Brevyn Ross Rushes for 269; Tigers Ground Muskets 62-14

Worth County rushed for almost 500 yards as Brevyn Ross posted 269 and Isaac Alarcon added another 174 as they beat North-West Nodaway 62-14 as an expected shootout between the two teams did not materialize. "Our kids wanted to come out and show that they were a better defensive team than what they showed against Albany," said Assistant Coach Jon Adwell after the win. Playing against a team like North-West Nodaway requires taking up lots of practice team working on stuff that they might not see all year. But the players were up to the challenge. On the other end, Worth County was simply much physically stronger than the Muskets, driving them back five yards even when they put all eight players in the box in an effort to stop the run. 

Worth County was playing shorthanded, going without Ben Badell (concussion) and Dylan Mildfeldt (concussion). Coach Chris Healy put in Chris Alarcon at quarterback; he stepped right in and completed a couple of long passes. That moved Tevin Cameron to end, where he played last year. Alarcon underthrew one pass to Cameron, but Tevin adjusted to make the catch and then broke away for a 46 yard score early in the second half. Mildfeldt was one of the main players on kickoff coverage, but with the exception of one play in the second quarter, Worth County was able to contain on kickoffs. 

Fourth downs were a key to Worth County's success Friday night. While they converted on every single one of their first downs, North-West Nodaway was struggling to convert on theirs. Worth County was never stopped, except once right before the end of the first half when they drove from their own five all the way to the Musket six before time expired. Their first fourth down conversion came with 9:08 left in the first, when Brevyn Ross took a sweep down the right side, juked a defender, and was off to the races to make it 6-0.

North-West's passing attack was grounded and Koby Reynolds, who had misfired on his first few attempts, threw a strike to Isaac Alarcon, who would have returned it for a score, but it was called back to the 22 by a block in the back penalty. It didn't matter as Isaac ripped off a 15-yard score as Brevyn was a perfect decoy, drawing off all the Musket players and giving him plenty of open space to run. Isaac ran in the extra points to make it 14-0. 

Koby Reynolds finally got going, throwing strikes to Jakob Cordell, Korbin Koch, and Cordell again. Koch caught another 12-yarder down to the Tiger 15, but then Dalton Auffert got a sack as Brevyn Ross flushed Reynolds from the pocket. Cordell took a shovel pass 12 yards down to the 8, but then there was a mixup on the next play as two blue shirts were in the vicinity of the pass and Reynolds' pass sailed between them incomplete as Worth County held on downs. It was the inability to convert fourth downs all night that would kill the Muskets.

On the ensuing series, North-West committed everything towards stopping the run, but Brevyn Ross and Isaac Alarcon were moving piles 4-5 yards at a time on the ground. Worth County was faced with fourth and four at the Musket 20, but then Chris Alarcon fooled everyone and his first career pass attempt was complete as Mason Hawk came up with his first ever catch down to the 13 to keep the drive alive. On the next play, a Musket defender had Brevyn Ross completely wrapped up, but he somehow slipped out of the tackle and dove five yards into the end zone. Chris Alarcon ran in the extra points to make it 22-0 with 9:08 left. 

Finally, North-West got going and showed the form they had displayed all year. Koby Reynolds showed why he is one of the most difficult men in the area to bring down as he somehow eluded Brevyn Ross, one of the better tacklers on the team, and threw a strike to Jakob Cordell. Cordell showed his physical strength on the play as he dragged Isaac Alarcon 10 yards to the Tiger 13. That set up Koby Reynolds' one yard run with 5:44 left  in the second to make it 22-8.

But then North-West's kickoff coverage broke down as Brevyn Ross ran back the ensuing kick to the Musket 26. On the first play from scrimmage, the play call fooled everyone on the North-West sideline, who thought Chris Alarcon was dropping back to pass to Tevin Cameron. But nobody saw Isaac Alarcon slipping out of the backfield with the ball until it was too late and he rumbled in for a 26 yard score with 5:30 left in the half. Brevyn Ross got a block from Isaac to make it 30-8. That set off a sequence of four scores within a 45-second span. Colt McIntyre burst right up the middle to score for North-West to make it 30-14. Tevin Cameron nearly broke one back for the Tigers, running it back to the 40 to set up Brevyn Ross' 40 yard dash to make it 36-14. Ross also added the extra points off a sweep to make it 38-14.

The ensuing kick caromed off a blue shirt, but David Hull covered it to put the Muskets in business at their own 25. Things got chippy a few plays later as two Musket players tackled Tristan Miller, who had fought through a block and had Reynolds in his sights, while Tevin Cameron hit a Musket player out of bounds after the play was over. Coach Adwell came out and argued the late hit call, drawing two sideline infraction penalties, which moved the ball five yards up to the 30. Ryan McClellan broke up a pass and North-West looked like they wanted to go for it, but a false start backed them up five yards and they were forced to punt. It was the first of two times that North-West shot themselves in the foot on fourth down with a penalty. 

This and the next two series were the backbreaker for the Muskets. They had every reason to expect to make a game of it after digging themselves into a 34-6 hole against St. Joseph Christian only to come back and make it 50-46 at one point last week before falling 62-52. The tempo of the game, which resembled a Playstation game at that point, finally was swinging in their favor. Worth County was backed up at their own five as they elected to cover a possible fake since Reynolds was the kicker; however, it didn't matter as Brevyn Ross ripped off a 58-yarder with 1:51 left after breaking a tackle and racing down the left sideline. That made it 44-14. North-West had a chance to answer, faced with fourth and one at their own 35 with 1:20 left, but a false start penalty forced them to punt. Worth County nearly scored despite having no timeouts left and having to go from their own 5, and then proceeded to put the game away in the second half.

Isaac Alarcon lined up in the Wildcat formation and everyone thought Brevyn Ross would get the ball on a handoff; however, once again, Isaac rumbled down the sideline untouched as he ripped off a 72 yard score with 7:25 left in the third following Chris Alarcon's strike to Tevin Cameron to start the half. Chris Alarcon's six-yard sweep with 1:10 left in the period finally put the finishing touches on the game.