By Ryan Atkinson
ratkinson@joplinglobe.com
A week after facing one of the area’s best passers, the Joplin Eagles are bracing for what could be the area’s best runner.
The Eagles — 35-28 winners over quarterback Kevin Redmon and the Glendale Falcons in Week 1 — play host to running back Tommy Meyer and the West Plains Zizzers in an Ozark Conference matchup at 7 tonight at Junge Field.
“Meyer is an outstanding running back, maybe the best in southwest Missouri,” Joplin coach Doug Buckmaster said. “If he’s not the best, he’s right at the top.”
Meyer — a 5-foot-7, 200-pound senior — rushed for 212 yards and four touchdowns on 23 carries in West Plains’ 49-33 loss to Hillcrest last week. He had a hand in all five Zizzer touchdowns.
“He’s so strong and he has good speed,” Buckmaster said. “He’s not very tall, but he’s like a bowling ball.”
While Meyer is West Plains’ main threat, the Zizzers do have other options in their spread attack.
Quarterback Austin Riggs — back for his second year as the starter — was 8-of-17 for 123 yards and a touchdown last week. Zach Phegley had four of those catches for 55 yards. Meyer caught two passes for 45 yards and a score.
Riggs also rushed seven times for 64 yards for West Plains, which ended the night with 426 yards of offense, including 303 on the ground.
“West Plains is a very good offensive team,” Buckmaster said. “They run the spread offense, but they base it out of the wing-T, which allows them to do some nice things.
“They’re very capable offensively and we expect them to come down here and play their best football.”
That means Joplin’s defense — which was stellar in the first half against Glendale before a second-half letdown — will need a solid showing.
“Hopefully the kids will be focused,” Buckmaster said. “We watched a lot of film on West Plains ... it’s Week 2 and we need to play better than we did in Week 1.”
The Joplin offense will look to pick up where it left off last Friday, when the Eagles racked up 413 yards of offense. Quarterback Devin St. Clair was 14-of-19 for 232 yards while Ron King rushed 12 times for 114 yards. Dane Kolkmeyer caught eight passes for 127 yards.
“Hopefully we can execute well,” Buckmaster said. “It was kind of a weird week with Labor Day and the bad weather, so we didn’t get a lot of practice time in ... but we watched a lot of film.”
The Eagles will be without a pair of starters against the Zizzers.
King will miss the entire game for undisclosed reasons while receiver Gates Sanders — who scored a pair of touchdowns last week — is out with an injury.
Quinton Fenske, a 5-8, 165-pound senior, will step in at running back while Gabe Sharp, a 5-7, 125-pound sophomore, will play for Sanders.
“Gates is real questionable,” Buckmaster said. “He may not play at all.”
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