Defense Pitches Shutout

The SoBoCo Eagles used a suffocating defense and four first half turnovers to jump to a 28-0 halftime lead on their way to a 49-0 win over Wright City on Friday night.

The first round playoff win gave the Eagles an 8-2 record – the most football wins ever for an Eagles team – and a second round home playoff game next week vs Christian, a surprise winner on Friday over the Mexico Bulldogs.

The Eagles opened the scoring with a 46-yard Cooper Mange TD run for a 7-0 lead.

Cole Morris then recovered a third down fumble on the Wildcats 33 for the Eagles and it took SoBoCo seven plays to get in the end zone on a 1-yard TD plunge by Tanner Smith.

The Eagles defense continued to clamp down on Wright City, allowing only three plays for minus 1-yard and a punt. But SoBoCo could not advance the ball – however, when the Eagles punted, Wright City fumbled and Trent Garriott recovered the ball on the Wildcats 20-yard line.

On the first play from scrimmage, Eagles quarterback Spencer Taggart threw to Kolton Schupp who made three would-be tacklers on his way to the end zone. The TD pass gave Taggart his 32nd of his career and put him at the top of the SoBoCo career touchdown passes.

The rest of the half was more of the same – Wright City was forced to punt and the Eagles running game pounded the ball down the field. Schupp recovered a fumble for the Eagles and Smith converted it to six points five players later for a 28-0 halftime lead.

Colby Phillips scored on the Eagles first play of the third quarter and backup quarterback Seth Mueller showed his running ability on two TD runs to put the game away 49-0.

The Eagles will host No. 7 seed Christian in Ashland next week at 7 p.m.