After starting the season 1-2, the Cassville football team capped its regular season on Friday with its fifth win in a row — topping Aurora, 42-14 — and will host Reeds Spring in the first round of district playoffs on Thursday.

Clay Weldy, Cassville football coach, said the Wildcats were concerned with Aurora’s size, especially up front, as well as the quality of its athletes.

“I was concerned about it being wet tonight, and when it’s muddy, those big bodies in there could move,” he said. “But, I thought up front, we played really well. On defense, we played really well. We had some weird stuff happening, and they ended up taking advantage of it. Their quarterback’s a really good player, and No. 2 is a good player and No. 0 is a good player. So I was worried about them breaking loose a few times that stuff happens. But I thought overall, we played really well.”

Gunner Knight, senior lineman, said getting the fifth straight win to end the season at 6-3 felt amazing.

“It feels really good, because honestly, our boys have worked their tails off this season,” he said. “Me, myself included, we’ve just fought through a lot of diversity. We’ve had multiple starters out. We played with lots of intensity, too. And I just believe in our coaches have led us greatly to what we want to be right now.”

Cassville struck early and never looked back Friday The Wildcats’ defense set the tone on the opening drive. Sky Yang hurried the quarterback on the first play, and after a sack by Ethan Sizemore on third down, the Houn’ Dawgs punted to the Cassville 19.

Cassville marched downfield behind quarterback Jaren Stearns, who connected with Colton Roark on fourth down to keep the drive alive. Easton Hughes capped it with a 19-yard touchdown run, giving the Wildcats a 7-0 lead with 4:59 left in the first quarter.

After another quick stop, the Wildcats struck again. Kamden Beebe picked up two first downs, and Jadon Castleberry hauled in a 10-yard touchdown pass from Stearns to make it 14-0 with 1:14 left in the opening frame.

Aurora’s next possession ended with a Roark interception at the Cassville 24, and Masin Bryan made the Houn’ Dawgs pay. He broke free for a 30-yard touchdown midway through the second quarter, and Beebe converted the two-point try to push the lead to 22-0.

Aurora responded with a methodical drive capped by a 1-yard touchdown run, cutting the deficit to 22-6 with 1:17 before halftime. Cassville answered quickly, though, as Beebe sprinted 15 yards to the pylon for another score with 19 seconds left, sending the Wildcats into the locker room ahead 28-7.

Roark opened the second half with a run for a first down, but the drive stalled

Kyle Troutman/ktroutman@cassville-democrat.com after a penalty and fumble recovery that forced a punt. Cassville’s defense, led by Tristan Thompson, held Aurora in check again before Stearns took off on a 34-yard touchdown run with 3:06 left in the third quarter to extend the lead to 35-7.

Aurora’s quarterback broke free for a 25-yard touchdown early in the fourth, but Cassville put the game away with a long drive capped by Hughes’ second rushing score, a 2-yard plunge with under two minutes to play.

The Wildcats ran out the clock in victory formation to seal the 42-14 win.

With the regular season wrapped, the Wildcats now turn their attention to the Class 3, District 6 playoffs, in which they have earned the No. 2 seed. Cassville will host No. 7 Reeds Spring (0-9) on Thursday at 7 p.m., moved from the typical Friday game time due to the Cassville softball team’s participation in the Class 3 Final Four on Friday.

Seneca (8-1) earned the top seed and a bye, awaiting the winner of No. 4 Hollister (6-3) and No. 5 East Newton (1-8) in the semifinals. The other semifinal will be the Cassville-Reeds Spring winner against the winner of No. 3 Mt. Vernon (5-4) and No. 6 Aurora (2-7). The district championship will be on Nov. 14, with the highest seed remaining hosting.

“We’ve won five in a row and playing better,” Weldy said about the upcoming postseason. “We still have a higher ceiling. We can be better. We’re just not there yet. Hopefully we keep playing better and see our improvements.”

To nurture that improvement, Weldy said self-inflicted wound must be the first negative to go.

“The biggest problem we have now is we’re self-inflicted wounds, like our last drive [against Aurora] where we had a false start for no reason. We’ve had too many jump offside penalties. We’ve got some misalignments defensively, some missed tackles, just silly mistakes. We have got to clean that up going into districts.”

Knight said a big boon to Cassville’s late-season success has been being healthy and bonding together, things the team hopes will help them extend the season even further.

“We’ve been bonding as a team really well these last couple of weeks, and I believe we just don’t want it to end too soon,” he said. “[The bond we’ve built] encourages us to know that we’ve got each other’s backs, through thick and thin, even through adversity, and that we’ll play our best game no matter what.”

Knight said on the gridiron, limiting penalties will be key.

“It’s always really been on us,” he said. “I believe we can make a really good run, because we were one of the first teams that have gotten close to beating Seneca, and I believe we can win, because we had three starters out that game. But, when it comes to districts, we have got to focus on next week.”

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