Neosho football loses defensive slugfest to Republic

If the Wildcats can cut back on their penalties, their offense will be fine.

Neosho had plenty of success moving the ball down the field Friday night against Republic, however untimely penalties caught up to the Wildcats in the end and the Tigers pleased their home crowd with a thrilling, 13-8 win.
In the first quarter, Neosho struggled offensively. After getting an early conversion on a long third down play via a Justin McKee pass to Logan Davidson, the Wildcats were forced to punt. Tyler Rathmann’s punt was downed deep inside Republic territory and the Tigers were forced to start their drive from the shadow of their own end zone.

After a three-and-out for Republic, the Tigers were forced to punt. The snap was too high for the punter to handle and he was forced to kick the ball out of the back of his own end zone for a safety, giving Neosho an early 2-0 lead.
After a stalemate in the first quarter after that safety, Republic answered with a long touchdown drive in the second quarter. Neosho marched right back down the field and ended up with a fourth-and-one at the Republic six-yard line. Ethan Epperson took the hand off and was stuffed by the Republic defense and the Tigers took a 7-2 lead into the locker room at halftime.

In the first half, Neosho had a good deal of success moving the ball and stopping Republic’s offense. The problem, once again, was penalties. Neosho saw a number of positive plays called back due to holding, illegal procedure and clipping calls.

“Penalties definitely hurt us,” Neosho head coach Jared Schoonover said. “Penalties put us in a lot of second-and-long, third-and-long situations and obviously that’s not good for our style of offense. We made some adjustments at halftime and we were able to come out and be more consistent in the second half.”

In the third quarter, Neosho’s defense forced a quick punt and let the offense go to work.

And Rathmann brought his lunch pail to Republic. Neosho ran some variation of the quarterback draw behind offensive tackle Gavin Rainwater.

According to one fan’s count, the Wildcats ran that play on 17 straight snaps. And the Tigers never stopped it for a loss.

Rathmann toted the ball all the way down the field, with the exception of two plays when McKee came in to give Rathmann a breather. Ultimately, Rathmann punched the ball in from four yards out to give Neosho an 8-7 lead.
That scoring drive for Neosho drained almost the entire third quarter and they took that one-point advantage into the fourth quarter.

After trading punts with Republic on their first possessions of the fourth quarter, the Wildcats’ defense, again, answered the bell and forced Tigers’ a punt from deep inside their own territory. Rathmann caught the punt around his own 40-yard line and went to work.

After hesitating for a moment, the senior made his first man miss, cut inside and ran a defender into a blocker. Then, he accelerated through a hole down the Neosho sideline. Rathmann broke a tackle around the Republic 35-yard line and sprinted the rest of the way into the end zone for what would have been a back-breaking touchdown.

But there were two flags on the play. The referees called a holding penalty near the beginning of the return and then called a block in the back near the end of the return. The penalties wiped six points off the board for Neosho and brought them back into their own territory to start the drive.

Republic, got the ball back with just under five minutes to play in the game, trailing 8-7. After being stuffed on two straight running plays, Republic got a huge gain on a perfectly executed screen play to the left side.

Just like that, momentum shifted.

Republic would go on to score on the drive to take a 13-8 lead.

On the ensuing kickoff, the Republic kicker booted the ball out of bounds for an illegal procedure penalty, giving Neosho the ball at their own 35. On the first play from scrimmage, McKee hit Rathmann on a deep out route for a first down and fans and players almost got the feeling that the Wildcats would move the ball down the field. Unfortunately, Neosho’s drive stalled after that and Republic got the ball back.

The Neosho defense forced yet another punt and Neosho had a chance for one last play. McKee dropped back and hit Rathmann on a deep play over the middle of the field, but a Tigers’ defender hammered Rathmann just as he got his hands on the ball to knock it loose.

For Neosho, Rathmann did it all on offense. The senior led the team with 111 yards rushing and a score while also leading the team with 65 yards receiving. McKee threw for 72 yards on the night.

“Justin had a solid night throwing the football. We need to do a little more work on going over reads and not locking in. That’s part of his progression and growth,” Schoonover said. “Rathmann played very well for us tonight as well, I am very proud of the effort that he put forth tonight. Some of our big boys up front did a heck of a job. Gavin Rainwater played a heck of a game. I think that some of our young guys step up tonight. For three quarters, we had two guards and the center on the offensive line who were sophomores and then a sophomore taking the snap. You are going to take some lumps when you’ve got four sophomores in the middle of the offense. But I was very pleased with those young guys.”

Neosho out-gained the Tigers by nearly 50 yards in the contest. For the third straight game, the Wildcats’ defense allowed fewer points than the previous week.

“I was very pleased with our defensive effort,” Schoonover said. “They were consistent throughout the whole game. Outside of two big plays, those two big screen plays, that’s the only thing. They got some momentum after that last screen play and they could feel that our defense was back on its heels a little bit. But our defense did a great job overall,”

Next week, Neosho will continue Central Ozark Conference play when they take on Webb City.

“It came down to making some plays down near the end and we didn’t make those plays tonight,” Schoonover said. “Sometimes, that will happen. But the one thing you can’t question about these young men is their effort. They’re sticking together, but you’ve got to make the plays when the plays are needed. We are going to continue to move forward and focus on the things that we can control and continue to get better.”