Willard Tiger football drops close game to homestanding Nixa; blocked field goal seals it for Eagles

The Willard High School football team traveled to Nixa on Friday, Sept. 13 and came home with a 10-7 loss.
A late first quarter inter- ception by the Tigers Dylan Leach gave Willard the ball at the 20-yard line. Garrett Rice helped Willard turn
that turnover into points, as he took the direct snap and ran it in from 12 yards out to give the Tigers a 7-0 lead.
Nixa answered just before the half, hitting a 33-yard field goal to cut the Tigers lead to 7-3 at the half.
With both defenses play- ing very well, Nixa scooped up a fumble by Willard in
Nixa territory and returned it 26 yards to the Willard 34-yard line. Nixa’s Ramone Green scored on a six-yard jet sweep to give the Eagles a 10-7 lead.
Willard tried a 47-yard, game tying field goal but it was blocked by Nixa to seal the win for the Eagles.
Rice led Willard with
111 yards on 20 carries and a touchdown; Marshall Swadley had 22 yards on six carries and Reece Dawson and Thomas Frandsen each had 11 yards on the ground.
Dawson was 6-18 pass- ing for 69 yards. Eli Aye led Willard with 21 yards on one catch; Maurice Grayer had one catch for 17 yards, Noah
Pfifer had 16 yards on one catch, Ethan Thompson had nine yards on two catches and Rice ended the game with six yards on one catch.
With the loss, Willard dropped to fourth place in the Class 4, District 6 stand- ings with 42.33 points. Webb City now leads the district standings with 46.33 points
followed by; Bolivar (43 points), West Plains (42.67 points), Willard, Carl Junc- tion (28.67 points), Neosho (28.67 points), Hillcrest (16.17 points) and McDon- ald County (15.67 points).
With the loss, Willard is now 1-2 on the season. Wil- lard will host Carl Junction this Friday night.