By MATT PIKE
The Worth County Tigers overcame their demons of the 2023 MSHSAA Show Me Bowl, where they fell to the Archie Whirlwinds 40-26, defeating Archie 36-34 in the MSHSAA 8-man semifinals to advance to the state championship game at Missouri Western State University.
After being eliminated in the quarterfinals of last years playoffs, falling to North Shelby, the Tigers are back in the MSHSAA Show Me Bowl for the 13th time in the school's history. They're still seeking their first state championship since 2017.
Head coach Jon Adwell says it gets the monkey off your back a little bit to get back in, after last year feeling like they got left out last year with the quarterfinal loss.
"Our kids that's always on their minds, they want to be that next group, and that's why they work so hard is they want to be that group and so we're excited to be able to get the opportunity to try to go up and do that," Adwell tells reporters after the game.
Junior Bo Collins, who had four catches for 41 yards and a touchdown in the 2023 championship loss, says it means a lot for the team, and the community, to get another shot at a state championship.
"You know our last state championship that we won was 2017, and since then we've got there multiple times, and we've been close to getting there multiple times, and haven't got it done," Collins says. "So this is really important for our community, for our school, for our team, to be able to go out there and give it our best effort."
After falling behind on a rushing touchdown by Jackson Kash in the first quarter, Worth County responded to start the second quarter and took the lead, first tying the game on a touchdown run from Jude Archer, before quarterback Hayden Sanders kept the ball himself and ran it in for the two point conversion, giving the Tigers an 8-6 lead.
Worth County extended its lead on a play action pass from Sanders, finding tight end Caleb New for a long touchdown strike, and then on the two point conversion completing a pass to Collins, who made an impressive tip toe snag in the back of the endzone. Archie though cut into the lead, Kash finding the endzone again, this time on a pass from Tristan Leeper, and Leeper went on to keep it himself to convert the two point try, making it 16-14 at the halftime break.
Out of the break, the Tigers took a move out of the Sean Payton playbook from the 2010 Super Bowl, attempting an onside kick, the Whirlwinds though recovered and quickly took their first lead since the first quarter as Leeper ran along the sideline for a touchdown, and then completed a two point pass to Josh Lough. Worth County tied up the game on the ensuing drive however, Sanders keeping it himself and diving across the goal line, leaving the game tied at 22 after the two point attempt was stopped.
The tie held until the start of the fourth quarter, where Archie took the lead back on another touchdown run from Leeper, Worth County stopped the two point try though, keeping within a touchdown. Brayden Stevens got that touchdown, and Archer converted the two point try on a run, giving the Tigers a 30-28 lead.
The Whirlwinds were stopped on fourth down for a turnover on downs on the next drive, and Stevens extended the lead with his second touchdown of the game, the two point conversion attempt was dropped though in the endzone, leaving it a one possession game. Archie took advantage, Leeper scoring his third rushing touchdown, fourth overall, the Tigers prevented a tie though, swatting a two point conversion pass down at the line and leaving it 36-34 with 4:26 left in the game.
Archie attempted an onside kick to get the ball back, Worth County though recovered, and then went to work chewing down the clock before having to punt with just over a minute left in the game. On third down, under pressure Leeper attempted to get the ball downfield and was picked off by Sanders, allowing the Tigers to kneel the ball on the final two plays and celebrate another trip to the championship.
Now in the championship, it's a date with the Rock Port Blue Jays, a team that beat Worth County in the first week of this season in a hard tested battle 34-26. Adwell knows they will have their hands full again with players from the Blue Jays, such as Brock Holmes and Jack Meyerkorth.
"We've got to do a good job of being able to kind of bottle them up and slow them down, and stick to what we do, try to control the game by running the ball and that really pays off I think down the road," Adwell says.
Collins says since the week one loss, they knew there was a good chance they could run into Rock Port again in the playoffs. Now with a chance at redemption for the only loss of the season for Worth County, Collins says they just have to be ready because they know the Blue Jays are a great team.
"They're going to give us everything they've got and we know that, so we've just got to go into the week preparing for that and just do what we've done all year," Collins says.
Worth County and Rock Port will kick off at 7pm on Thursday at Spratt Memorial Stadium. We are scheduled to broadcast that game live on St. Joseph Post and Maryville Post, with pregame at 6pm. Stay tuned to our St. Joseph and Maryville Post Facebook pages and our websites for those.
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt.