By Anvil Welch
awelch@joplinglobe.com
WEBB CITY, Mo. — Webb City, overcoming a sporadic first half, pulled away from Branson 40-21 on Wednesday night in the sectional round of the MSHSAA Class 4 football playoffs.
The Cardinals (11-0) scored the last four touchdowns in the game in beating the game Pirates (6-5) for the second time this season.
Webb City, ranked No. 1 in Class 4 and defending champion, will put a 26-game winning streak on the line at 7 p.m. on Monday against Carthage at Cardinal Stadium.
The Cardinals received two rushing touchdowns apiece from Maddy Johnson and Scott Roderique and another sharp passing performance from Patrick Drake. They totaled 461 yards with 326 on the ground.
Said Cardinal coach John Roderique: “We didn’t play very well in the first half. But Branson was responsible for about all of that. Coach (Steve) Hancock had the players prepared and had us on our heels. They pulled out everything including a successful fake punt.
“But we made some big stops on defense in the second half and we were able to put some points on the board to give us some breathing room.
“Patrick (Drake) and our running backs — Maddy (Johnson), Jamison (Cady) and Scott (Roderique) — wound up playing very well,” John Roderique said.
“Scott (Roderique) has the experience (the junior starts at linebacker as well as serving as Drake’s backup),” John Roderique said. “Probably, if we’d needed a quarterback for Patrick, we’d gone with sophomore Breckin Williams because Scott had been concentrating on running back during the week. That’s the luxury of having depth at quarterback.
“Plus, I guess Scott’s dad (Willie, John’s brother) was a pretty good running back,” a grinning John Roderique said.
Scott Roderique wound up with 47 yards on just seven carries, all in the second half, noted Drake (another of coach Roderique’s nephews).
“Scott took reps at running back all week,” Drake said. “We had too many turnovers in that first half. But we played much better in the second half.”
Roderique joined Chris Hance and Jarvis Jones in intercepting passes for the Cardinals.
Johnson finished with 131 yards on 20 carries. Drake added 76 on 15 carries and Cady 71 on 10.
Drake, who was 11-for-11 the previous two games, completed 11 of 15 passes for 135 yards and hit Aaron Daniel six times for 90 yards.
Johnson’s 4-yard and a 10-yard run by the Pirates’ Brandon Mahoney — set up by Malachi Daniels’ 32-yard run out of a fake punt on fourth-and-16 — and the conversion kicks made it 7-7 after one period.
The Pirates went ahead in the second period on Cameron Chancey’s 7-yard scoring pass to Michael Spain and Jeremy Mahoney’s kick. But Drake’s 27-yarder to Daniel and Alex Easley’s boot again tied it.
Branson, starting with Daniels’ nice return, took the second-half kickoff and scored on Brandon Mahoney’s 2-yard run and Jeremy Mahoney’s kick for the lead.
But Roderique’s 5-yard run at 5:44 and Cady’s 5-yard run at 2:33 gave the Cardinals a 26-21 lead entering the fourth.
Webb City received scoring runs of 3 and 36 yards, respectively, from Roderique and Johnson in the final.
Branson finished with 219 rushing yards — Brandon Mahoney led with 84 on 14 carries — and Chancey threw for 97 on nine of 23 for a total of 316 yards.
