Cardinals head to Republic after home-opener win against Carl Junction

The Webb City Cardinals defeated Carl Junction 47-28 at home Friday to give Ryan McFarland his first win as head coach for his alma mater.

The team’s attention now turns to the Republic Tigers, which will host the Cardinals at 7 p.m. Friday.

As an assistant coach, McFarland has witnessed Republic’s improvement over the last two years. “They ended our season in the district semifinals last year and return a lot of starters from last year’s team.”

Republic is 2-0 after beating Carthage 20-14 and Ozark 41-14, and as McFarland notes “is playing with a lot of confidence right now.

“For us to have success defensively we need to continue playing with a high level of energy. Republic will run multiple formations on offense and we must read our keys and be disciplined. When we get to the ball we must make tackles!

“For us to have success on offense we need to be more disciplined as a whole with a greater attention to detail.

• Our offensive line needs to communicate to each other up front and finish blocks. 
• Our QBs need to be more consistent on their reads on our option plays.
• Our RBs and WRs need to be more physical and consistent blockers.

Cardinals extend lead in second half

“I was very proud of our effort in our game against Carl Junction on Friday night,” says McFarland.

“It was good to see our offense fix some mistakes and have a good night. We scored six offensive touchdowns by six different players.

“We continued playing two QBs and they both had many positive plays.  We will continue playing both this week.

“Carl Junction’s offense did a great job of controlling the clock and grinding out first downs.  They converted 9 of 18 third-down attempts and they were 5 for 5 on fourth-down attempts. Defensively we played well and had great effort. We did struggle with tackling and that has been a point of emphasis this week.”

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Gabe Johnson took a pitch for 20 yards to get the Cardinals on the scoreboard first.

After Carl Junction tied it at 7, Johnson scored again as he returned the Bulldogs’ kickoff 94 yards to give Webb City a 14-7 lead.

The Bulldogs again tied the game, at 14-14, with 4:12 left on the clock in the half.

Webb City’s Braden McKee ended a 50-yard drive with a 2-yard quarterback keeper to go ahead 21-14.

Omari Jackson ran for a 42-yard touchdown early in the second half to extend Webb City’s lead to 28-14.

CJ quarterback Dexter Merrell capped a 65-yard drive to bring the Bulldogs within 7, 28-21.

Breckin Galardo ran for 49 yards and Drew Vonder Haar caught a 37-yard pass for the Cardinals’ next two touchdowns, 40-21.

Merrell completed a 7-yard pass to Jaxton Wobken for Carl Junction’s final touchdown.

And Joseph DeGraffenreid finished Webb City’s scoring with a pass from Johnson.