Survive and advance— Monett takes down McDonald Co. in district playoff opener

Cubs use second-half surge to advance to district semifinal, will travel to West Plains Zizzers Friday

After three weeks of watching games slip away in the final minutes, the Monett football team was used to heartbreak. Drawing from lessons learned, Monett rallied in the second half to down McDonald County, 36-28, in Class 4, District 6 playoff action.
Leading 14-6 to begin the third quarter, McDonald County looked to take a two-score lead on the opening drive of the second half, but on fourth and 3 from the Monett 23-yard line, the Cubs stood tall and held on downs.
Monett flew down the field with quarterback Dylan Washick connecting on a 49-yard strike to Carson Nestleroad, which led to the junior wide receiver catching a four-yard pass two plays later to make the score 14-12.
McDonald County answered with Ryder Martin’s third rushing touchdown, an 8-yard scamper, giving the Mustangs a 21-12 lead with 3:45 left in the third quarter.
Monett’s Sam Carr cut the lead to 21-18 with a 2-yard run with 1:01 to play in the quarter, and a successful 2-point conversion made the score 21-20 Mustangs.
The Cubs would get the ball back from McDonald County and used a 2-yard run from Collin Umfleet with 9:20 to play to lead 28-21.
The Mustangs countered with a Wyatt Gordan to Martin halfback pass for 32 yards on fourth down to knot the score at 28-28 with 4:02 left.
This time the Cubs learned from their past and marched down the field with Umfleet scoring from one yard out with 1:52 remaining in the game.
McDonald County reached the Monett 30, but the Cubs’ defense held their ground, and a fourth-down pass fell incomplete with 12 seconds left to seal the victory.
“We’ve been close the past three weeks,” said Ben Mauk, Monett head coach. “We’re a team that was close to being 7-2 instead of 4-5. We came in tonight just trying to get over the hump and win one of these close games.”
Washick finished the night completing 34 of 54 passes for 457 yards and a touchdown. Alex Meeks caught nine passes for 170 yards, while Nestleroad caught eight balls for 108 yards. Brayden Seitz added nine catches for 102 yards, and Umfleet caught six passes for 65 yards. He also ran the ball five times for five yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Monett (5-5) took the game’s opening drive 59 yards to the Mustang 6-yard line, but a pair of incomplete passes on third and fourth down gave McDonald County the ball in the shadow of their goal line.
The Mustangs chewed up nearly seven minutes of clock, rattling off a 13-play, 94-yard drive that culminated in a 15-yard touchdown run by senior quarterback Ryder Martin, giving McDonald County a 7-0 lead with 2:49 to go in the first quarter.
Monett answered with a long drive of its own, 12 plays and 75 yards, in 2:45 seconds. Cub quarterback, junior Dylan Washick, completed 9 of 10 passes on the drive, including a 16-yard strike to junior Brayden Seitz for a touchdown. But a missed two-point conversion left Monett trailing 7-6 at the end of the first quarter.
When the Cubs got the ball back with 8:55 left in the first half, Monett again drove down the field, running 11 plays before Washick’s pass to junior Carson Nestleroad fell just out of his reach from the 2-yard line.
McDonald County (6-4) answered with its longest drive of the game, 98 yards in 16 plays. Martin scored his second touchdown of the night in a 3-yard run up the middle, giving the Mustangs a 14-6 lead they would take to the locker room.
Monett will travel to West Plains to face the Zizzers at 7 p.m. on Friday.