By Michael CIgnoli (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
NIXA — In their first full game without Ramone Green, the Nixa Eagles had the opportunity to prove their offense was capable of putting up big numbers without their star running back.
They did — which is good, because they won’t have Green for a while.
The junior on Friday underwent surgery to repair a collarbone injury suffered in a September 3 loss at Joplin, Nixa coach John Perry said. He anticipates Green will be out six to 12 weeks.
“He was already going that way in the process of a tackle and a kid wrapped him up and finished on top of him — right on top of that shoulder — and just fractured the collarbone,” Perry said, adding he hoped Green would be able to return for the playoffs. “He’ll be fine.”
If Friday night’s result is any indication, so will the Eagles.
Connor Knatcal threw for three touchdowns in the first quarter — two to emerging star receiver Kael Combs — and Casen Hammitt finished with three on the ground as Nixa avenged last week’s loss with a 49-14 rout of Willard under the Eagle Stadium lights.
Green is a do-it-all back who ran for 1,300 yards and 18 touchdowns as a sophomore and had the ability to catch out of the backfield, making him the focal point of the Nixa attack and leaving many wondering how the Eagles would develop a game plan that did not involve him.
The Eagles employed a by-committee approach on their first three possessions Friday, giving Hammit, Ryan Retone and Spencer Ward a series in the backfield. They scored on all three drives, as Hammitt opened the game with a 4-yard touchdown run and the others moved the ball downfield and set up Knatcal’s touchdown passes to Combs and Austin McCracken.
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Perry said the Eagles will continue to utilize each member of the trio in the coming weeks.
“I think between the three of them, we’re going to be just fine,” the coach added.
Hammitt’s style fared the best against the Tigers and he handled most of the carries after the initial rotation, tacking on 3-yard and 1-yard rushing touchdowns in the third quarter.
“After Ramone went down, we really focused on the power run,” Hammitt said. “He’s more elusive. My style is more downhill, hitting the hole hard. We really hit that hard in practice.”
The Eagles also focused on sending a message to the Central Ozark Conference and state that last week’s losses — on the scoreboard and on the personnel front — would not deter them from competing for postseason titles. They were committed to striking early and often.
“We needed to go out and be as physical and fast as we could,” Knatcal said. “That was the whole message. Just don’t start slow. Go out and be as fast as we can. Hit them in the mouth (on the) first play of the game.”
The onslaught continued all throughout the first quarter, as Knatcal and Combs connected for a 29-yard touchdown on Nixa’s fourth drive of the night and the Eagles led 28-0 before the quarter ended. One of the region’s top basketball talents, Combs resumed playing football this season after a four-year hiatus and has four touchdowns in the past two weeks.
“We definitely have a pretty good chemistry,” Knatcal said. “He’s a great athlete in basketball and football. He definitely has potential, in my opinion, to go to college for both of them if he wanted to. He’s just a stud.”
Knatcal said the two have known each other since sixth grade, when they would play football together at recess. He’s thrilled to have the chance to throw to him once more.
“His route running is really good,” Knatcal said. “He gets open extremely well. Obviously, he’s fast. He’s athletic. He’s tall. He can jump. But his route running is really, really good.”
With Combs rapidly breaking out as an elite receiver and joining McCracken and Jordyn Turner, Perry said the Eagles “kind of have to” throw the ball more in the coming weeks.
“This is his third game since sixth grade, which is absolutely amazing to have the skills that he has without having played,” Perry said. “The sky is the limit.”
That last part could just as easily apply to the entire team, which improved to 2-1 overall and remained a game behind undefeated Joplin and Carthage in the Central Ozark Conference standings. The Week 2 loss means the Eagles no longer control their own destiny in the race for the conference championship, but they controlled every aspect of the game Friday.
“Last week, we did not think we played our best game,” Perry said. “Hats off to Joplin, they had a lot to do with that, but we challenged them all week long to be better. We were better in all three phases of the game. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. We’re trying to get better every single day so we can get into the playoffs and make something happen.”
Ward added a 1-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter as the Eagles built a 49-7 lead.
Willard closed the gap slightly late in the fourth quarter when quarterback Russell Roweton connected with Trey Pulford for their second touchdown of the evening, but the Tigers fell to 0-3 in head coach Frank Tristan’s first season at the helm.
“Honestly, we were just overmatched,” Tristan said. “I felt like we were a little bit overmatched by their physicality. When we had momentum, it was good and we could kind of meet that physicality. But we really struggled meeting that.”
The Tigers also made too many mistakes, Tristan said, such as muffing the kickoff at the start of the second half and allowing Nixa to recover it just 16 yards away from the end zone.
Three plays later, Hammitt scored and the momentum went entirely back to Nixa.
“You can’t make mistakes against a good team,” Tristan said. “Like I told the players, we’re going to really look at this as coaches and really start to evaluate what we’re doing. Are we putting players in our spot to be successful? We’ll see. Nixa is really good. It’s too bad what happened to their running back last week, because you wonder if that was a different result for them if he didn’t go down. But, man, they are talented and well-coached. They did a good job.”
For this week, the absence was irrelevant. TIme will tell on the other six to 12.
“We have a lot of depth at almost every position on this team,” Knatcal said. “Especially at running back with Casen, Retone and Spencer. Ramone is really good. I don’t think we’re going to be able to replace Ramone. No one can replace Ramone. But they’ll definitely do the best they can and it’ll be good.”
NOTEBOOK
Prior to the game, the Eagles held a remembrance ceremony for the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks and welcomed military personnel and first responders onto the field. Nixa scored its first touchdown with 9:11 left in the first quarter.
WILLARD (0-3) 0 7 0 7 — 14
NIXA (2-1) 28 0 21 0 — 49
