The Marshfield Blue Jays broke from a 7-7 tie with 34 unanswered points to claim a 41-7 win over the McDonald County Mustangs in the 2018 Missouri high school football opener on Aug. 24 at Marshfield High School.
The Blue Jays were led by the passing of Brock Utecht and a talented group of receivers led by Truett Gardner, who caught nine passes for 100 yards and two touchdowns.
But the Mustangs were also their own worst enemy, turning the ball over five times and racking up over 80 yards in penalties.
"Us having five turnovers was kind of the story of the game," coach Kellen Hoover said. "Give Marshfield credit. They came with a good plan. They loaded up the strong side and made us run weak. We made that adjustment, but at the same time, our execution wasn't where it needed to be. It being week one is no excuse. We had a lot of practice time and a lot of game-like reps in practice, but we did not bring that to the game.
"A lot of the penalties we had were drive killers. They always seemed like they came after a big gain. The frustrating thing watching the film was they weren't necessary to spring the play. That is something we have to look at and learn from as we watch film. That is another thing we have to clean up going into week two."
Marshfield opened the scoring on its second possession, marching 53 yards in four plays to take a 7-0 lead. Utecht hit Gardner with a five-yard touchdown pass with 3:35 left in the first quarter to cap the drive. Jarrett Meyer kicked the first of his five extra points.
It took McDonald County just 12 seconds to answer. Starting on its own 20 after Gardner's kick sailed into the end zone, Oakley Roessler took a handoff from quarterback Ben Mora and went untouched through the middle of the Blue Jay line before outracing a pair of cornerbacks for an 80-yard touchdown. Dylan Allison's kick tied the game with 3:23 left in the first half.
But from that point on, the game was Marshfield's.
The Blue Jays scored their go-ahead touchdown on a halfback pass midway through the second period. Facing a third and 10 from the McDonald County 28-yard line, Utecht pitched to Will Smith who ran to left before pulling up and throwing to Thomas McIllwain for the touchdown. Meyer's kick gave Marshfield a 14-7 lead with 6:37 left in the first half.
McDonald County marched into Blue Jay territory on its next drive behind a pair of passes from Mora to Joe Brown, covering 38 and 23 yards. But a fumble gave the ball back to the Blue Jays before McDonald County's final scoring opportunity was erased by an interception in the final minute of the half.
The second half was all Marshfield. After stopping the Mustangs on its 40-yard line to open the second half, the Blue Jays went 60 yards in seven plays with Utecht hitting Gardner from 20 yards out for their second touchdown pass of the game.
McDonald County then fumbled away the snap on its first play from scrimmage following the Marshfield score, but the Mustang defense held, forcing Meyer to miss a 30-yard field goal.
The Mustangs' next drive was stalled by its third holding penalty of the game, negating a 40-yard run by Mora.
Marshfield took over at midfield and scored in just three plays. Utecht hit Smith with a 26-yard touchdown pass with 3:09 left in the third quarter to stretch the lead to 28-7.
McDonald County again drove deep into Marshfield territory before an interception ended the threat.
The Blue Jays drove 90 yards in seven plays with Brennan Epsy going around the right end for a 60-yard touchdown with 8:02 left in the game to up the score to 35-7.
Marshfield scored its final touchdown with just over four minutes to go when Teagan Boles picked off a Mora pass and went 21 yards for a touchdown. Meyer missed his final extra point attempt to make the final score 41-7.
Roessler finished with 294 yards on 18 carries to lead the Mustang offense. Mora added 27 yards on 12 carries, while Brown had 10 yards on four carries and Marshall Foreman had four yards on two carries.
Mora was five of 15 through the air for 87 yards with three interceptions. Brown caught four passes for 83 yards, while Boston Dowd had one catch for four yards.
Utecht ended with 223 passing yards, including three touchdowns, on 19 of 25 accuracy. In addition to Gardner's nine catches, Smith, McIllwain and Austin Porter had three catches. Epsy led the ground game with 139 yards on 16 carries. The Blue Jays finished with 426 total yards.
Defensively, Michael Williams had 11 tackles and Rendon Lane 10 to lead McDonald County. Brown, Lane, Micah Burkholder and freshman Junior Eliam had tackles for losses. Eliam, Brown and Brennon White recorded one sack each.
"I thought our defense actually played fairly well," Hoover said. "Our offense just didn't help out defense at all. Our defense made them drive the ball down the field for the most part. They were able to keep snapping it again and again and again. We didn't give up a lot of big plays for the most part. We just couldn't get any kind of rhythm offensively to help out our defense."
Next up for McDonald County is Logan Rogersville. The Mustangs will host the Wildcats on Aug. 31 in their home opener. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
Sports on 08/30/2018