When football was king in Nevada Part 8: Neosho and Mountain Grove

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Editor's Note: This is the eighth installment in a series by Shane Cavanah, who was the head coach of the 1975 Nevada Tigers football team that was recently inducted into the Nevada High School Wall of Fame.

By Shane Cavanah

Special to the Daily Mail

We had no place for the word "complacency" in our vocabulary this week. We had come too far for that to interfere. I didn't think our kids would feel that way, but when working with 16-, 17-, 18-year-old kids, you at least have to address the possibility.

Neosho's record didn't jump out at you as being spectacular at 5-3 in conference play, but they had been the victim of several losses of less than six points and had not been blown away in any of their losses. The Wildcats possessed the potential to put points on the board in bunches, especially through the air.

Nevada kicked off to start the game and Larry Wallace made a touchdown saving tackle at the Tiger 45-yard line on the return! After one Wildcat first down, the Nevada defense held and the Tigers took over possession of the ball at their own 32-yard line. On the third play from scrimmage, Jimmy Rice broke off right tackle and raced 65 yards for a touchdown. Bill Jones booted the PAT and the Tigers held an early 7-0 lead.

Several changes of possession took place before Neosho drove down the field (mostly through the airways) in the second period and scored on a 26-yard pass play with 6:26 left in the first half. Their conversion attempt failed, and the Tigers held a slim 7-6 edge.

Duane Belcher received the Neosho kickoff from his own 10-yard line and returned it all the way to the Wildcat 46. Running strictly on the ground, including a double-reverse, Rice rammed the ball into the end zone from the 2-yard line with 2:22 left in the half. Jones' PAT kick was good and the Tigers held a 14-6 lead at the intermission.

After each team had two offensive possessions to open the third quarter, the Tigers got down to business from their own 32-yard line. After two runs by Rice had advanced the ball to the Tiger 44-yard line, Larry Hillier was called on to execute his patented trap play. After key blocks by Chuck Hancock and Tim Taylor at the point of attack and the trap block by Jim Borders, Larry ran the counter for a 51-yard gain to the Wildcat 5. After Rice was stopped at the line of scrimmage on first down, Belcher dove into the end zone to put the Tigers up 20-6. Again, Jones' kick for the PAT was good and the Tigers led 21-6 at the three-quarter mark.

Neosho came right back in the fourth period and scored on a 60-yard pass play. Following a successful two-point conversion run, the score read Nevada 21, Neosho 14 with 5:44 showing on the clock.

Following a change of possession by each team, the Nevada offense found itself taking over the ball at the Neosho 25-yard line. After two running plays produced two yards, Rice broke off right tackle for a 23-yard TD run. Bill Jones again was successful on the PAT kick and Nevada had its final margin of 28-14. We had just wrapped-up an undefeated regular season at 10-0!

Once again, Jimmy Rice had led us on offense as he rushed for 143 yards against the Wildcats to put him at 1,038 for the season. As a team, the Tigers rushed for 315 yards in the regular season's finale. The defense had risen to the occasion by holding Neosho to only 90 yards on the ground with a total offense of 215 yards for the game.

Of course, we had not received the official notification, but we were confident that we would qualify for the post-season playoffs. In the previous two years, the Tigers had been denied the post season play after 10-0 and 9-1 records by the complicated point system of the MSHSAA. It would be Nevada's first time ever to participate in the extended season.

The sportswriters and sportscasters poll still had the Tigers at No. 4, even though no one above them was 10-0 as they were. Rock Bridge was still on top at 9-0. Manual was second at 9-1. Jackson filled the third slot at 8-1. Mountain Grove, at No. 6, was the only other team in the top ten sporting a 10-0 record. Harrisonville remained at 7 and Marshall was 10.

On Monday, Nov. 10, Nevada High School principal Bill Wynn received confirmation from the MSHSAA office that the Tigers would be playing host to the Mountain Grove Panthers on Friday, Nov. 14, at 7:30 p.m., at Logan Field.

Football fever was running rampant throughout the town. Merchants had their storefronts painted with slogans and messages urging on the Tigers. People who previously had been known as casual fans were climbing on the Tiger bandwagon. All of a sudden, Nevada football, which had previously been the hottest item in town, became the only item in town. It was great!

Two undefeated teams, each sporting 10-0 records, were scheduled to meet on the Logan Field gridiron. The prize to the winner was the opportunity to extend its team's dream season. For the loser, it was to go home, put the equipment in storage, and get ready for basketball or wrestling. There would be no tomorrow for the losers! The Mt. Grove head coach, Carl Williams, was no stranger to post-season play as he was making his third appearance in the playoffs with the Panthers. In six years at Mt. Grove, he had compiled a record of 54-8, which included three conference titles. His overall coaching record was 138-26-5, which included a most successful 10-year stint at Piggott, Ark., before coming to Missouri.

Kelly Bradham described Coach Williams as being "flamboyant" in his demeanor. As I think back now, my description might be closer to a "crusty ole codger" as he was difficult to talk to and projected the attitude that he had better things to do than to spend his time talking to some young whippersnapper of a coach.

So, the battle lines were drawn and a fierce clash was anticipated. To add unnecessary fuel to the Nevada pre-game fire, long-time Springfield sportscaster Ned Reynolds, aka "Nitwit Ned," boldly predicted to his television audience that three of the Class 3-A games would be close. The fourth would be a rout with Mountain Grove administering a sound defeat upon the Nevada Tigers.

Game 11 Nov. 14 Mt. Grove, Home

Fans were lined up outside the gates prior to them being opened as people knew seats would be at a premium. Additional temporary seating was added to better accommodate the overflow crowd. All area eyes were focused on Logan Field as our game was the only 3-A game in the region, and it was the featured game in southwest Missouri. Two undefeated teams, both 10-0, both proud programs!

Mountain Grove received the ball to start the game and after two first downs, they were forced to turn the ball over on downs at the Nevada 30-yard line. Part of my pre-planning strategy for this particular game was to add a single back look behind Mike Domer, which would allow us to show a balanced backfield and allow Jimmy Rice to sweep either end equally. To achieve this balanced look, we sat Duane Belcher on the wing to the left with Larry Hillier at his usual wing position on the right.

The strategy worked early in the game as Rice had several good gains of eight or more yards. I soon realized that there was a problem, though. Even though Jimmy was making positive yardage each time, when the Panther defenders were finally getting to the ball carrier, he was getting hammered. After a few plays with this offense, I decided to can the idea because even though he was a tough kid, I wasn't sure how long Rice could take the pounding and we certainly needed him for four quarters.

Both teams traded possessions, mostly between the 20-yard stripes for the rest of the first quarter and into the second period. With 1:04 remaining in the second quarter, the Tigers drove the ball to the MG 30-yard line. I had been noticing the over-aggressiveness tendency of the Panther safety as he was flying to the point of attack on each play without hesitation and disregarding the pass.

We called our old standby play, the halfback pass. I mentioned to David Perry to run a different route than usual on the play from his end position. Instead of running at an angle through the secondary, I told him to release straight down the field for about 12 yards and quickly cut to the middle. I was hoping the defensive safety would do his usual early flow to the ball with the play action to the right. The call worked to perfection as Rice pitched a strike to Perry in the vacated area good for a 30-yard touchdown pass. Bill Jones kicked the point-after and the Tigers led 7-0 at the half.

Offensive yardage proved hard to come by in the second half as both defenses controlled the other team's offense. Finally, the Panthers advanced the football to the Nevada 32-yard line where the MG quarterback found their tight end open down the middle and completed a pass good for the touchdown. The Panther kick attempt to tie the game was wide to the left and Nevada held a 7-6 lead with 2:56 remaining in the third quarter.

Nevada's defense took over the game from that point on as John Nichols, Carl Steffan, Paul Nunez, and Doug Keithly controlled the line of scrimmage and Bob Wilson, Charlie Johnson, Jack McAdoo, and Jeff Marquardt at their DE and linebacker spots allowed only one first down in the entire final stanza.

The clock ran out with the Tigers in possession on the Mountain Grove 1. As a young coach, I made a mistake by taking a timeout on the final drive in an attempt to get that second touchdown instead of allowing the time to run out and avoid handling the ball as much as we did. It was a decision that would influence my use of the clock during my next 24 years as a head coach. But all is well that ends well and we advanced to the next round by a 7-6 final score.

Our fans spilled out of the north stands at the conclusion of the game and instigated an impromptu Tiger victory celebration at the center of the playing field. We were 11-0 and headed to the semifinal game the next Saturday afternoon. Take that, "Nitwit Ned!"

Statistically, the Tigers limited the Panthers to only 63 yards on the ground and only 60 yards passing. This was far below their average during the regular season. It was a long trip back to Mt. Grove as it was their third attempt to advance beyond the first round of the post-season playoffs. All three attempts had ended in defeat.

On offense, we amassed 235 total yards in the game against the Panthers with 208 yards coming on the ground and 27 yards through the air. We had a negative yardage pass completion to take yardage away from the 30-yard touchdown pass play to Perry. We won the first down battle by a 12-9 margin over the visitors.

Memory fails me as to whether or not we knew immediately after the first-round game that we would play host to Marshall the next Saturday or if we found out the following day. Regardless, we were going to play the Marshall Owls at Logan Field the next week. The Owls were sporting a 10-1 record with their only blemish coming at the hands of Rock Bridge earlier in the season.

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