By Wendell Redden

sports@joplinglobe.com

It may sound strange, with Monett’s athletic success over the years, but the Cubs haven’t won a football playoff game since 1977.

“That’s our goal, to win a playoff game,” said Alan Spencer, head coach of the Cubs, 10-0 and ranked No. 2 in Class 3.

Monett launches its bid to end that long playoff drought at home tonight, meeting Springfield Catholic in a 7 p.m. game. Catholic, coached by Bobby Cornelison, brings a 4-6 record into the game after finishing second to Mount Vernon in District 11.

Mount Vernon, 5-5, entertains Cassville, 7-3, in another first-round game tonight.

“We’re not looking past Springfield Catholic,” Spencer said. “Our goal is to take it one game at a time. If we beat Catholic, then we’ll look ahead to playing the winner of the Mount Vernon-Cassville game.”

Monett’s 1977 team, coached by Benny Lawson, finished 8-2 during the regular season and went on to capture the Class 2A state championship. It was Monett’s second state title in football. The Cubs, coached by the late Burl Fowler, also won the 1971 2A crown.

This year’s team has been impressive in breezing through the Big 8 Conference season unblemished and winning three straight games in the District 12 playoffs.

“Monett is a strong, fundamentally sound football team,” Catholic’s Cornelison said. “They’re not big, but very athletic and they don’t beat themselves. They fly around on defense and lay the lumber on you when they get (to the ball carrier).”

Both teams are coming off impressive victories in their last outings. Catholic beat Aurora 43-15 and Monett toppled East Newton 42-6.

“Catholic likes to run the football,” Spencer said. “They run the Air Force flexbone with a lot of option, the belly series and play-action passes. They’re a young team with a good mix of seniors and sophomores. And, they’ve been playing well late in the season.”

“None of us in our district had impressive records going in, but I thought we had an opportunity to reach the state playoffs,” Cornelison said. “We’ve had some injuries, but we have some of our kids back now.”

Cornelison said running backs Scott Chesbro and Ethan Spiva have been sharing the load running the football and junior Andrew Hennessey has done a good job at quarterback. The top receiver has been Mitchell Richardson.

“We like to run the football, but we’ll take what the defense gives us,” Cornelison said. “Some games we’ve thrown as many as 20 passes.”

Cassville at Mount Vernon

Tonight’s playoff game will be the second meeting this season of the Big 8 Conference teams.

Cassville won the regular-season game 28-7. David Large, the Wildcats’ head coach, says that score is deceiving.

“The game was a lot closer than the score indicates. We ran the opening kickoff back for a touchdown, intercepted a pass for another score and recovered a fumble on their 15 to set up a third touchdown,” Large stressed. “They ran 75 offensive plays to our 34 and had more yardage.”

Joy Mayberry, the Mountaineers’ coach, agreed that the game was closer than the score showed, but said that while Mount Vernon had more plays Cassville dominated the scoreboard.

“We made mistakes and good teams take advantage of them,” he said. “Cassville dominated that aspect of the game. I hope we can make this one closer.”

Mount Vernon won two of its district games, defeating Springfield Catholic 42-14 and Aurora 54-0. The Mountaineers dropped a 26-22 decision to Reeds Spring.

“Reeds Spring really took it to us,” Mayberry said. “They had a great game plan and our kids didn’t play as well as they’re capable.”

Cassville also finished 2-1 in district play, defeating Seneca 14-13 and East Newton 42-7. The Wildcats lost to undefeated Monett 13-7.

Large is concerned with containing Mount Vernon quarterback Corey Phillips.

“He’s a very special athlete,” Large said. “He has a lot of talent and they do quite a bit with him. I told Coach Mayberry after our first meeting that I would hate to see him later in the year.”

Phillips leads the Mountaineers in every offensive category except receiving. He’s rushed for 1,108 yards and has scored 15 touchdowns. He’s passed for 700 yards and seven touchdowns and he leads the team in scoring with 90 points. He’s also punted for a 35.7 average and leads the defense with six interceptions. The leading receiver is Jackson Tettenhorst with 17 catches for 272 yards and three scores.

Cassville has a 1,000-yard passer in Jake Nolan and two solid running backs in Jon Haney and Joseph Gouvion. Nolan has thrown for 1060 yards and eight touchdowns, Haney has 541 yards and 13 scores and Gouvion has rushed for 483 yards and 7 TDs.

The receiving corps is led by Trevor Tanner (24-372 and three TDs) and Travis Northern (18-399, four TDs). Place-kicker Aaron Jamieson has converted 31 of 34 extra points and 2 of 3 field goals for 37 points. He also has a 34.6-yard punting average. Cody Pierson leads Cassville with four interceptions and Garrett Mahurin has recovered two fumbles.