The Cassville football team tasted victory for the first time this season on Friday, overcoming early challenges to pull away from East Newton in the fourth quarter and secure a 24-14 win.

Clay Weldy, Cassville coach, said while he was happy with the effort and the tick in the win column, the Wildcats still have plenty of work ahead of them.

“We still didn’t play great and made a lot of mistakes, but I’m proud of how hard we played, and w win is better than a loss,” he said.

Chance Freed, senior linebacker, said after a pair of tough losses to Seneca and McDonald County, getting the Week 3 win was important to the Wildcats.

“It felt good to get the ball rolling,” he said. “We have a big schedule ahead of us and tough competition, so it was exciting to finally get the wins started.

East Newton (0-3) controlled possession early, taking a 7-0 lead in the second quarter on a 15-yard touchdown pass. The Wildcats (1-2) answered just before halftime, with quarterback Jaren Stearns finding a wide open Carlos Barrientos on a 10-yard touchdown pass with 5 seconds left to send the teams to the locker room tied at 7-7.

Cassville opened the third quarter with a statement drive. Behind hard running from Masin Bryan, Colton Roark and Tristan Thompson, the Wildcats marched 63 yards in seven plays. Roark capped it with a 1-yard plunge to give Cassville its first lead, 14-7.

East Newton responded with a grinding 20-play drive that spanned more than 9 minutes and tied the game 14-14 early in the fourth. But, the momentum flipped on the ensuing kickoff.

Kamden Beebe fielded a bouncing ball, broke multiple tackles and sprinted 83 yards for a touchdown, putting the Wildcats back on top for good with 11:37 remaining.

Cassville’s defense then forced the Patriots’ first three-and-out of the night, and the offense chewed up more than 7 minutes on a 15-play drive. Kicker Preston Driskill capped the drive with a 26-yard field goal to make it 24-14 with just over two minutes left.

A fumble on the return sealed it, with Freed recovering to set the Wildcats up in victory formation.

“It was pretty cool [to recover that fumble],” Freed said. “It popped out and I just jumped on it. It felt good to help the team secure the win by not giving East Newton the chance to go down the field again. It was exhilarating, and the win was a whole team effort.”

Weldy said that team effort will have to continue in coming weeks, especially when it comes to fundamentals of the game.

“We are trying to get better at the fundamental stuff because that’s been a problem for us all year,” he said. “We took a hard look at ourselves after McDonald County and went back to a camp-style practice, really hitting on the fundamentals. We’ve been trying to get better at tackling, and I definitely think we did a lot better defensively [against East Newton].”

Weldy said the offense also improved against the Patriots, but right now, special teams is shining the most.

“Our return game is going well,” he said. “On Friday, we had a punt recovery, a kickoff recovery, a field goal and a kickoff returned for a touchdown. Coaches Mark Elliott and Dylan Klewer have done a great job with special teams, and we hope that keeps progressing.”

Where Weldy hopes the Wildcats can make the biggest strides is still on the defensive end, citing the Patriots’ 20-play, 9-minute drive as an example.

“We were really frustrated against McDonald County because we couldn’t get our defense off the field,” he said. “East Newton had another long drive like that where we had multiple third- and fourth-down chances to get off the field.”

Though that drive may have deflated Cassville, the Beebe kickoff return, Weldy said, was a turning point.

“Any special teams touchdown will bring your team up and deflate the other team,” he said. “We got a stop and got the ball back after that, then scored, then we recovered the kickoff fumble and were able to move the ball a bit and kneel it out. The return really swung the momentum our way.”

Freed said with the win came a boost in confidence, as well as the ability to take stock of what worked and what didn’t.

“We were better at tackling and dug deep in the second half after struggling in the first quarter,” he said. “We had a big jump from Week 2 to Week 3 on the defensive side. We are excited for the next few weeks, and there’s definitely a boost in confidence and morale in the locker room and at practice. This shows we can win, and we’re excited for Lamar (2-1) on Friday.”