Neosho hasn't had much luck against Joplin recently, but that could start to change on Friday. The Neosho Wildcats will head out to square off against the Joplin Eagles at 7:00 p.m. Joplin took a loss in their last contest and will be looking to turn the tables on Neosho, who comes in off a win.
It was a proper cat-fight when Neosho duked it out withWillard on Friday. Neosho claimed a resounding 49-14 victory over Willard at home. Given the Wildcats' advantage in MaxPreps' Missouri football rankings (they are ranked 40th, while the Tigers are ranked 130th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Neosho can attribute much of their success to Cade Spiva, who rushed for 127 yards and two touchdowns on only seven carries, and Denver Welch, who gained 150 total yards and a touchdown. Welch's longest rush was for an impressive 62 yards, which helps to explain his lofty yards per carry total.
Neosho didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Brody Mitchell and Kanten Smith. Another thorn in Willard's side was Jaxon Ertel, who picked up a sack, forced a fumble, and made ten total tackles (2.0 for loss).
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Neosho was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 428 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've posted since the start of last season.
Meanwhile, Joplin didn't have quite enough to beat Carthage on Friday and fell 23-20. The Eagles have now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.
Despite the defeat, Joplin got top-tier performance from Toryn Jones, who rushed for 141 yards and a touchdown while picking up 8.3 yards per carry. Davin Thomas also played a phenomenal game despite the final result: he picked up 82 receiving yards.
Neosho pushed their record up to 5-1 with the win, which was their third straight at home. As for Joplin, their loss dropped their record down to 3-3.
Neosho was dealt a bruising 56-24 defeat at the hands of Joplin in their previous meeting back in October of 2023. Thankfully for Neosho, Quin Renfro (who rushed for 334 yards and five touchdowns while picking up 10.1 yards per carry) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
