Column: 8-Man bracket delivers state-level rematch

Skye Pournazari
Jon Dykstra Managing Editor The Maryville Forum

Every year around the time when the state tournament and district brackets are released, there is plenty of hand-wringing about how fair the bracket is and if it will truly produce the game that the state deserves to see for the state championship.

While its is still not the ideal system for producing the best game consistently, the bracket did it’s job this season and the two best teams in 8-man football are headed to St. Joseph on Thursday night to determine the state champion. This 8-man season opened up with the four top teams in the state playing each other with Lockwood facing Archie and Rock Port facing Worth County. Both were one-score contests and Rock Port and Lockwood took their rightful spots as the top-2 teams in the 8-man poll.

The debate was obvious though — all four teams probably aren’t equal so with two close games, one pair of teams is likely better than the other.

Well, the truth is that those four were closer in talent than it even seemed possible in the beginning of the year, but it did end up as a rematch for the state final.

Rock Port had the easier road to St. Joseph, and although that wasn’t planned after the Week 1 game, it does seem like it worked out fairly — go undefeated in the regular season, get the easier path with a 4-5 St. Joseph Christian and a 6-3 Concordia as the state bracket opponents.

Worth County had to earn its way back to this game. They beat a top-10 King City squad in the district championship then avenged a state quarterfinal loss to a North Shelby team that will end up in the top-5 in the state.

After Archie avenged their lose to Lockwood, the Whirlwinds and Tigers met last Saturday in Archie to determine who got the right to face Rock Port. With both teams missing key players, Worth County survived and earned their rematch.

The first matchup saw the stars on both sides shine.

In the backfield, Rock Port junior Brock Holmes ran for 191 yards while Worth County junior Cole Ruby ran for 130.

Holmes has been firing on all cylinders lately with at least 224 yards and three touchdowns in each of the Jays’ last six games. Against the best team Rock Port has played since Worth County, Holmes ran for 528 yards and eight touchdowns against Nodaway Valley the first time then 243 yards and four touchdowns the second time.

Meanwhile, Ruby has been injured the last couple weeks and severely limited. But while the second-leading rusher on Rock Port has 22 carries all season, Worth County has leaned on balance especially in blowouts. The Tigers have five rushers with at least 36 carries and 272 yards.

Senior Brayden Stevens and junior Jude Archer have stepped into Ruby’s workload these past two weeks and Archer ran for 122 yards against Archie while Stevens had 74.

Quarterback Hayden Sanders also is a huge factor on the ground with 956 yards and 19 touchdowns this season.

In the passing game, Sanders and Rock Port’s Westyn Amthor are remarkably similar statistically and when Amthor throws, there isn’t much doubt where the ball is headed with junior Jack Meyerkorth accounting for 30 of the team’s 42 receptions this season. He has 597 yards and 14 touchdowns.

Worth County leaned heavily on top target Bo Collins early this season as well but that production has leveled out throughout the season with the emergence of junior Caleb New. Collins has 19 catches for 354 yards and six scores while New has 15 for 344 and four. Fullback Lucas Frisch is also a threat with 12 grabs for 137 yards and two scores.

The trenches feature the best in the GRC against the best in the 275 Conference. Ethan Lininger was First Team All-GRC on both sides of the ball while Collins was at defensive end and tight end. Rock Port had Ryder Herron and Gabe Gebhards on the All-275 offensive line and Quentin Jackson joining those two on the All-275 defensive line.

Both teams are led defensively by their outstanding trench play and one of the best linebackers in the state with Frisch for the Tigers and senior Tayden Cook for the Jays. Meyerkorth leads the Blue Jay secondary while Stevens is the top cover guy for the Tigers.

It’s been a long road to get right back to where we started and MSHSAA might not realize it yet, but the main event of the first full state lineup in St. Joseph is also the opening act with all of northwest Missouri descending on Spratt Stadium to determine a state champion.

And they have both more than earned that right.