Missouri state champions: Odessa High rolls to first football title in 25 years
For the first time in a quarter century and second time in school history, the Missouri Class 3 state championship football trophy returned to Odessa High School after the Bulldogs topped Cassville 49-28 Saturday at Faurot Field.
“We were not surprised we were here,” said Odessa coach Mark Thomas. “There are a lot of things that have to fall in place along the way. You have to have a little luck. These young men have never blinked, never flinched, and we took on everything everyone brought.”
The Bulldogs this season were used to throwing the first punch in games and entered the contest averaging 55 points per game. They quickly warmed the chilly air with a haymaker in the form of Bryley Ray’s 93-yard kickoff return for a 6-0 lead a mere 12 seconds in.
Cassville countered with its own huge return and set up shop at the Bulldog 33, but a Drake Reese 32-yard field goal attempt sailed wide right.
Odessa elevated the advantage on its third drive of the game, covering 80 yards in six plays in 2 minutes, 13 seconds.
The Wildcats responded with a nine-play, 67-yard drive ending with DJ White making a diving catch from 13 yards out to cut the advantage to 14-7 with just 6 seconds on the first-quarter clock.
Instead of being satisfied with a 7-point advantage at the quarter break, Bulldogs quarterback Josey Meierarend hit Ray in stride for an 80-yard strike to make it a 21-7 lead at the end of the period.
Meierarend finished the game 19-for-25 passing for 280 yards and four touchdowns
“Josey and I talked about this coming into the game, that we knew what defense Cassville would give us because it is similar to our defense,” Thomas said. “A lot of people look at us as a smashmouth, run-the-ball offense, and we have done that. We knew that we probably had to throw the ball to win. We wanted to showcase our offense, and I think we did that today.”
Odessa took a 28-7 lead with 5 minutes left in the half on Ethan Urlaub’s 1-yard run, and the Wildcats sawed the advantage in half again with a Reese 9-yard reception from Deven Bates with 1:48 remaining in the half.
Not leaving anything to chance, Meierarend hit Brett Duncan on a 27-yard post pattern to complete a five-play, 52-yard drive with 49 ticks left that sent the Bulldogs into intermission with a 35-14 edge.
Odessa racked up 510 yards of offense, 280 passing and 230 rushing, while Cassville totaled 301 — 167 through the air and 135 on the ground.
“Odessa is a great team and well-coached,” said Lance Parnell, Cassville’s coach. “We couldn’t get a stop on defense all day. Their backs ran hard, and we had some coverage issues in the first half that they took full advantage of. You tip your cap to them.”
To open the third quarter, the Wildcats used a hook-and-lateral play, with Bowen Preddy covering 60 yards to cut the advantage to 35-21 with 10:58 left. But Odessa turned to its ground game and used two drives that totaled 26 plays and chewed up 11 minutes of clock.
Cater Westerhold caught an 18-yard pass for a score to complete the first drive, and Luke Malizzi churned in from 4 yards out to complete the scoring on the second and provide the final margin of victory.
This story was originally published December 7, 2019 at 3:06 PM.