By Rod Shetler
sports@joplinglobe.com
CASSVILLE, Mo. — For the last two weeks, the Cassville Wildcats could have underestimated their opponents.
And for the last two weeks the Wildcats have steamrolled to lopsided victories.
Last week, in its final district game, Cassville (10-1) rolled past East Newton and on Wednesday Cassville dominated from the opening snap dispatching Aurora 56-14 in the Class 3 regional and setting up a rematch with district opponent Seneca on Monday in the state sectional.
The Houn Dawgs (3-8) earned the chance to try to dethrone the defending Class 3 champions with a 8-0 victory over Mount Vernon last week, but any thoughts of an upset on Wednesday were crushed early by a seemingly unstoppable Cassville offense led by senior running back Joseph Gouvion.
Gouvion scored three touchdowns in the first quarter on runs of 15, 12 and 14 yards. The 5-foot-8 speedster added two more scores in the second quarter on gallops of 46 and 4 yards ending the first half, and his night, with five touchdowns and 122 yards on 11 carries.
“I just hand him the ball and watch him outrun people and run over people,” said Cassville quarterback Trevor Tanner, who rushed for 75 yards himself on four first- half carries. “I love it.”
As a team, the Wildcats racked up 411 yards of rushing offense compared to just 137 from Aurora.
Cassville had the game locked away by the end of the first quarter as running back Zach Vititoe added a touchdown on the final play of the first quarter, which along with Gouvion’s three scores, gave the Wildcats a commanding 28-0 lead after the first 12 minutes.
“That was the best first half of football we have played in awhile,” said Cassville coach David Large.
“There’s not that much of a difference between us and Aurora, but we executed everything to perfection.
“Joseph is a special kid out there at running back and Trevor had some big runs too. They both have very quick feet, and they are so quick they just have a knack of making people miss.”
With 4:41 left before a nightmarish first half ended for Aurora, Cassville added an exclamation point to the night as reserve running back Seth Myers rambled 53 yards for the seventh Wildcat touchdown of the night giving Cassville a 49-6 halftime advantage.
Aurora’s Dustin Hedrick scored on a 3-yard touchdown run with 2:02 left in the second quarter.
The Houn Dawgs added another score on a 20-yard carry by Manuel Rios with 3:34 to play in the game.
Sophomore Stanton Stringer added the final touchdown of the night for Cassville with a 21-yard carry in the fourth quarter.
Senior kicker Matt Angel was a perfect 8-for-8 on PAT kicks for the Wildcats.
Monday’s sectional against Seneca will set up a rematch for the Indians who were beaten at home 24-13 during the district slate by Cassville in a hard-fought contest.
“Seneca is a great football team and they are very physical on offense and defense,” said Large.
“That was the thing that I saw the first time we played them. They hit us in the mouth and we will need to play well to beat them.”
