DISTRICT CHAMPIONS

For more than three quarters, Jasper’s offense sputtered in the rain, the mud and the muck in the regular season finale Thursday against Sarcoxie.

But a late scoring drive, coupled with Austin Spencer’s heroics, helped lift the Eagles past Sarcoxie for an 8-6 victory and their first district championship since 1993.

The Eagles’ normally productive air attack was grounded by inclement weather conditions, while their running attack was unable to find traction in the mud against Sarcoxie’s defense. It looked like a 20-yard second quarter touchdown by Sarcoxie senior quarterback Nathan Freelend was going to hold up and give Sarcoxie a 6-0 victory until Josh Dirks, Jasper’s first-year head coach, put the game on the shoulders of senior running back Austin Spencer.

Starting from the 12-yard line, deep inside its own territory, Jasper marched to the Sarcoxie 40. Jasper used Spencer over and over, always to the left.

“We knew there was one stretch of good ground to run on,” said Dirks. “It was up field to our left and we just tried to stay on it.”

The drive was aided by a Sarcoxie pass interference penalty on fourth-and-11, which gave Jasper a first down at the Sarcoxie 40.

From there, Spencer raced around the left end — all the way to the end zone — for a touchdown to tie the game at 6-6. When he busted through the line for the two-point conversion, Jasper had an 8-6 lead with 4 minutes, 32 seconds left in the game.

Even so, there was still drama left.

The Bears answered right back and drove to the Jasper 19. Facing fourth-and-4 with 36 seconds left in the game and no timeouts, the Bears trotted out junior kicker Cesar Garcia for a game-winning 36-yard field goal attempt. Garcia’s kick was straight and true but fell to the ground a few heartbreaking yards short, giving the Jasper Eagles a district championship.

Sarcoxie coach Jeff Kabance thought from his vantage point on the sideline that the kick was good and didn’t realize it wasn’t until he saw the officials indicate otherwise.

“He’s got the leg,” Kabance said of Garcia. “But it’s hard to kick on that muddy of a field. I thought it was going to be good.  He’s a talented kicker, and works hard at it.”

Spencer finished the game with 152 yards on 24 carries, 71 of which came on two carries. Sarcoxie’s defense contained Spencer for much of the game, which was a focal point for Kabance coming into the game.

“We thought we could stop their running game,” said Kabance. “Coach Gordon (defensive coordinator and former Jasper head coach Kory Gordon) worked hard to develop a plan to put our kids in the right spots. Our linebackers played well.

“A kid gets lose late in the game, we maybe miss a few tackles … it’s hard. The kids played their hearts out. I thought in difficult conditions they played hard. We made some big plays and had some big turnovers.  Freeland had a good game for us.”

Sarcoxie finished the season 4-6 and 1-2 in the district. Kabance saw some things for his team to build on.

“I think we had a couple of tough breaks,” said Kabance. “The injury to Tyler Hall hurt us — he does so much for us defensively. Overall the kids played hard. We had a couple of big wins, a couple of heartbreaking losses. It seems that when the run was there we couldn’t get the passing game going. We’ve got kids that care and play hard.

“We’ll work hard this summer and get ready for next year.”

For the Eagles, now 8-2 overall, their season continues. They will face Miller at 7 p.m.

Wednesday, Nov. 7, at home. Dirks realizes the Cardinals, who defeated Jasper 32-20 earlier in the year, will be a tough opponent.

“It’s going to be hard-a tough battle,” Dirks said. “We know what they did to us last time.”

Dirks also noted no matter what happens from here on in, there’s one thing that his Eagles know for certain.

“They can call themselves district champions now.”