PECULIAR, Mo. - Facing a third-and-four in what had been a dizzying second half with three lead changes, Raymore-Peculiar needed to stop Fort Osage to force a fourth down and get the ball back with four minutes remaining in the ballgame.
So Fort Osage did what it had done all day, give the ball to its playmaker, EJ Gaines, and let him make a play. The 5-11, 175-lb. workhorse didn’t disappoint.
Gaines ran through the middle of the line, and with Ray-Pec committing everybody to the line, Gaines broke past the line of scrimmage, made a move, ran through a couple of arm tackles and 24 yards later was all alone in the endzone, putting the finishing touches on a 30-19 Fort Osage quarterfinal win.
“We have a lot of big time players and we all made big time plays today,” said Gaines, who finished with 168 yards on 16 carries and three touchdowns.
Ray-Pec head coach Tom Kruse said his defense was there, but... “we missed a tackle. He made a nice cutback play, we committed everybody to the line of scrimmage, obviously, and we took a timeout the play before to stop the clock and give us the ball back with about four minutes to go. But EJ did what he does - he’s a special player. There’s no doubt about it. (QB Ed Pearl and Gaines) brought the level of play of their teammates up around them,” Kruse said, “that’s a good football team.”
The win sends Fort Osage back to the semifinals where they’ll rematch with Raytown South for the second time this season and the fourth time in the last two years, including a 6-0 defeat in the quarterfinals to the Cardinals last season.
“Alright, let’s go, it’s a rematch,” said head coach Ryan Schartz after he found out during postgame interviews that Raytown South won its game with Nixa on a last-second play.
The win was special for Schartz not just because it puts his team one step closer to the school’s first ever Show-Me Bowl, but it was a homecoming for the 1992 Ray-Pec grad as well.“It was great,” he said of winning at Ray-Pec, “I love this place, I’ll always be a Panther, but, you always want to beat your alma mater, any coach will tell you that, and to do it in the fashion we did today, it was great.”
And the fashion they did it in was impressive considering the way the Indians started the game. Fort Osage jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first quarter after a safety was called against Ray-Pec because of an illegal kick penalty after a botched punt attempt in its own endzone.
But the Fort Osage momentum was short-lived as they botched the kickoff return on the very next play, watching a skying, short kickoff bounce in front of a the Indian return team. A live ball, Ray-Pec jumped on the ball and was back in business at the Fort Osage 44. Nine plays later, thanks to quarterback Cameron Coffman and running back Marc Harrison, the Panthers found the endzone on a Coffman one-yard touchdown plunge and took a 6-2 lead after a blocked extra point.
Fort Osage took no time retaking the lead when Gaines, on the Indians first play of the drive from their own 27, Gaines went around the left end, followed his blocks, found a crease, and 73 yards later, the Indians were back on top 9-6.Ray-Pec wasn’t deterred however, and like he did all game, Coffman made plays with his arm and his legs, marching the Panthers 55 yards in 11 plays, scoring from the one-yard line for the second time and giving his Panther team a 13-9 lead at the half, and effectively shutting down the Fort Osage offense, save for the Gaines run, holding the Indians to 11 plays in the half.
“I think from a defensive standpoint, our goal was to limit the big play, and aside from the big run from EJ, I thought we contained them pretty good,” Kruse said.
“What hurt us,” Schartz said, “we had a three and out early, and they had some real long drives that ate up the clock, and then the big kickoff return botch there and they got the ball on the plus side of the field. I don’t think we got the ball on the plus side of the field the rest of the half other than EJ’s big touchdown run, so we felt like we were playing backed up the whole first half on offense and we don’t like that when it happens.”
The Fort Osage offense got going with its first play of the second half, driving the ball down to the Ray-Pec 18 before quarterback Ed Pearl under-threw a pass to Gaines and was picked off by Marc Harrison at the Ray-Pec two-yard line.
Walking to the sideline severely dejected, Pearl got great advice from his teammates and coaches.“I was down, we were having a good drive and I killed it,” Pearl said, “but coach told me we’d get the ball back in good field position, to make a play and have a short memory.”
After forcing the Panthers to punt on their next drive, Fort Osage would score its next three drives, and Pearl finished the second half with 96 yards passing on 6 of 9, including an beautiful 35-yard strike early in the fourth quarter to Kamryn Tillmon that set up a one-yard Pearl touchdown run.
With guys like Tillmon, Pearl and Gaines, all seniors who have been playing on the varsity for three years, the Fort Osage playmakers are battle-tested mentally and physically as they get one step closer to the goal of winning the Class 5 Show-Me Bowl.
“We’re stronger mentally and we’re tougher,” Schartz said, “we understand, we’ve been in this position before, they’re experienced, Edward, EJ and Kamryn, this is their third consecutive quarterfinal game, so they’re past the point of getting rattled and awestruck by playing in the playoffs.”
“I think the last three years we were looking ahead to the state championship and the other team just beat us, and we just need to focus on this week and who we’re playing,” Pearl said. “I think this team is mentally stronger, we’ve been through a lot with this team, we’ve got great chemistry, I think this is the year.”
And Schartz knows what this team needs to do to succeed and get to St. Louis.“If we limit turnovers, and we limit penalties, we’ve got a good chance of being pretty decent.”
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