By Graham Cox
sports@joplinglobe.com
GRANBY, Mo. — The Pierce City Eagles came into Friday night’s matchup against East Newton looking for their seventh consecutive victory. Instead, they suffered their first loss, 33-21, of the season to an amped up Patriots squad at Don Johnston Field.
The Patriots also had a an extra incentive, playing in front of hometown hero Allen Barbre.
Barbre, an East Newton and Missouri Southern graduate, was selected by Green Bay in the fourth round of the 2007 NFL draft and is the highest drafted player in MSSU history.
East Newton brothers Danny (running back) and Denny Farmer (quarterback) nearly put the game away by themselves in the first half as the Patriots raced out to a 26-7 lead.
Danny had 177 yards rushing on 37 carries. Four of his runs went for touchdowns. Meanwhile, his brother was busy running the offense, passing on 11 occasions and running on 13.
“In my opinion, I thought we did very well in the first half, but there are two halves to a football game,” said Denny. “Hopefully, we come out next game and play our hardest for all four quarters.
“Danny did a great job for us tonight. I put a lot of trust in him, which is why I throw him the ball a lot. In fact, I probably give him the ball a lot more than I should, but you wouldn’t know it by the way he played in this game.”
Eagles coach Brad Hocker wanted to get the ball into the hands of running back Cody Lathem early and often, but that plan fell through early in the first quarter.
Lathem ran for 106 yards, but 67 of those were gained on one play. He gained 30 yards in a first half while the Pierce City offense kept possession of the ball for just five minutes.
East Newton (4-4, 1-0 district) had every opportunity to put the game away, but the Eagles (7-1, 0-1) kept clawing back.
Senior Colter Osborn caught a 50-yard pass over the middle from quarterback Brett Fitchpatrick to put Pierce City within two touchdowns with 11 minutes remaining in the fourth and wide receiver Gared Frey scored on an 8-yard run as time expired.
The Farmers converted every one of the Patriots’ 33 points.
“Pierce City is a well-coached team,” said Danny. “They came out and fought for all 48 minutes and they gave it all they had, but we got the win.
“The simple fact is that I need to throw better next week and we need to run better as a team. We did OK on defense, but we expected more out of ourselves in the second half.”
During halftime, Barbre’s number 76 jersey was retired in front of the East Newton faithful.
“East Newton is building a program right now, and it’s great to see this team come out and get a victory,” Barbre said.
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Patriots knock off Pierce City
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