North Callaway clinched another undefeated Eastern Missouri Conference championship season against Wright City, but some things were different.
The Thunderbirds won 63-14 in Wright City on …
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North Callaway clinched another undefeated Eastern Missouri Conference championship season against Wright City, but some things were different.
The Thunderbirds won 63-14 in Wright City on Friday for their second straight conference title. Coltyn O’Neal threw four touchdown passes to set the school’s single-season touchdown pass record at 25, and Jaiden Galbreath ran for 81 yards and a touchdown to go over 1,000 rushing yards this year.
Head coach Kevin O’Neal said a balanced attack led to North Callaway posting seven straight 50-point games and three straight 60-point games to close the regular season. Coltyn O’Neal threw for 265 yards on 15-for-22 passing, and the Thunderbirds ran for 209 yards while splitting the carries among 10 kids.
Coltyn O’Neal broke the record previously set by Cole Branson, his father and coach Kevin O’Neal said. He said he expected Coltyn to have a good season but has exceeded expectations with “full control of the offense.” O’Neal said his son understood football at an early age.
“He’s grown up around football his whole life,” O’Neal said. “He’s been watching film with me from a young age. He could have probably told you the difference in coverages when he was five years old.”
O’Neal joked that his son was probably the only kindergartner who could tell the difference between a cover two and cover three defense. He said Coltyn has worked hard and studied to get this point and has played well with his friends like Collin Moore had 93 yards and two touchdowns on seven catches and Brandon Biggers had 78 yards and one touchdown on five catches.
Jaiden Galbreath had a solid night like his fellow seniors by running past 1,000 yards a season after that not reaching the threshold. O’Neal said the offense hasn’t handed off to Galbreath as much as his previous 1,000 yard season as he had four carries against Wright City, but he is averaging more yards per carry.
“He was at 35 carries a game and 3-4 yards a pop and a lot of physical runs,” O’Neal said. “He still had those this year, but he’s a lot more long runs. That goes with how we’ve opened the offense up with all the things we do.”
North Callaway achieved one of its goals in repeating as conference champion. O’Neal said it wasn’t easy with teams like Bowling Green, who North Callaway defeated 76-54, Louisiana and Montgomery County.
“It’s tough once you get to the top to stay on top,” O’Neal said. “It’s not an easy feat to win conference, so it was one of our goals this year.”
North Callaway held on to the No. 3 seed in the Class 2 District 5 tournament, so it hosts No. 6 seed Versailles (6-3) at 7 p.m. Friday. Versailles won the Ozarks Highlands Conference for the first time since 2002 and its first winning season since 2018. The Tigers defense has improved from 55 points allowed last year to a 19.3 average this year.
