By Jim Fryar
jfryar@joplinglobe.com
There shouldn’t be many surprises when Seneca and Cassville play for the second time in 17 days.
But there’s more at stake for tonight’s rematch in the second round of the Missouri Class 3 football playoffs.
“If you lose, you go home,” said Cassville coach David Large.
The first meeting, on Oct. 23 in Seneca, decided both the Big 8 Conference and District 3-12 championships. Cassville won 24-13, scoring the decisive touchdown on a long, time-consuming drive.
The rematch tonight will be at Cassville, starting at 7 p.m. Cassville, the defending state champion, is 10-1. Seneca, with early nonconference losses to Neosho and Carthage, is 8-3.
“I don’t think either one of us is going to do anything terribly new,” Large said. “We’ve played and we know how each other was thinking and attacking.
“I’m sure they will have a couple of small wrinkles and we will too. But we’re both going to want to run the ball and play physical football.”
Seneca coach Rob Townsend agrees.
“We know each other pretty well,” he said. “We do a lot of the same stuff. It’s pretty easy for us to scout them and it’s awfully easy for them to scout us.
“We feel like, in the last game with them, with a couple of breaks we’re in the game until the end. We’re not going to do a lot different.”
In that case, the Cassville defense can expect to see a whole lot of Seneca senior Dillan Webb carrying the ball. And the Seneca defense will become reacquainted with Cassville senior Joseph Gouvion.
Webb had a huge game, with 250 yards and three touchdowns, in Seneca’s 42-21 victory over Springfield Catholic on Wednesday night in the first round of the playoffs. Webb missed the first two games of the season, but has made up for lost time with 1,215 yards rushing and 17 touchdowns.
Gouvion didn’t have to carry Webb’s workload (34 carries) in Cassville playoff opener, a 56-14 victory over Aurora. But he made the most of 11 carries, gaining 127 yards and scoring five first-half touchdowns.
For the season, Gouvion has 1,274 yards and has scored 27 touchdowns.
“We’re two very similar teams,” Large said. “We want to play good defense, fly around to the ball. We both want to have strong running games and also be able to pass a little bit.”
Seneca quarterback Jake Rhoades has actually thrown more than a little. He’s completed 69 of 122 attempts for 1,068 yards and 12 touchdowns. He has a premier receiver in tight end Nick Chasten (20 catches, 411 yards).
Cassville didn’t throw as much, but Trevor Tanner was 34 of 65 for 521 yards during the regular season. Travis Northern had 20 catches for 333 yards.
“Games like this,” said Townsend, “seem to come down to who makes the big plays or who makes the least amount of mistakes.”
Tonight’s winner will play either Rogersville or Mountain View-Liberty in the quarterfinals on Saturday.
