Tigers survive Eudora challenge in OT

Fort Scott receiver Ty Gorman (2) uses a block from Dalton Colvin as he heads downfield on a third-quarter pass play at Frary Field Friday night. Gotman scored two touchdowns, including the game-winner in overtime that gave the Tigers a 21-14 victory in their final game of the regular season.

Scott Nuzum/Tribune

Eudora’s pre-game adjustments threw Fort Scott High off during the first half of play at Frary Field Friday night. But the Tigers’ halftime adjustments allowed them to take the game over and prevail over the visiting Cardinals, 21-14, in overtime.

The Cardinals (1-7) dominated the first quarter, using option and wider spreads between their offensive linemen than teams usually run. They took the opening possession 65 yards in 11 plays, eating up more than seven minutes on the game clock, before quarterback Ezekiel Reazin ran in from a yard out with 7:07 to go in the first half. A pass for a 2-point conversion failed.

The Tigers’ first — and only — possession of the quarter resulted in a three-and-out. Eudora took over at its own 37 and marched downfield again, scoring five seconds into the second quarter on a 6-yard run by Reazin. He also ran in the 2-point conversion to make it 14-0.

At that point, Eudora had run 24 plays for 138 yards. The Tigers (6-2) had run three plays for eight yards.

Eudora’s wide stances forced Fort Scott’s defenders to move wider out, giving the Cardinals more space to run the ball. And they were doing so quite effectively.

“Even when you make the play, it’s hard to stop them from making three or four yards because there’s so much space,” Fort Scott head coach Bob Campbell said “Eudora hadn’t shown that all year. They had run some option but nothing like they did tonight. And they really did a nice job with it.”

On defense, the Cardinals were trying to throw the Tigers off by making last-second shifts on the defensive line, trying to make it tougher to block them.

“All week, we kept talking to the kids about how this was probably the best 1-6 team they were ever going to see,” Campbell said. “A lot of credit to Eudora for playing extremely hard.”

Cooper Bradbury returned the ensuing kickoff to the Eudora 32, although a holding penalty at the end of the play moved the ball back 10 yards from that spot. Still, the Tigers managed to move the ball down to the 13. However, on a fourth-and-8 play, Cardinal defensive back Matthew Evans stepped in front of a pass at the goal line and returned it 34 yards.

The Cardinals had another interception, though it was on a tipped ball, later in the quarter which helped them go into the locker room their two-score lead.

Eudora had 10 first downs and 189 yards of total offense — all but nine of that running — in the first half. Fort Scott had just three first downs and 72 yards of offense.

“The first half was hit-and-miss,” Campbell said. “We’d have one good play and then one bad play. Two good plays, then a penalty or a turnover, a missed assignment, a missed alignment, whatever it would be. We weren’t consistent.”

Fort Scott only had the ball for about 7 1/2 minutes in the first half. The Tigers held it for a little over seven minutes on the first possession of the second half, driving 76 yards in 17 plays. Quarterback Matt Campbell found Ty Gorman in the back right corner of the end zone to get the redclads on the scoreboard with 4:49 on the clock.

“We spread the field, threw the ball on the edge a little bit,” Campbell said. “Matt had a couple of runs that were important for us. We just made them play a little more honestly. We were trying to get out of first-down run, second-down run, third-down pass and to Eudora’s credit, they were doing a good job of taking away that stuff.

“We were a little more balanced. I thought we were a little more explosive. There were some costly penalties at tough times to overcome. But our kids made some really key plays.”

Eudora’s return man muffed the ensuing kickoff, picked up the loose ball, then coughed it up when he got tackled. Dalton Colvin recovered the ball for Fort Scott at the Cardinals’ 23-yard line.

The Tigers scored a little quicker this time. Campbell found Gorman for 11 yards and a first down at the 12 on the first play. Four runs later, Bradbury took a fourth-and-1 play and made it a 3-yard touchdown run with Jacob Zubieta’s kick tying the score with 2:34 left in the third.

Eudora drove down to the Fort Scott 4 on its next possession. On first-and-goal there, Reazin fumbled a handoff and Jarrett Shoemaker was there to recover the ball for the Tigers at the 6 with 8:28 to go.

Fort Scott had to punt from its own 41 after six plays but Eudora’s return man muffed the ball. Colvin was there for the tackle and also recovered the ball at the Eudora 21.

The drove stalled and a 27-yard field-goal attempt went wide left 2:34 to go. Eudora managed to drive to the Tiger 37 before regulation time ran out.

Fort Scott had the ball first in overtime and scored on the first play when Gorman ran a “jet” sweep to the left and dove for the pylon, touching it with the ball to give the Tigers their first lead.

Eudora was faced with fourth down at the 4 on its possession with Reazin throwing a pass into the right side of the end zone that was wide of its target.

Fort Scott finished with 135 yards rushing and 101 passing by Matt Campbell to finish with a total of 236, averaging 4 1/2 yards per play in the second half after gaining nearly a yard less per play in the first half.

The defense allowed 189 total yards but surrendered only 95 on the ground in the second half.

“It wasn’t that we weren’t playing hard,” Campbell said. “Sometimes — and it was a mistake I made as a younger coach — was that if you’re not playing well, you’re not playing hard. Sometimes, you’re playing hard but the other team is playing better. And Eudora was out-executing us in the first half, quite honestly.

“We looked at what we needed to do; some formations to get them out of the box. We looked at throwing the ball and getting it out quick. Just trying to mix it up.”

Because tie-breakers have to be settled, the Tigers do not know who they will be playing in the first round of the playoffs Friday night, although they are assured of having a home game.

NOTES — Freshman Jacob Stinnett played key minutes and made some plays at linebacker as the Tigers sought some depth there following the season-ending injury Alec Michaud suffered during the October 12 game versus Bolivar.

“He practiced with us this week and we thought he gave us different look,” Campbell said. “He’s small but he’s quick and strong. We started bringing him on some different angles to try to get some penetration on the lead back and the lead blocker.”...

EUDORA.......................... 6 8 0 0 0 — 14

FORT SCOTT.................. 0 0 14 0 7 — 21

Scoring plays

First quarter

E — Reazin 1 run (pass failed), 7:07 [11, 65, 4:52]

Second quarter

E — Reazin 6 run (Reazin run), 11:55 [12, 63, 5:31]

Third quarter

FS — Gorman 8 pass from Campbell (J.Zubieta kick), 4:49 [17, 76, 7:05]

FS — C. Bradbury 3 run (J.Zubieta kick), 2:34 [5, 23, 2:10]

Overtime

FS — Gorman 10 run (J.Zubieta kick) [1, 10]

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: Eudora — Elston 13-88, Lynch 16-69, Neis 11-68, Reazin 19-50. Fort Scott — Colvin 16-56, C.Bradbury 12-39, Campbell 7-30, Gorman 1-10.

PASSING: Eudora — Reazin 2-6-0-23. Fort Scott — Campbell 10-20-2-101.

RECEIVING: Eudora — Evans 1-14, Elson 1-9. Fort Scott — Gorman 6-62, Horton 2-23, Shoemaker 1-14, Wilson 1-2

MISSED FIELD GOALS: Fort Scott — J.Zubieta 27 (WL).