By Anvil Welch

awelch@joplinglobe.com

WEBB CITY, Mo. — Webb City produced the exact kind of start it wanted in moving past Bolivar 41-21 in a quarterfinal game of the MSHSAA Class 4 football playoffs on Saturday.

The Cardinals jumped in front 14-0 in the first period, shrugged off a Bolivar touchdown and made it 28-7 by halftime at nearly filled Cardinal Stadium.

The game — believed to be the first meeting between the teams — was played in temperatures in the 30s with a wind chill in the 20s.

Webb City, ranked third in Class 4 by the Missouri Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association, visits No. 1 Kearney at 1:30 p.m. next Saturday in a semifinal clash of 13-0 teams.

Kearney, which handled the Cardinals in the semifinals in 2002 and 2003, earned a fourth playoff game in a row at home by trimming Sedalia Smith-Cotton 36-7.

Braxton Baker, a 5-foot-11, 180-pound junior, rushed for the first three Webb City touchdowns and finished with 163 yards on 20 carries to pace the Cardinals’ 326-yard ground assault.

Said Cardinal quarterback Mack Kyle: “Definitely, we were focused. We wanted to get off to a good start. We played better on offense than we did in our previous game (a 35-8 win against Neosho).

“We beat a solid team,” Kyle said. “Bolivar was deserving to be in this game.

“They were big and physical like Neosho,” Kyle said of the Liberators, who dished out some hard licks to the 6-1, 190-pound senior. “They could move, too.”

Said Cardinal coach John Roderique: “We executed better on offense compared to the Neosho game. We did some nice things on offense.

“Defensively, we struggled with the counter play a bit and other aspects of their offense,” Roderique said.

“Bolivar was a good, physical ballclub,” Roderique said. “The quarterback (junior Preston Guiot) did a nice job.”

Said Bolivar coach Lance Roweton: “I was extremely impressed with the Webb City community as well as its players.