Neosho turned two McDonald County first quarter turnovers into nine points to set the tone for the rest of the way en route to a 50-0 win Friday night at Neosho High School.
"I thought we didn't play very physical," said coach Corey Henry about his first game as the Mustangs' head coach. "We didn't play the type of football we want to play."
Neosho received to open the game and the Mustang defense promptly forced a three and out. But when the Mustangs muffed Logan Stuart's 37-yard punt, the Wildcats regained possession at the McDonald County 31-yard line.
It took Neosho just one play following the turnover to score against a stunned Mustang defense. Junior running back Devin Hames went around right end, broke a tackle and then raced untouched the rest of the way for the touchdown with 10:46 left in the first quarter. Caleb Johnston's extra point attempt was blocked leaving the Wildcats with a 6-0 lead.
Taking over on the 20 after Johnston's kick bounced into the end zone, the Mustangs' first offensive play was similar to its fumble on the punt. Running out of the shotgun, the snap from center sailed over quarterback Jake Wood's head before Wood was able to recover on the McDonald County one-yard line.
The Mustangs punched it out to the six before punting and when Neosho picked up a personal foul penalty on Damian Monsalvo's 4o-yard punt, the Mustangs had dodged a bullet.
After forcing another Neosho three and out, the Mustangs picked up a first down on a Wood to Jake Wilkie pass for nine yards and a Wood run for four more. But on third and long, Neosho's Jon Rodriguez intercepted a Mustang pass, giving the Wildcats the ball on the McDonald County 32-yard-line.
Nathan Moser hit Bryce Murphy for 17 yards on the Wildcats second play, but the drive stalled forcing Neosho to settle for Johnston's 38-yard field goal to give the Wildcats a 9-0 lead at the 3:02 mark of the first quarter.
Neosho broke the game open in the second quarter, using one long drive and two big plays to score three touchdowns for a 30-0 lead at halftime. Austin Hailey ran for 12 yards to cap an 11-play drive early in the quarter before Chance Branstettor ran for 42 yards for a score and Moser hit Jacob Johnson with a 46-yard touchdown pass at the end of the period.
The Wildcats scored two touchdowns in the first five minutes of the second half to stretch its lead. Hailey hit Murphy for 30 yards on the Wildcats' first offensive play of the second half and then the senior quarterback ran it in from a yard out following a McDonald County interception.
Neosho closed out the scoring with 9:01 left in the game when Moser ran for a 26-yard touchdown.
"We had some positives throughout the game, but made too many mistakes," Henry said. "We are going to focus on the positives as we prepare for Aurora. The defense showed some signs, but we are going to have to wrap up when we hit the ball carrier. Offensively, we saw things open up, but we got there too late. We have to learn to be quicker. When we start to do that, we will get back to the success we had this summer."
Jarrett Sanny ran for 44 yards and Isrrael DeSantiago 43 to lead the McDonald County ground game that finished with 107 yards. Wood finished with three completions for 13 yards. Wilkie caught two passes for 10 yards and Daniel DeSantiago caught one for three yards.
Neosho finished with 325 total yards, including 63 on the ground by Hames and 100 through the air by Moser.
McDonald County makes its Big 8 Conference debut when it hosts Aurora on Friday night at MCHS. Game time is 7 p.m.
Sports on 08/28/2014