By Richard Polen
rpolen@joplinglobe
LAMAR, Mo. — All afternoon, the Lamar Tigers tried to create a big play. And all afternoon, senior defensive end Adam Thomson of Maryville found ways of disrupting the Tigers’ efforts.
The result is a trip to the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis for the Spoofhounds, who defeated Lamar 21-7 in the Class 2 semifinals before an overflow crowd at Thomas O’Sullivan Stadium in Lamar.
Lamar’s defense limited Maryville to 21 yards rushing in the first half and 101 for the game, which was in doubt until Marcus Grudzinski scored on a 2-yard quarterback sneak with 2 minutes, 8 seconds remaining for the final margin.
Lamar attempted three fake punts and converted one into a first down. The Tigers tried reverses, double reverses, even a halfback option pass. Through it all, Maryville’s defense held Lamar to 128 yards rushing and 247 total yards.
“We couldn’t consistently run the ball,” Lamar head coach Scott Bailey said, “so we’re having to rely on a passing game or a reverse game and that’s not going to take you very far in the playoffs.”
Whether it was helping to hold Lamar’s leading rusher, wingback Markell White, to 25 yards rushing, or harassing quarterback Trenton Doyle into throwing off-balance, Thomson and his Maryville teammates kept the pressure on Lamar.
“They were all pretty tough up front,” Thomson said of Lamar’s linemen. “They made it tough on us today.
“Defensively, we were kind of banged up at the beginning of the year but now we have all of our defenders back. We’re proud of our defense. It’s a Maryville thing.”
The trip to St. Louis will be the second consecutive championship game for the Spoofhounds, who were defeated by Clark County 10-7 last year on a fourth-quarter field goal.
“It’s redemption,” Thomson said. “It’s a second chance. We want to get it right this time.”
Trailing 13-0 midway through the third quarter, Lamar put together its best drive of the game, an 84-yard march in 12 plays that pulled the Tigers to within 13-7 with 3:43 left in the third quarter.
The drive appeared to have stalled deep in Lamar territory when, on fourth-and-10 from their own 16, Tigers quarterback and punter Trenton Doyle completed a pass out of punt formation to Zach Yokley for a 19-yard gain and a first down at the 35.
Lamar gambled again on fourth-and-1 from the 44 and got a first down near midfield on a 5-yard run by Colby Hall. Three plays later, Doyle completed a 34-yard pass to Nick Gariss that gave the Tigers a first down at the Maryville 16, and White scored on an inside handoff on the next play.
Otherwise, the Spoofhounds played a near-perfect game and committed just five penalties.
“We played well on special teams and did not turn the ball over,” Maryville head coach Chris Holt said. “We don’t do a lot of blitzing. We don’t do anything major to matchup with the other team and we didn’t do that today.
“We thought we had some opportunities to throw the ball but we decided not to because our defense was playing so well.”
Maryville took a 7-0 lead in the second quarter on a 39-yard interception return by junior linebacker Tyler Peve, then scored again early in the second half when cornerback Tyler Walter picked up a lateral that was supposed to be a short Lamar pass and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown.
“It was 7-7,” Bailey said. “We had two turnovers and they didn’t, and that made it 21-7. I felt like we stopped the run, we just couldn’t run it.”
Doyle was Lamar’s leading rusher with 49 yards on 21 carries and completed 10 of 20 passes for 128 yards. Andrew Fowler had five catches for 47 yards and Dillon Bass had two catches for 17 yards.
Maryville completed 2 of 7 passes for 41 yards.
“We have a set of mandates that sets what we do during the season,” Holt said. “It served us very well today.
“And put something in there about how great Lamar was. They really were a good host.”
Bailey was already talking to his players about next season before they left the field.
“The reward for hard work is not a trophy or a pat on the back. The reward is more hard work because the expectation level has increased,” Bailey said. “Our kids need to buy into that.
“We started camp July 20. We’ve been playing football for four months and one day. I want our kids next year to play football for four months and one week.”
