Nixa safety Spencer Ward finished his senior year with 157 tackles, which ranks as the highest single-season tackles total in coach John Perry’s four seasons with the Eagles.
Ward was a part of 299 tackles over his junior and senior seasons. No other Eagles defender has had more than 225 tackles over two seasons during the Perry era.
Ward’s 316 career tackles certainly make him a contender for the top spot on the Nixa defense’s records board.
“I hope I have it, that would be pretty nice,” Ward said of the Eagles' career tackles record. “I want to leave my legacy any way I can.”
Ward closed his prep career by collecting 16, count ‘em 16, solo tackles against Rockhurst in Nixa's Class 6 Quarterfinal loss. The 16 solo stops, along with his 21 tackles overall against the Hawklets, are both career-highs.
Ward made a habit of delivering in the clutch. In Nixa’s six playoff games over the past two seasons, he garnered 67 solo tackles and 90 tackles overall.
Ward’s best senior stat might be his 112 solo tackles. He had 108 solo stops among his 142 tackles as a junior.
Tackles totals can often be inflated by statisticians, what with a handful of players all receiving credit for an assisted tackle on one play. For example, Nixa averaged a whopping 81.4 tackles a game. But there’s no blowing up solo stops.
Ward’s successor at safety next season likely will be Parker Mann. As a junior outside linebacker this year, Mann topped the Eagles with 10 TFLs.
Up goes Frazier, up goes Frazier
Senior linebacker Eli Frazier also eclipsed the 150-tackles mark. In his one season as a starter, he had 88 solo tackles and 153 tackles overall. That’s 142 more tackles than he had as a junior.
Frazier takes special pride in surpassing 2021 Nixa grad Steven Ward’s 143 tackles from his senior season.
“Looking at him as a freshman when he was a senior, I strived to be like him,” Frazier said.
Frazier reached double digits in tackles in all but one game.
“I know I gave it all," he said. “I left it all on the field.”
Viva Antonelli!
Senior defensive end Jayden Antonelli was consistently a difference-maker. He posted eight quarterback sacks and seven TFLs as a junior and again as a senior.
Antonelli, an Army commit, finished his Nixa career by posting nine tackles, including a sack and a TFL, at Rockhurst.
“I think I probably had the best game of my career, it's bittersweet,” Antonelli said after the Rockhurst game. “Looking back, it was a great four years.”
Lofty statistics for Eagles' offense
Junior running back Dylan Rebura had his streak of least one rushing touchdown end at 10 games against Rockhurst. Last year, he had a streak of seven games with one rushing touchdown. …
Rebura has eight career games in which he’s reached 100 yards rushing. …
Senior running back Malachi Rider had a streak of 10 games with at least one rushing touchdown end at Rockhurst. He didn’t reach the end zone in his first game as an Eagle and his last game as an Eagle. In between, he had 25 touchdowns. …
Rockhurst held Rider to 56 yards rushing on nine carries and Rebura to 39 yards on 12 carries. …
Rebura finished with 1,288 yards rushing on 180 carries, while Rider had 1,236 yards rushing on 156 carries. Rebura averaged 16.4 carries a game and Rider 13. …
Junior wide receiver Wyatt Vincent had 11 of his 24 catches in Nixa’s last four games. He averaged 26.6 yards per reception, catching 24 passes for 639 yards. …
Keivon Flint, also a junior wideout, averaged 24.9 yards on his eight receptions. …
Senior wideout Rylan Michel led the Eagles with 39 catches, even while missing a game with an injury. …
Senior quarterback Nate Uber threw for two touchdowns in each of the Eagles’ last three games. On the season, he had seven touchdowns of 50 yards or more and completed more than 50 percent of his passes in nine games. …
Senior quarterback Drew Blevins had about as good a season as a backup could possibly have. He could have received a Week Two start following his game-winning touchdown pass in Week One versus Webb City. Has anyone anywhere over the last 25 years thrown a winning touchdown pass against Webb City and not started the next game? Blevins posted a 143.8 QB rating, while completing 18-of-30 passes for 381 yards and six touchdowns, without an interception. In comparison, 2023 Nixa grad Connor Knatcal, who holds most Eagles passing records, had a 120.0 QB rating his senior season. …
Sophomore left tackle Jackson Cantwell’s pancakes total was 89, up from 39 during his freshman season. …
Jared Lile, a 6-foot-3, 270-pound junior and perhaps the most underrated player in SWMO, posted 59 pancake blocks. …
Pancakes were plentiful at Republic in Week Eight. Cantwell had 22 and Lile 11 against the Tigers. …
Unprecedented success for Nixa
Perry’s career W-L record at Nixa is 38-9, an .808 winning percentage. The Eagles were 19-23 over the four seasons prior to Perry’s arrival. …
The best stretch of success over four years in recent history for Nixa was a 35-13 record from 2011-2014. ...
Let there be no doubt the power at the top of the COC has dramatically shifted. The Eagles own three straight wins against Webb City, three straight wins over Joplin and two straight wins versus Carthage. …
Overall, Nixa has won 17 of its last 18 COC games. …
Nixa joined Joplin as the only COC schools ever to win a District championship in Class 6. …
The next hurdle for Nixa to clear is getting past Kansas City. The Eagles have been ousted in the playoffs by a KC-area team three of the last four years. “It’s different competition up here, that's for sure,” Vincent said after the Rockhurst loss.
