A battle for the ages: Nixa drops 2nd straight Class 6 title game in shootout
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In their redemption game after losing last year’s Class 6 Missouri Show-Me Bowl, the Nixa Eagles (13-1) were unable to get over the hump, falling to Lee’s Summit (10-4) by a score of 41-37 to lose the state title game for the second consecutive year.
The heavyweight bout went back and forth multiple times, finishing with five deficits erased in total for both sides.
“It was a great high school game,” Nixa head coach John Perry said. “We had our opportunities, no doubt about it. They’ve always said, ‘Football comes down to four or five plays.’ The four or five that really mattered, (Lee’s Summit) made them.”
The defensive struggles on both sides turned the game into a statistical anomaly, with multiple players racking up big yardage totals. Lee’s Summit senior running back Preston Hatfield finished with a record 457 yards — the most in a Missouri State Championship game in history, 8-man or 11-man — with four rushing touchdowns across 33 carries.
“I think Ray Charles and Helen Keller could see what the issue was tonight,” Perry said. “(Hatfield) set the all-time rushing record with almost 500 yards in a football game. We obviously couldn’t corral him.”
The defensive struggles on both sides resulted in a total of 7 first-half TDs, sending the game to the half with Nixa leading 28-21.
“I think (our problem) was our tackling ability,” senior wide receiver/corner back Randy Flint said. “(Hatfield)’s a good player, of course, but I think some of those big plays shouldn’t have been big plays because we lacked on the tackle side and physicality side of it.”
Two big stops by Lee’s Summit to open the second half swung the momentum back in their favor, but the back-and-forth nature of the game continued throughout the remainder of the game.
Lee’s Summit tied things up at 28 before Nixa went back up by a score. Lee’s Summit promptly answered on the next drive late in the third to send the game to the final quarter all squared up at 35.
The Eagles were unable to break through the Tigers’ defense anymore in the second half, only garnering two more points on a fumble in the Lee’s Summit endzone that resulted in a safety.
The dagger came late in the fourth quarter, when Lee’s Summit took a 1-yard run to the house to regain the lead, 41-37, sealing the deal on the title game.
Hatfield led the Tigers' offense with 457 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns across 33 carries.
Nixa junior QB Adam McKnight wrapped up the game with 183 passing yards and four touchdowns on 9 passes. He added 72 yards on the ground across 17 carries. Senior running back Jayden McCaster led the ground game with 81 rushing yards on 23 carries.
“There’s no such thing as failure,” Perry said. “It’s learning, but I’m also the guy that, when I was young and my brother would beat me in one-on-one basketball, I would beat him up. I can’t stand losing … We will move on and we will use this as an opportunity to grow and learn and get better, but losing stinks, man.”
McCaster, who moved to Nixa for his senior year after beating them last year as a member of De Smet, has now seen both outcomes in a state championship game.
“I just wish I would have given them a taste of what I felt last year,” McCaster said. “I think that’s what I’ve been working for ever since I came here in July, so it’s just difficult. I don’t really know, like, you usually have another week to watch film and get better, so I think I just have to try and prove that when I do play at the next level, I won’t make the same mistakes.”
With multiple seniors leaving the team, including some of the roster’s best players like McCaster, Flint, Hayden Mays, and Jackson Cantwell, it will be interesting to see how next season’s roster shakes out for Nixa.
Despite an uncertain future, Perry reiterated how proud he was of this year’s group.
“It is what it is, man,” Perry said. “They made the play, but it was a great high school football game, and this group has accomplished a lot of great things for high school football and for the city of Nixa, for sure.”
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: A battle for the ages: Nixa drops 2nd straight Class 6 title game in shootout
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