Slade Hurd lunges over Branson’s defense for extra yardage Friday at Branson.

Cardinals end regular season with win to maintain top seed/bye in districts

Bob Foos

Defense and offense switch places after the Cardinals stop Branson on downs a half yard from the end zone – and a score.

The Webb City Cardinals have the week off with a bye. It’s the prize they get for earning the No. 1 seed in the Class 5 District 7 tournament.

They’ll play again at home in the semifinal round on Friday, Nov. 3, against the winner of this week’s quarterfinal game between No. 4 Belton and No. 5 Ruskin. Also this Friday, No. 2 Raytown South hosts No. 7 Neosho, and No. 3 Carthage will host No. 6 Smith Cotton.

Webb City and Raytown South are both Cardinals, and both have 7-2 records, but Webb City has the edge in points, 44.74 to 38.26. Carthage (5-4) has 36.29 points.

Noah Duley makes a third-down stop.

20-0 shutout ends regular season at Branson

The Webb City Cardinals ended their regular season last week at Branson as the offense scored 20 points and the defense shut out the Pirates.

Webb City took a 6-0 lead late in the first quarter when Andrew Elwell finished an eight-play drive with a 5-yard carry into the end zone. The point-after attempt was no good.

In the Cardinals’ next possession, Lucas Jackson completed a 37-yard touchdown pass to Gabe Johnson.

Branson opened its final possession of the first half with a 36-yard pass, continued the drive to Webb City’s 19-yard line and advanced to the 5 on a penalty. That’s when the Cardinal defense stiffened. On fourth-and-three, Andrew Young tackled Gage Depee less than a yard from the end zone.

The score stayed at 13-0 until the fourth quarter when Johnson set up a touchdown with a 29-yard pass to Joseph DeGraffenreid. And Johnson completed the drive with a 1-yard run.

Drew Vonder Haar makes a catch for a first down.

Joseph DeGraffenreid on a reverse.