with 54 seconds left on the nine-yard run.
“Coach (Russell) Burr, he’s our receivers coach and he’s in charge of our two-minute stuff,” Webb City head coach John Roderique said. “We’ve had some times where it hasn’t looked very good, in practice sometimes we can’t complete a pass in that thing. He had the calls from the press box and of course the kids have to execute it on the field, but they did a really good job. How much more efficient could you be? I think we missed one where we should have gotten out of bounce once, but we had two timeouts when we started that series and I think we went to halftime with two. A pretty good series for us.”
The Saints drove from their own 28 to the Webb City 46 on their first possession of the third quarter, but were forced to punt again and pinned the Cardinals at their own 7.
A Webb City punt gave the ball back to Aquinas with good field position at the Webb City 38. Junior defensive back Brent Greek picked off a pass on second down, but the Saints’ Clayton Henning hit Greek and took the ball away, then ran to the Webb City 22. Three run plays gained just two yards total, and Aquinas lined up for a 37-yard field goal on fourth down, but Derek Rodgers missed the kick.
Webb City made them pay with an 80-yard scoring drive that was helped out by a 34-yard Williams-to-Jones pass that moved the ball to the Aquinas 31. Cady then rushed to the 13, and senior running back Austin Sanders punched it in from six yards out with 58 seconds left in the third for the 35-0 lead to seal it.
The Webb City defense pitched its fourth shutout of the season, and has now allowed just 36 points in seven games. The Cardinals limited the Saints to seven first downs and just 94 yards of total offense, with 33 yards on the ground and 61 through the air on 11 of 25 passing.
“It certainly makes your life a lot easier when you’re playing defense like our guys did tonight,” Roderique said. “We kept a lot of pressure on those guys. Coach (Mike Smith) Smitty called a great game.
“The defense is playing really well,” he said. “Guys are covering receivers up. We’re able to get a lot of pressure with our blitz package.”
Cady said he has been surprised by just how good the Webb City defense has been this season.
“They’re just so fast and physical,” he said. “They surprised me. They’re really good this year.”
Johnson credits the defensive performances to great chemistry.
“They all want to get to the ball,” he said. “Coach Smith does a great job with that and all the defensive coaches do a good job with that.”
Cady finished the game with 16 rushes for 130 yards and two touchdowns, and average of 8.1 yards per carry. Johnson added 13 rushes for 82 yards and two scores.
“Sometimes you don’t really determine who’s going to carry the ball, and we change some schemes around once in awhile and it just so happened he was getting the handoff on the outside veer play we ran a lot,” Roderique said of Cady’s game. “He was hitting the line of scrimmage quickly and our guys really did a good job getting off the ball.”
The Cardinals tallied 459 yards of total offense in the game, and held possession for 36 of 48 minutes. Williams completed 10 of 19 passes for 153 yards and an interception, and Jones had six receptions for 92 yards.
