CARL JUNCTION, Mo. — On a night where they didn’t have their best stuff on offense, the Carl Junction Bulldogs managed to stave off a push from the Republic Tigers with ball control and stingy defense to hang on for a 28-21 win.
Carl Junction (3-4) struggled moving the ball from the beginning, punting on its first two drives and squandering a scoring chance on its third. A false start penalty on third-and-goal from the Republic (2-5) 1-yard line forced the Bulldogs to try a 23-yard field goal, but the attempt was stuffed by Avery Moody, junior defensive back, who blocked the kick to keep the game scoreless.
The Bulldog defense, though, kept the Tigers at bay long enough to keep the team in control of the game. Carl Junction allowed only two scores on defense, and both were preceded by strong plays undone by circumstance. Republic needed a defensive pass interference call on a 50-50 ball on a third-and-12 from midfield to set up its first touchdown, a 16-yard screen pass from Moody to Ezekiel Meads.
Republic’s next — and last — offensive touchdown was a result of a Carl Junction goal-line stand and ensuing short punt that allowed the Tigers to start at the Bulldog 23-yard line. Republic’s only other score came on a kickoff return that was first fumbled, but picked back up by Meads and promptly marched 70 yards untouched to the end zone.
Carl Junction coach Doug Buckmaster praised his team for scratching out a win, despite what he said appeared to be inadequate preparation on offense for the matchup.
“Myself as head football coach and my staff, evidently, well, it’s not evident, we definitely didn’t do a very good job of coaching this past week because we didn’t bring anything to the table offensively tonight at all,” he said. “We may have moved the ball at times, but we couldn’t finish anything, we didn’t have much of an idea what we needed to do, I guess. So I take all the blame for that, I’m the guy that makes the offensive play calls … We’ll see if we can’t get better as coaches and help our guys out a little bit.”
Just as CJ’s defense allowed only two touchdowns, the Bulldog offense managed only three itself: Senior quarterback Alex Baker threw for three scores, one each to Noah Southern, Brady Sims and Cole Stewart, compared to the unit’s five punts and three turnovers. Carl Junction’s other TD came on the opening kickoff of the second half when Brendan Jewell pried the ball free from the Republic returner and Arlen Wakefield managed a scoop-and-score fumble recovery to make it 14-7.
Baker finished 13-of-28 through the air for 211 yards, while Sims largely carried the offense, churning up first downs and keeping the Republic offense off the field. He finished with 178 yards rushing on 32 carries.
“Brady did an awesome job,” Buckmaster said. We needed something and the one thing we got a little bit of (was Sims). We’ve been better in the run game the last few weeks, but, you know, we did some nice things and Brady ran hard and we needed those yards to win the football game and he did an outstanding job there.”
Carl Junction travels to Nixa (6-1) in Week 8.
