Missouri Week 8 football notebook: Reigning state champ East Buchanan ends rival Mid-Buchanan’s streak

Carthage wins wild game against Joplin on blocked field goal return

By Chris Geinosky

Tucked away in northwest Missouri, the battle of Buchanan County grabbed center stage, and the game between bitter rivals – and Class 1 powers – East Buchanan and Mid-Buchanan lived up to the hype. 

For one half anyway.

Reigning Class 1 state champion East Buchanan nursed a 14-12 lead at halftime thanks to Aiden Hensley’s 3-yard touchdown run with 22 seconds left in the second quarter. Then Trevor Kline took over in what finished as a 48-12 blowout.

East’s star running back rushed for 210 yards in the game and scored five touchdowns – all five of them coming in the third quarter. Kline scored his first touchdown on a 1-yard plunge at the 10:42 mark, and then he scored on runs of 12, 3, 41 and 52 yards in the next 10 and a half minutes. 

After the game, Kline was asked if he had ever scored five touchdowns in a game, much less a quarter.

“No, but I have had four before,” Kline told PrepsKC.com. “We knew that we were not playing our best, and we knew we had to play our game in the second half.”

The Bulldogs certainly did that to improve their overall record to 7-1 on the season and move to within one victory from wrapping up the KCI Conference title, something they failed to do in last year’s state championship season. East Buchanan needs to win this week at Lawson to complete a perfect run through the league.

Mid-Buchanan has been the team that has dominated the conference in the past couple years. The Dragons had won 24 consecutive KCI games and 31 regular-season games in a row before Friday night’s loss to their long-time rivals. Mid-Buch, a team that finished as the Class 1 state runner-up in 2020, had last lost a regular-season game way back in September of 2019 against league foe Lathrop.

The two Buchanan County schools have claimed the top seeds in the Class 1 District 8 tournament. And barring unforeseen circumstances, they will wind up rematching in the district finals.

Moore, Frisinger combine efforts to give Carthage wild walk-off victory

Joe Ipsen has kicked multiple game-winning field goals during his career at Joplin. He had the chance to do it again in one of the premier games in the state of Missouri last week at Carthage.

But Hudson Moore and Mason Frisinger had other ideas. With 2.5 seconds left on the clock, Moore blocked Ipsen’s potential 42-yard, game-winning field goal, and then Frisinger scooped up the ball and returned it for an 83-yard touchdown after time had expired – and most importantly secured a 34-28 walkoff win for the Tigers that left coaches and players alike in disbelief.

“No, I can’t put that into words,” Carthage coach Jon Guidie told The Joplin Globe. “Holy smokes.”

Frisinger added, “To be honest with you, I can’t put this one into words. I want to thank all my teammates, all my coaches. We have a great community. It was a great atmosphere. It was awesome to play this game tonight. It’s still unbelievable.”

Actually, what’s most unbelievable is that Moore was even on the field for the game’s final play. 

A 6-foot-6 receiver, Moore had been telling his coaches all season to insert him onto the kick block unit, and they finally did exactly that with impeccable timing. 

Moore lineup up as a middle linebacker on the play and used every inch of his frame to reach up and deflect the kick. When Frisinger picked up the ball near the right home sideline, he followed a convoy of blockers to the promised land for one of the most memorable finishes in program history.

Carthage (7-1 overall record and ranked No. 6 in the SBLive Missouri Power 25) still has a chance to capture the Central Ozark Conference championship. 

Nixa (7-1 and ranked No. 10) defeated Carthage back in Week 3, but the Eagles slipped up last week in a 36-35 overtime loss against Republic.

No matter how the conference race turns out, both teams are in a good position heading into district play. Carthage has clinched the top seed in the Class 5 District 5 bracket, while Nixa currently sits on top of the Class 6 District 3 standings, despite last week’s upset loss.

Ironically enough, this exact same ending happened one week earlier in Lutheran North’s 36-29 victory against Maryville. The Crusaders blocked a potential game-winning field goal by Maryville and ran it back for a game-winning score with no time left on the clock.

Springfield Central and Tipton score noteworthy Week 8 victories

A pair of programs that haven’t made much noise over the years had a big night last Friday.

Starting in southwest Missouri, Springfield Central claimed a convincing road by demolishing Buffalo, 40-14. Running back Tae’Sean McShane led the way by rushing for 130 yards and two touchdowns.

The win moves the Bulldogs to 6-2 on the year. Why is that a big deal? This marks the first time Central notched as many as six wins in a single season since 2002 and the second time since way back in 1986.

Remember, this is the same Springfield Central program that had suffered through a 53-game losing streak from 2015 to 2021, which including five consecutive winless campaigns. The rebuilding Bulldogs went 4-6 last year before this year’s breakthrough season.

Central closes out the regular season this week at Forsyth. The ‘Dogs currently sit in third place in the Class 5 District 5 standings behind Camdenton and Lebanon.

Tucked away in rural mid-Missouri, Tipton made some team history last week. After putting a 72-6 shellacking on Lone Jack where they led 37-0 in the first quarter, the Cardinals improved their record to 5-3, clinching the program’s first winning regular season in a decade.

“With tonight’s we were able to rewrite some history,” Tipton coach Bill Duke told his team in the postgame speech. “For the first time in 10 years, there will not be a Tipton team with a losing record at the end of the regular season.”

This has been a long time coming for a Tipton program that was once a Class 1 power. Before this losing stretch, from 2007 to 2012, the Cardinals reached the state semifinals four times in six years.

Scott City makes history by capturing first conference title in 18 years

Thanks to a convincing 49-14 Week 8 victory against Charleston on last Thursday night, Scott City picked up win No. 7 on the season, the fourth time the program has won at least that many games in the past five years.

However, this most recent win made team history. The Rams captured their first league title since 2004 – before many of this year’s players were born, and their first outright conference championship in more than two decades.

"I'm pretty excited right now," Scott City coach Jim May said after the game according to semoball.com. "I've never won conference as a coach, and it's the first time we're the sole champions since 2000. These guys are 17 and 18 years old, and that's 22 years ago. It's a big accomplishment for us.”

Quarterback Mark Panagos rushed for 196 yards and three touchdowns and tossed a 32-yard TD pass to Gavin Venable to lead the Rams to their latest victory, which moved them to 7-1 on the season. Running back Tyson Underwood ran for 119 yards and a pair of scores.

On defense, Scott City forced seven Charleston turnovers. Panagos had a pair of interceptions, highlighted by one he ran back 99 yards for a touchdown. Devin Keller also had two interceptions, and Arion Patterson blocked a punt to give his team all the momentum in the first half.