It was all glory for Brady Dodd in his first start at quarterback last week in Ozark’s rout at Willard. As for Dodd’s second time around and his first start at home, the Tigers’ junior signal-caller learned all about the not-so celebrated side of life behind center.
Dodd and and his offensive cohorts coughed up the ball four times in the first half Friday. All four fumbles were in Ozark territory and Republic turned three of the turnovers into touchdowns en route to a 28-0 lead and a 48-28 triumph at Ozark.
Ozark fumbled the ball away on its first three possessions, a span covering only eight plays.
“You’ve got to hold onto the football, that’s all it comes down to,” Dodd said. “We’re a triple-option team and the ball gets moved around. But you’ve got to hold onto the ball. We all have a responsibility to hold onto the ball. We turn the ball over, they get more possessions and it’s hard for things to go our way.”
“We didn’t execute and the ball got put on the ground. For an option team or any team for that matter, that’s bad news on a Friday night,” Ozark coach Chad Depee said. “It was multiple things, nothing you can pinpoint. You don’t win football games when you do that. We gave them four extra possessions. That’s rough on you. That was the cards we were dealt in essence.”
Ozark (1-4) has been guilty of nine fumbles on the season, in addition to three interceptions, and stands at minus-seven in turnover ratio.
Still, no one could have predicted three fumbles in the first quarter alone.
“It surprised me,” running back Jace Easley said. “It happened against Carthage (in Week One) on our first drive when I got hit and fumbled. But for it to happen four times, it was shocking.”
“That’s not something I think is going to happen again,” Dodd said. “I made mistakes tonight. Those are mistakes I have to fix, move on and become better for it.”
Republic (3-2) couldn’t have been more predictable offensively, running the ball on 74 of 75 plays from scrimmage. The visitors ran 47 straight times before looking to attempt their lone pass on the night.
“That was not a surprise,” Depee said. ‘The challenge was who was going to win the four- and five-yard plays and bust the big plays. Tonight, they powered it at us.”
Republic and its flex-bone offense garnered 435 yards rushing.
Ozark defenders conceded Republic owned the line of scrimmage.
“They won that battle tonight,” linebacker Drew Blomquist said. “They fired out a lot lower than us and the big thing we noticed is they were more physical. They ran it really well. They ran quite a few of the same plays, but in different formations. That was the weird thing to adjust to.”
“They were bigger, stronger and meaner than us,” said Easley, who has made a return to cornerback since being moved from quarterback to running back. “They wanted it more. I think it comes down to who wants it more and I think they did.”
“We needed to get stops, after we put ourselves in holes,” Depee said. “But Republic won those battles.”
Ozark defenders would often meet Republic’s running backs at the line of scrimmage, but quarterback Avery Moody was effective any time he ran to the edges. He had four touchdown runs.
Perhaps even more telling of how confident Republic was in Moody was that he ran for four fourth-down conversions in the first half.
“He had a lot of speed and power,” Blomquist said. “We were slower getting to the outside because we’re mainly inside first. We’ve got little tweaks we’ve got to fix.”
For what it’s worth, Ozark outscored Republic 28-20 over the final three quarters. The back-and-forth scoring was what most on hand expected in a matchup that was deemed a pick-em beforehand.
“If the possessions were closer, we felt we would be in really good shape for a barn-burner at the end of the game,” Depee said.
“I think we would have had a shot to win the game, if it wasn’t for all the turnovers,” Easley said.
Ozark’s offense eventually got on track. Dodd fired a 64-yard touchdown pass to Jace Whatley and found Easley for a 65-yard scoring strike. Jake Beets ran for a 15-yard touchdown and Jack Bowers broke loose for a 56-yard touchdown run.
“With what Republic was doing against us by putting a lot of pressure in the box, it gave us an opportunity to hit some big plays,” Depee said.
In addition to the four touchdowns, what Depee liked most out of his team was its cohesiveness. There was no blame-game between the offense and defense. Players stayed relatively composed throughout the chaotic first quarter.
“We know we can’t blame anybody, offense or defense,” Blomquist said.
“Everyone stayed together. I didn’t see any finger-pointing,” Easley said.
“Everybody’ kept trying to contribute,” Depee said. “Our guys are true teammates. They want to make Ozark good. I love them for that. Hats off to them.”
