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Smith, Cheaney lead 8th-grade Tigers to season-opening rout of McDonald County
The Nevada Middle School seventh and eighth-grade football squads kicked off their respective seasons against host McDonald County Mustangs Thursday evening — emerging with a split.
The NMS eighth-grade gridders notched a convincing 26-6 victory. The NMS seventh-grade grade team, meanwhile, was derailed 18-0.
Eighth-grade
Nevada Tiger quarterback Gabe Smith and tailback/punt returner Jack Cheaney combined for all four of Nevada's touchdowns in the 20-point blowout victory.
Cheaney ripped off touchdown runs of 65 and 40 yards, and also had a punt return for a TD. Cheaney rushed for 158 yards, while compiling more than 200 yards of total offense.
"Jack had a great night running the ball," said Nevada head coach, Toby Thorp.
Smith, a mobile quarterback, chipped in a 45-yard TD scamper.
"Gabe did a fantastic job running the offense from the QB position," Thorp noted.
Thorp was also thrilled with his squad's defensive effort.
"Defensively, we were phenomenal tonight," he said, lauding defensive coordinator Brett Pettibon for having them "ready to roll."
Added Thorp: "They played physical, attacking defense all night. The linebacking corps of Gannon Marquardt, Ryan Cook, Hunter Hearting and Ethan Fahnestock played lights out. McDonald County never could get their offense going.
"Gage Hollands and Garrett Rogers were also very disruptive on the defensive line, and it seemed like Gage spent the majority of the night in the offensive backfield.
"Gage is new to the team, he's a standout baseball and basketball guy — and the kind of kid we have to get involved if we want to be great on Friday nights in a couple of years."
Thorp said the victory was a total team effort.
"We played a pretty complete game overall," he said. "McDonald County is big and physical, but our kids were prepared to deal with that. This group is very football-smart. A big part of that is their attendance at the middle school camp put on by Coach Beachler every year. Every starter attended, and we came into the season well prepared."
Thorp said there's less two-way players this season, and it's yielding early dividends.
"We've committed to starting kids one-way on both the offensive and defensive lines, and that paid off tonight," he said. "As the game went on, our physicality and ability to stay fresh wore down McDonald County — at the line of scrimmage, and both lines took control.
"Coach Beachler's offense requires offensive linemen who are good athletes, (and) who can think. This group epitomizes that."
Seventh-grade
Thorp said he knew McDonald County would pose a challenge.
"They have great athletes, and impressive size at both grade levels," he said. "Our seventh grade-team played a competitive game, just gave up a couple of big plays, and struggled to execute on the offensive line."
Thorp continued: "This is a great group of kids. Many of them are new to the game, or recently returned, so we expected to still have a lot to improve upon. As a sixth-grade group last year, they had under 20 players play. We now have 43. That comes with growing pains, as kids learn to acclimate to the physical nature of football."
Several miscues on snaps proved costly for the Tigers. "We struggled up front, and that made it hard to get our offense going," Thorp explained.
Thorp said in his debut at the quarterback position, Kellen Braden played well. "He did a great job running the team."
Summed up Thorp: "Defensively, we were solid for the most part. This is a hard working group, we just need to refine a couple of things. The game was much closer than the score indicates. This group is packed with athletes, we just have to become football players."
Up Next
Both Tiger teams return to the gridiron Thursday (Sept. 17) for their home-openers against Monett. The seventh-grade game kicks off at 5:30 p.m.