BY KYLE TROUTMAN ktroutman@cassville-democrat.com

Big plays provided plenty of excitement for Cassville (0-2) on Saturday, but difficulty stopping McDonald County’s offense combined with a struggle to move the ball led to a 32-20 loss to the Mustangs on the road.

Clay Weldy, Cassville football coach, said the difference in the game was at the line, as the Wildcats struggled in the trenches.

“We got whipped up front on both sides of the ball,” Weldy said. “They were more physical than us, and that’s disappointing. We pride ourselves on being physical, and we were getting blown off the ball on every play. We needed to get the defense off the field. I thought we would have a better showing than that.”

The Mustangs started the contest with an 11-play drive that took five minutes off the clock and ended with a Vyncent Arguelles interception at the 17-yard line.

On their first play from scrimmage, the Wildcats found paydirt — an 83-yard sprint by Kamden Beebe.

McDonald County’s second possession ended with the same result. After driving 38 yards, Carlos Barrientos picked off a pass in the end zone on fourth-and-16. The Wildcats’ offense, however, went three-and-out and punted the ball away.

In the second quarter, the Mustangs found the end zone on a 15-yard quarterback sweep left to bring the score to 7-6.

Cassville’s following offensive series went big again, with Colton Roark hauling in a 57-yard touchdown catch with 6:44 left in the half.

McDonald County chewed up the rest of that time with a 14-play, 59-yard drive, overcoming a fourth-and-5 to score on another quarterback sweep left from 7 yards out. A successful two-point conversion knotted the score at 14-14 with just 10.6 seconds left in the first half.

Coming out of the break, the Wildcats went three-and-out, and the Mustangs took their first lead with a third quarterback sweep left, a 14-yard run, to go up 20-14 with 5:24 left in the third quarter.

After another Cassville three-and-out, the Mustangs were faced with a fourth-and-10. McDonald County’s quarterback dropped back to pass, but kept the ball up the middle for a 13-yard touchdown with 7:04 to play.

The Wildcats’ big play magic hit one more time, with Roark finding a seam up the middle to haul in a 61-yard touchdown strike 13 seconds later to put Cassville a score away from tying the game.

The Mustangs embarked on another long drive, eating 5:19 off the clock and scoring on a 1-yard push to go up 32-20 with 1:32 to go.

Cassville then took aim at Roark again, but a tipped pass was picked off and McDonald County was able to run the clock out.

In total, the Wildcats ran just 16 plays — 12 runs and 4 passes — and time of possession favored the Mustangs heavily.

“We have got to give our defense a break,” Weldy said. “We need to build and maintain drives on offense. We have just got to play better in the box, and our linebackers missed a lot of tackles. We don’t want our safeties making lots of plays, and it’s been that way two weeks now.”

Roark, senior receiver, said the Wildcats started the game well, but the second half did not match the first.

“We were doing the right things on both sides of the ball, then after halftime, I don’t know what happened,” he said. “We didn’t put the right things together. We need a better week of prep and to rebuild and do better next week.”

Despite the loss, the Wildcats showed promise when facing man coverage, as quarterback Jaren Stearns was 2-for-4 for 119 yards and the 2 touchdowns to Roark.

“I prefer man coverage because I just have one dude to worry about instead of two or three, and we have good enough concepts I can beat man coverage,” Roark said. “I’m pretty confident in catching those long passes. I get a lot of them in practice. I feel the pressure, find the defender, concentrate on getting the ball in my hands, then on getting downfield.”

“We knew McDonald County plays man coverage, so we tried to get them one-on-one,” Weldy said. “Colt is a tough matchup for anyone.”

Heading back home this week to host East Newton — who beat the Wildcats twice last year after more than two decades of Cassville victories — Weldy said his team is focusing this week on putting the defense together.

“When one level struggles, it’s tough, and all three levels did not play great,” he said. “We hope to play better next week.”

“The biggest key has got to be the week of prep going in,” Roark said. “We have to stay focused, pick it up, grow and fix what we’ve got to fix.”

Kickoff on Friday at Wildcat Stadium is at 7 p.m.