BOONEVILLE -- A big stop late in the second quarter by Ozark proved to be too much for Booneville to overcome in the teams' season opener Friday night.
Booneville looked like to would score the game's first touchdown, but Ozark came up with a goal-line stand and never looked back in a 26-0 victory at Bearcat Stadium.
"They are a big rival, so this is a big for us," Ozark Coach Jeremie Burns said. "We have the seniors and the experience this season. It showed. We got kicked around the last two years, but the seniors really wanted this one."
Ozark, which has 22 seniors, started to pull away from Booneville following it early stop. The Hillbillies marched downfield on its ensuing possession with an 84-yard drive to take a 7-0 lead with 4:59 left in the second quarter.
Running back Colton McChristian set up the score with a 14-yard run, then finished off the drive with a 12-yard run.
Booneville (0-1) was forced to punt on its next possession, and the Hillbillies didn't waste any time taking advantage of the opportunity. Ryan Gresham returned the punt 40 yards, and Kent Smith finished off the drive on the first play with a 29-yard touchdown run to push the lead to 13-0 with 3:09 left before halftime.
Booneville was limited to 108 yards of offense in the first half while Ozark finished with 156 yards.
"We got a lot of inexperienced kids, and we made a lot of inexperienced mistakes," Booneville Coach Scott Hyatt said. "You can't do that. You can't turn the ball over. You have to finish drives. We have some work to do."
Booneville got inside the 10-yard line on the late second-quarter drive but backed itself up to a fourth-and-goal situation at the 16 and turned the ball over on downs.
"We had a couple busted assignments," Hyatt said. "When you do that, you can't be successful too many times. We are going to get better at what we do. I thought they did the best they could."
The Bearcats kept themselves in the game by coming up with two stops in the third quarter but couldn't get into the end zone.
Ozark pushed its lead to 19-0 with a 1-yard touchdown by Smith with 11:21 left in the game.
"We finally got it going there," Burns said. "It was kind of unnerving early because we do have some young guys. It was a great team effort. The defense played so well. It is always nice to get a shutout."
Smith, who finished with 12 carries for 109 yards and 3 touchdowns, added another score on a 23-yard run to help put the game out of reach with 6:09 left.
"He is a great kid and this is only his second year to play," Burns said of Smith. "He is experience-wise an eighth-grader learning on the job. We got some great kids who have bought in. The seniors wanted this and got in the weight room motivated.”
Booneville was led on the ground by fullback Caleb Draper, who finished with 15 carries for 69 yards. Quarterback Hayden Fennell added 42 yards on 15 carries for the Bearcats.
Ozark quarterback Austin Wheelis finished 8 for 13 with 85 yards passing in his first start for the Hillbillies. Wide receiver Bailey During caught six passes for 67 yards.
“He looked good in his first start,” Burns said of Wheelis. “He worked really hard in the spring and fall. He worked really hard and it showed. This was a great team effort, and our efforts worked to our advantage tonight.”
Sports on 09/05/2015