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PrintWEBB CITY – Fatigue from more than four hours on the road couldn’t stop the Rock Bridge Bruins from coming out strong Friday against the Webb City Cardinals.
But a second quarter fumble did.
Trailing 14-7 early in the quarter, Rock Bridge quarterback Logan Gray began a drive on the Bruins’ 19-yard line.
Junior tailback Josh Conyers gained 16 yards on two carries and Gray connected for a 19-yard pass to tight end Demond Thorpe to put the Bruins at midfield.
The Rock Bridge crowd cheered loudly from the visitors’ bleachers when Gray threw to wide receiver Prinard Black on the next play.
Black, a sophomore wide receiver, took off running for extra yards, but three Webb City defenders caught him before he could get far.
As Black fell to the ground, the ball was stripped from his hands. The crowd at Cardinal Stadium was quiet, waiting for a call from the officials.
After what seemed like an eternity, the play was ruled a fumble, much to the joy of the sea of red behind the Webb City bench.
Cries of “He was down!” could be heard from the Rock Bridge sideline. Bruins’ fans, who made the 240-mile trip from Columbia, yelled “That’s terrible.”
The call was enough to give Webb City all the momentum. On the next play, senior Andrew Stanley ran the ball 52 yards for the Cardinals’ third touchdown.
WHAT’S NEXT
Rock Bridge’s season doesn’t get any easier, for Francis Howell hosts it on Friday.
Johnnie Collins, a 6-foot senior with a 117.2 quarterback rating through four games, leads the Spartans. Collins has completed 12-of-24 passes for 226 yards and four touchdowns.
Collins also has 796 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns.
To stop him, the Bruins will need to find a way to improve their run defense, which gave up more than 400 yards against Webb City.
THE REACTION
Ofodile said he never saw this coming.
“I never envisioned it would be anything like this,” he said. “I thought we had a very good chance to win the game. I think we’ve got the athletes to beat anybody on our schedule. We shouldn’t have a score like this against anybody in my opinion.”
Ofodile said there was plenty to improve on as his team enters the second half of its season, and the emphasis is on its run defense.
“Things like that sometimes snowball,” he said. “After awhile, you start maybe feeling like you can’t stop the run. That’s a problem. We can’t ever get into that mold.”
Ofodile also said, while there’s not much positive to be taken from a 49-14 loss, his team showed some heart in the second half.
Show Me the Errors 
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