Why not us?
That’s the question John Roderique posed to his Webb City Cardinals at the conclusion of an up-and-down regular season.
The Cardinals adopted a ‘Why not us?’ mentality for the postseason—and the rest is history.
“I remember saying it to them during practice that week…we weren’t playing that Friday,” Roderique recalled after last Friday’s 26-21 win over Holt in the Class 5 Show-Me Bowl. “I made the comment, ‘Why not us?’ I could see something in our kids’ faces when I said that. I’ve never been more proud of a group that has come so far from the beginning to the end.”
With the ‘Why not us?’ mantra and a seven-day contract in mind each week, Webb City won five straight games in the postseason to claim the school’s 16th state championship.
In arguably the program’s most improbable run to the state title under Roderique, Webb City went through a gauntlet of undefeated and highly-ranked teams en route to the championship.
Ahead of their games with Webb City, No. 1 Jackson was 12-0, No. 2 Carthage was 10-0, No. 3 Holt was 13-0 and No. 7 Lebanon was 10-1.
Embracing an underdog role again and again, and highly motivated to leave their mark, the Cardinals knocked them all off.
“One thing we told our kids is it’s always about what happens in the latter part of the season,” Roderique said. “In Week 10, and getting into the district, you want to be playing your best football at that time. Our kids really believed.”
The Cardinals were sitting at 4-3 at one point and entered the postseason with a record of 6-3. An improved defense was key to the late season surge.
The Cardinals gave up more than 40 points in each of their three regular season losses—41 points to both Joplin and Nixa and 42 to Carthage. And the Cardinals gave up nearly 50 points in a 63-48 win over Ozark.
But from that point on, the Cardinals would never allow more than 21 in a game.
“We just knew the last couple games before that we’d let up a pretty big number,” senior linebacker Cooper Crouch said after Friday’s win. “We knew that if we wanted to keep winning football games we were going to have to make that number a lot smaller. We hustled and we grinded hard every single day at practice.”
After the bye week, Webb City began the postseason with a convincing 35-7 win over an improved Republic squad
Next came the team’s biggest test, a rematch with rival Carthage.
After the Tigers pounded the Cardinals 42-14 in Week 4, Webb City made the necessary adjustments and showed how much they’d improved by beating the Tigers 28-21 for the district championship.
A convincing 35-13 win over Lebanon put the Cardinals in the semifinals, where they were once again seen as the underdogs to Jackson, an undefeated defending state champion that came to town with plenty of confidence and a lot of hype.
The Cardinals got off to a great start, took care of business and won 35-21.
Webb City was in control of the state title game, leading 26-7. Holt rallied for 14 unanswered points in the fourth quarter before a late defensive stand secured the crown for the Cardinals.
Remarkably, this is Webb City’s 16th state championship in football, tops in Missouri history. It’s the 13th title under Roderique, the most by a head football coach in state history. It’s Webb City’s first title in Class 5, as the previous championships were in Class 4.
The Cardinals have won three championships in the last five years (2017, ’19, ’21).
“It’s a lot of history and this team just won a state championship and these kids got to fulfill a lifelong dream,” Roderique said. “But it’s not like we wake up every day and talk about trying to win 16. We just want to be better than we were yesterday. When I’m done coaching and looking back, it is pretty amazing and says a lot about our program. Certainly there are thousands of guys, hundreds of guys (that contributed).”
Roderique noted the 2021 team will be remembered fondly.
“I’ll remember their will to win and their will to prepare to win,” Roderique said. “I’m going to have great feelings about this team. This is a special group.”
SEASON STATS
Senior Cade Wilson rushed for 1,556 yards and 27 touchdowns. Senior Dupree Jackson ran for 1,028 yards and 19 touchdowns.
In 10 games, Cohl Vaden passed for 968 yards with nine touchdowns and four interceptions. Vaden also ran for 458 yards. Landon Johnson passed for 457 yards during his four games under center.
Leading receivers were juniors Dante Washington (612 yards), William Hayes (375 yards) and Trey Roets (160 yards).
Team leaders in tackles were Crouch (129), Lucas Ott (119), Kaylor Darnell (110), Brentan Wilson (73), Billy Wolfe (71) and Gavin Stowell (69). Washington had five interceptions and Wilson had three.
Washington made 28 of 31 PAT kicks, while Crouch converted 16 of 22.
Webb City’s state championships
1989, 1992, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2019, 2021
