Football

Mexico bested by Boonville’s Caton, loses 27-13 in districts

Boonville had one play Friday that gave Mexico trouble.

The Bulldogs lost 27-13 at home in the Class 3 District 5 semifinals after Pirates’ quarterback Colby Caton scored four touchdowns — two in the air and two on the ground — and the offense was shut out in the second half. No. 3 seed Boonville (7-4) found repeated success by having Caton run with the ball to bring No. 2 Mexico’s final record to 4-6 and advance to the championship game next Friday at No. 1 Moberly.

Head coach Steve Haag doesn’t blame Boonville for relying so heavily on Caton as the Bulldogs were beaten on quarterback keepers all night after running back Dakota Troost had to go out due to injury.

“We just didn’t have a good answer for the quarterback power sweep,” Haag said. “Some if that is you just got to get after it. You know they’re coming. He’s a good athlete, and that’s what I would do. I don’t think the problem’s tackling. The problem is getting off blocks.”

Mexico’s offense didn’t reach the end zone in the second half, but Haag said that wasn’t because it was completely ineffective against the Pirates. On three occasions, the Bulldogs moved the ball deep into Boonville territory, with two of those trips reaching the red zone (the third trip got as far as the 21-yard line). 

At halftime, the game was tied at 13 despite Mexico almost scoring the go-ahead touchdown as time ran out. Andrew Runge, who already had a 47-yard touchdown run, caught a pass on the left side after the quarterback Ty Sims faked to right before somersaulting in the end zone. The touchdown was waved off because of an ineligible receiver downfield penalty, and the Bulldogs ended up empty on the trip.

Mexico advanced as far as the Boonville 11-yard line but couldn’t score halfway through the third quarter. After Caton punched in a two-yard touchdown to cap a nine-play drive that included a 48-yard scamper by the Boonville quarterback, Mexico had the ball at the Boonville 21 with just under two minutes left in the third quarter and thought Runge reached the end zone again, only for it to be called off due to an illegal blocking penalty. Boonville scored again after 12 plays, with Caton forcing through the line on a touchdown.

“I think we had opportunities, and we didn’t take them,” Haag said. “I thought the penalty at the end of the half was a big one. Then that penalty (late in the third quarter), we probably should have scored there. There’s another big one, especially when it’s a two-touchdown game.”

Centralia run game stalls in 22-8 district loss to Hallsville

Centralia has had its running game to lean on this season.

Hallsville, in its second matchup with the Panthers this year, made sure that wasn’t the case Friday night in a 22-8 loss for Centralia in the Class 2 District 7 semifinals at Miller Field in Centralia. The Panthers (7-3) finished with a season-low 35 yards rushing on 16 carries — by far their lowest total of the season in front of the 169 at Clark County — despite piling 318 rushing yards on the Indians (6-5) in the first meeting.

Quarterback Cullen Bennett threw for 121 yards and a touchdown on 10-for-25 passing, Jesse Caballero caught the 49-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter while finishing with 73 yards on three catches and seven tackles on defense, and Kyden Wilkerson and Seth Hasekamp led the team with eight tackles each while Jesse Shannon and Brayden Shelton each had two tackles for loss.

Head coach Tyler Forsee said all season long that his offensive line showed up frequently this season, which led to the team averaging about 237 yards this season. Wilkerson, who was named as a first team Clarence Cannon Conference running back and defensive back in the previous week, ran for 1,369 yards for an average of 137 per game. Wilkerson was held to 16 yards on eight carries on Friday.

“Their defense was on point,” Forsee said. “They did a good job shutting our run game down. I didn’t see that happening with as well we ran the ball last time. They were physical and ready to play. I thought our kids fought hard, but we were not able to establish a line of scrimmage. Anytime that happens, you’re going to have a tough time winning the game.”

Hallsville also had a new quarterback-running back combination from the first meeting it lost 26-20 in early September. Brayden Matheney was taking snaps instead of Colton Nichols and Harrison Fowler was the leading rusher instead of, once again, Nichols. Matheney threw for 178 yards and two touchdowns on 15-for-20 passing while Fowler ran for 147 yards and a touchdown on 41 carries.

Forsee said the preparation is different for each Hallsville quarterback as Nichols was always a threat to run while Matheney can really throw the ball, which the Panthers struggled with stopping.

“He did a good job throwing the ball and distributing it around,” Forsee said. “It was definitely a different game plan. We didn’t know who we were going to have so we planned a little bit for both. The Matheney throws the ball exceptionally well. Nichols is such a strong runner.”

North Callaway season ends with loss to third state-ranked opponent

Despite the lopsided results to end the season, North Callaway football likes the direction it is going.

The Thunderbirds’ 2022 season ended in a 71-14 loss at state No. 1 Blair Oaks (10-0) in the semifinals of the Class 2 District 4 Tournament. No. 5 North Callaway (7-4) closed the season by winning six of its final eight games, with both of those losses coming against state-ranked teams and its first loss of the year happening against state-ranked Macon.

Senior quarterback Braydn O’Neal finished with 269 yards of total offense — 194 in the air on 10-for-31 passing and 75 yards on 13 carries. North Callaway ran for 80 yards on 27 carries, making it the fourth time of the season the Thunderbirds finished with less than 100 yards on the ground — two of those times occurred against state-ranked Bowling Green and Macon. For the defense, senior Davis Woods led with 11 tackles, and senior Brandon Speight picked up a sack.

Head coach Kevin O’Neal said his team had the toughest test yet on Friday in Wardsville. Quarterback Dylan Hair was tremendous as always — scoring six touchdowns while accumulating all of his 311 total yards in the first half — but the Falcons are the top team in the state because they have great players around him.

“They’re good at every position on the field,” O’Neal said. “They’re offensive line is solid, they’re quarterback’s really good and he has really good receivers to throw to. It’s hard to take away everything. You try to take away something, and they have something else for you.”

North Callaway didn’t fare well early as Blair Oaks jumped out to a 14-0 lead after the Falcons fumbled a kickoff. Three more Hair touchdowns later and Blair Oaks had a 43-0 lead after one quarter.

Braydn O’Neal in his final game as a Thunderbird found AJ Siegel for a 37-yard touchdown he took down the sideline after beating a Blair Oaks defender. Hair scoring two more touchdowns contributed to the halftime score of 64-6 Blair Oaks. O’Neal had 179 total yards at the half.

“We obviously didn’t execute very well,” Kevin O”Neal said. “You can’t do the little things wrong against a really good team. If you do, they are going to exploit it, and that’s what happened.

“They’re sound on defense. They make you earn every yard that you get. We really couldn’t get a running game going, and we struggled in our passing game as well.”

State cross country

Mexico's Peuster runs in 3rd state meet, Ramsey makes state debut

It's not the result Mexico's runners wanted Friday at the Class 4 state meet, but each means much to the vross country program.

Freshman Maggie Ramsey finished 86th out of 161 runners with a time of 21:46.3 in the girls 5K held at Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia. MICDS's Julia Ray won the race with a time of 18:14.7.

Peuster finished 125th out of 158 runners in the boys 5K with a time of 18:39.3. In his third trip to the state meet, Peuster improved on his 2021 placing of 143rd but felt he could have done better as he had an upset stomach the morning of the meet, head coach Lucas Breneman said. Hillsboro's Josh Allison won with a time of 15:38.9 for the state-champion Hawks, who finished with 35 points.

Look for the full stories in the Nov. 9, 2022, edition of the Mexico Ledger and on the website on the same day.