North-West Nodaway diversified its game and got back on the winning track in the first round of districts Friday night, beating East Atchison 79-22. Normally a passing team, they ran the ball a lot more and did so successfully, getting backs loose into the open field several times.
East Atchison, hoping to capitalize off the Worth County game, in which they put up 34 points in a losing effort, got the ball first and aired it out on the first play from quarterback Brendon Bruns to Gage McAdams, who had torched Worth County the week before with four long scores. He was wide open with nobody in front of him, but the ball was just beyond his reach. Had they scored, anything could have happened given that North-West was coming off a 106-57 loss to Nodaway/South Holt. But as things stood, Bruns tried a running play only to be met by Dakota Smyser, and Garrett Ball was met by a host of blue shirts led by Ben Hart leading to a three and out. Having gotten one chance at burning the Muskets, they would not get another one as North-West jammed McAdams at the line of scrimmage all night and would never let him get loose like that again as they played their best defensive game of the year.
In the meantime, North-West scored on its first play from scrimmage. They faked a sweep to the left side and ran one to the right and Dakota Smyser got loose and outran everyone for a 67-yard score with 10:22 left, a rare long running touchdown for Andrew Webster's Muskets. Josh McGinness' extra point kick was good and that made it 7-0.
Bryant Hummel tried to establish Ball on the next series, but after picking up six on the first play, he was met by a wall consisting of Jakob Cordell and Blake Farnan on the next play. They tried a keeper on the next play, but Bruns was met by Ben Hart and Jakob Cordell, with Dakota Smyser cleaning up to force another three and out.
It looked like it would be a repeat of the first meeting between the first two teams, where North-West would score nearly every time they touched the ball. Koby Reynolds threw a strike to Jakob Cordell, who raced down the right sideline for a 71-yard score. But then someone held at the line of scrimmage well after Cordell was off to the races; East Atchison was also flagged on the play for a rare defensive block in the back penalty and they replayed it over again.
North-West recovered from the miscue and put together a nice long drive, started when Smyser's counter went for 10 yards and a first down. Colt McIntyre's catch and run picked up nine more and then Koby Reynolds' scramble picked up another first down at the 35. East Atchison played to stop the pass all night, but that left plenty of room for Reynolds to scramble or to hit them with counters, jet sweeps, and quick hitters. A long pass to Daytona Lutz might have gone for six, but it was played perfectly and broken up by McAdams. But Dakota Smyser caught a swing pass, got a block from Ben Hart, and took it 17 down to the Wolves' 28. A shovel pass went nowhere, and Reynolds could find nobody open on the next play. But he scrambled 23 more yards all the way down to the 5. Korbin Koch was stopped short of the goal line at the 1 and then the Muskets, obviously not used to working on running plays, had consecutive fumbled handoffs. But on fourth down Dakota Smyser showed he was the real deal as a runningback; he stiffarmed Shae DeRosier and then dove into the end zone against two more defenders with 5:30 left. McGinness kicked the extra point to make it 14-0. Out of 71 yards, Andrew Webster's Muskets had picked up 45 on the ground and only 26 through the air, a big change from most of their drives.
Both teams exchanged punts on the next series; Jakob Cordell blew up a spread draw with a big hit and Ben Hart hurried Bruns on third down. East Atchison tried to go deep to McAdams again, but North-West Nodaway jammed him at the line perfectly and the pass fluttered incomplete. North-West tried to go deep, but East Atchison covered the long ball perfectly, and the Muskets were stymied twice by false starts.
East Atchison picked up a first down on the next series aided by an offsides penalty and then tried to spring McAdams loose with a reverse, but it fooled nobody as Smyser and Cordell were there to blow it up. Ben Hart got a sack on third down to force another punt.
Smyser picked up another 11 on a jet sweep, and that seemed to open up the passing lanes for North-West. Cordell caught a short pass and then dragged Brendon Bruns 10 yards down the field to the Wolves' 31 before they could finally bring him down. Daytona Lutz' catch and run picked up 12 more to the 19 and a short pass to Koch became a first and goal at the 8 thanks to a 15-yard facemask. Koby Reynolds scrambled for one yard as the first quarter came to a close. The stats were pretty interesting -- the Muskets had twice as many rushing yards in the first quarter -- 124 as passing yards -- 62. Koch picked up six yards to the Wolves one around the left end behind Jakob Cordell's blocking and then picked up the final yard with 11:23 left in the second. Garrett Ball shot through and tipped McGinness' extra point try to keep it at 20-0.
East Atchison finally got on the board when Bruns got loose out in the open; he started to the right and broke to the left, breaking tackle after tackle to get into the end zone. Ball followed a big hole up the middle to make it 20-8 with 7:28 left in the first half. Colt McIntyre got loose for 12 on a quick hitter to move the ball into Wolves' territory and Reynolds apparently had Cordell wide open for a 25-yard strike on fourth and five at the 25. Gage McAdams made a great play to break it up; however, he should have knocked it down. That would have given the Wolves the ball on the 25, however, he intercepted it, which meant the Wolves had the ball on their own 4 as opposed to the 25. That mistake turned out to be costly.
With Coach Andrew Webster lobbying the officials for a safety, Jakob Cordell drove Bruns back to the 1 and then Ball hit a wall of blue shirts on the 1 as he barely got out of the end zone. Finally, Cordell shot the gap and dropped Ball in the end zone for a safety to make it 22-8 with 7:28 left.
North-West Nodaway went three and out after Smyser ran into a wall of defenders on third down, but a great punt by Koby Reynolds dropped the Wolves at the 13. The Wolves lined up with McAdams as a quarterback and Bruns as a receiver, but it didn't work as David Hull shot through and dropped McAdams. They tried a handoff to Ball, but a swarm of defenders, led by Hull, Smyser, and Blake Farnan pushed him back to the 3. Finally, with Bruns back at quarterback for East Atchison, the ensuing snap was on the ground and Bruns' knee hit the ground as he tried to pick it up and the Muskets collected their second consecutive safety to make it 24-8.
The ensuing kick was brought back to the 23 thanks to a block in the back penalty, but North-West Nodaway put together another sustained drive. Dakota Smyser caught a 14-yarder to the 37 and then Cordell's catch and run moved the ball into Wolves' territory at the 34. Reynolds' scramble for 16 yards after getting a block from Colt McIntyre picked up another first down to the 15 and Daytona Lutz got a turn at carrying the ball, taking it for five more down to the 10 thanks to a block from Cordell. Reynolds threw a pass to Smyser, who made a great catch, but he was ruled out of bounds. Finally, Reynolds threw to Cordell just across the plane of the end zone; he somehow hung onto the ball and kept a foot inbounds before falling out with 2:19 left. McGinness' extra point kick made it 31-8.
There was a heartstopping moment on East Atchison's next series as two Musket players tried to pick Brendon Bruns' flat pass attempt and took themselves out of the play; had it been an accurate throw, Max Hopkins would have gone for six. But the throw was well over his head. Later, with Bruns scrambling for extra yardage, Cordell pushed him out of bounds right into the table with the water coolers and Gatorade, knocking it over and spilling water all over the ground. A false start on fourth and two at the 40 made it fourth and seven at the 35 with 1:31 left, but for some reason, East Atchison tried to go for it and Bruns was flushed out of the pocket and chased out of bounds for no gain, leaving the Muskets with a short field and plenty of time to score.
They only needed three plays to do so. McIntyre caught a short pass for four yards to the 31 and a false start moved them back to the 36. But then Koby Reynolds aired it out for 36 yards to Dakota Smyser with 56.8 seconds left to make it 37-8 as Smyser beat the Wolves' defense. A sack by Colt McIntyre and Dakota Smyser ended any chance of the Wolves mounting an answer before the half. Only in the last few minutes of the half did the rushing and passing numbers start to even out; North-West had 165 rushing yards and 149 passing yards by halftime.
North-West tried some razzle dazzle to start the second half, but it fell flat. Freshman runningback Dylan Carden checked into the came and attempted a throwback pass to Koby Reynolds, which might have been open. But he slipped and fell on the surface as it had been raining and the field had become slick. They tried another play, where they set up a play which looked like a reverse, only for the back to hand it back to Koby Reynolds, who tried to air it out to Cordell deep. But that play fooled nobody as two Wolves defenders were on him. Reynolds tried to go deep to Korbin Koch on their third play, but he was doubled and Reynolds threw it away.
That forced them to punt, but Reynolds made another great kick down to the 14. East Atchison was driven back again and North-West nearly got a third safety. One of the Wolves receivers took the penalty rather than allow David Hull a pick, moving it back to the 7. A delay moved it back further and Blake Farnan flushed Bruns out of the pocket and forced a hurried throw on third down which could have been grounding; that forced them to punt. A sudden gust of wind caught the ensuing punt and knocked it down, giving the Muskets another short field to work with at the Wolves 30. Dakota Smyser picked up 13 on another sweep, putting him over 100 rushing yards for the night; the ref tacked on more yardage for a horsecollar to move the ball to the 8. Korbin Koch took a sweep and outran a defender down to the 3; Reynolds got in trouble on the next play and scrambled around; he threw up a jump ball to Cordell in the back of the end zone that he came up with to make it 43-8 with 9:39 left in the third.
East Atchison finally got a sustained drive going as Brendon Bruns ripped off 10 on a spread draw, Garrett Ball caught a short pass and took it for 10 more, and the Wolves finally got Gage McAdams loose for 14 yards from the Wildkat formation. Finally, a reverse to Ball for 20 yards put them on the board with 7:07 left to make it 43-14.
The Muskets came right back through the air as Daytona Lutz caught a 15 yard pass over the middle down to the Wolves' 30. Reynolds scrambled two times for eight more yards, and Dakota Smyser's catch and run took it down to the 3. A pass interference put it at the 1 and a false start moved it back to the 6, where a quick hitter by Colt McIntyre picked up the remaining yardage with 5:45 left. On the extra point try, Reynolds attempted a guard eligible pass to Treston Sanders in the right corner of the end zone. He saw he wasn't opened and scrambled to the left side of the field; as the entire Wolves defense shifted over, Sanders was left uncovered and Reynolds threw a strike to complete the extra point play to make it 51-14.
That seemed to be the backbreaker for the Wolves. McAdams was dropped for a loss of one by Cordell and McIntyre. On the next play, Garrett Ball tried to reverse his field but was met by McIntyre, who dropped him for another loss. McAdams picked up six on the next play, and once again, for some reason, East Atchison tried to go for it on fourth and five from inside their own territory at the 38. Bruns tried the spread draw that had worked before, but this time he was met by McIntyre again for a loss of three back to the 35, setting up another short field for the Muskets to work with. This time, Colt McIntyre got loose for a 34 yard run as he outran one defender and got a block from Ben Hart. He took it in for the score on the next play and Korbin Koch, coming in at quarterback, got loose on a sweep to make it 59-14 to trigger the running clock.
East Atchison once again went three and out and Koch took the reigns at quarterback for the first time in the game. Coaches will not rest easy next year with Reynolds, who was the third quarterback in Missouri high school football history according to the Nodaway News-Leader to top 10,000 passing yards, graduating. Koch did not look like a freshman at all as he continued to guide Andrew Webster's Muskets down the field, hitting Colt McIntyre on his first attempt for 17 yards. His draw play went for nine more and then his play action pass to Josh McGinness went for 14 more to bring it down to the five. He then threw a strike to McIntyre in the end zone and ran in the extra points to make it 67-14.
The ensuing squib kick bounced off a white shirt and into the arms of Jon Lewis, giving the Muskets another short field to work with. Koch had his only misfire on his next attempt -- trying to air it out into the stiff north wind that had sprung up. Then, he took a busted play for four yards and Dakota Smyser came up inches short at the Wolves 22, setting up fourth and inches. But Koch got a lot more than a first down as he used a Ben Hart block to spring loose into the end zone with 9:02 left to make it 73-14. The Wolves drove down the field and scored as Coach Andrew Webster began subbing freely, getting into the end zone with 4:06 left.
David Hull got two turns carrying the ball on the next series, ripping off 26 yards and putting North-West Nodaway over the 300 mark in rushing, with 304 rushing yards total for the night. Finally, Koch threw a strike on the final play of the game to Jakob Cordell at the Wolves' 21. Anxious to score on his final play ever on the Burlington Junction field, he shook off one tackler like he wasn't even there and then outmuscled two more defenders to force his way into the end zone for North-West Nodaway's final score.
For the game, North-West Nodaway had more rushing yards (304) than passing yards (224), the first time that has happened in a while. Dakota Smyser had 8 carries for 108 yards. Koby Reynolds and Colt McIntyre had identical totals of 6 carries for 54 yards each. Korbin Koch had 7 carries for 51 yards, David Hull had 2 carries for 32, and Daytona Lutz had 1 carry for 5 yards. North-West averaged more from their running game than their passing game, picking up 10.1 yards per rushing attempt. They attempted 30 rushing plays and 31 passing plays for the game.
Koby Reynolds had 26 attempts and 16 completions for "only" 181 yards; it was his second lowest total of the year, but he'll take it with the victory. Koch had 4 attempts and 3 completions for 43 yards; Dylan Carden had one pass attempt. Dakota Smyser caught 5 passes for 90 yards; Jakob Cordell caught 6 passes for 69 yards. Daytona Lutz caught 6 passes for 53 yards. Colt McIntyre caught 1 pass for 9 yards, Josh McGinness caught 1 pass for 8 yards, and Korbin Koch caught 1 pass for 3 yards.
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