The Wright City Wildcats trimmed their deficit to one possession in both the second and third quarters but fell to Southern Boone in the first round of the district tournament. 

Wright City (6-4) dropped a road game to Southern Boone (8-2) 47-25 in the first round of the district tournament. Wright City took an early 6-0 lead but trailed most of the game. 

“I don’t think we could have asked for a better start,” Wright City head coach Tyler Rickard said. “We came out, forced them to punt right away. And then we were able to get the ball, had a nice long drive to start the game and were able to punch it in and take a 6-0 lead right off the bat.” 

Wright City’s Duan McRoberts scored one of his three rushing touchdowns on the drive on a 20-yard touchdown run to give Wright City the early lead. Southern Boone scored a pair of touchdowns later in the quarter to take a 13-6 lead. 

Wright City fell behind two possessions in the second quarter after Southern Boone scored the opening touchdown of the second quarter. Wright City trimmed the Southern Boone lead down to one possession once in the second quarter and twice in the third quarter but was unable to regain the lead. 

“We kept battling the whole time,” Rickard said. “I was very proud of our kids for coming out and not allowing any distractions or anything to get in the way of them competing and giving their best effort. And they did. It was a cold wet night, on the road playing a top-10 team in the state. There’s a lot of things that could have made us give in but we didn’t.”

McRoberts scored on a 36-yard rushing touchdown in the second quarter to pull Wright City within seven points. The Wildcats trailed 26-13 at halftime. 

Wright City scored the opening touchdown of the third quarter on McRoberts’ 52-yard touchdown pass to Carle’on Jones. After Southern Boone scored to take a 14-point lead, McRoberts scored on a 58-yard touchdown run to pull Wright City within 33-25 later in the quarter. 

With starting quarterback Joey Gendron unable to play in Friday night’s district game, McRoberts moved back to the quarterback position where he had multiple starts earlier in the season. 

“We had to adjust that,” Rickard said. “And go back to what we did in the middle part of the season when he was running at quarterback. But that was nothing new for us. We obviously had practiced it during the week and have done it lots early in the season. We had to adjust things because of him playing at quarterback, but I still felt we were very effective.”

The Wildcats accumulated nearly 400 yards of offense in the game. They rushed for 272 yards and had 111 yards passing, totaling 383 yards. 

“We were still able to do enough in the passing game to make them respect it,” Rickard said. “But our rushing game was obviously very potent that night.”

Southern Boone scored a pair of unanswered touchdowns later in the game. They scored a touchdown later in the third quarter to take a 40-25 lead into the fourth quarter. They also scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter. 

“They’re a very good ball club,” Rickard said “But our guys played really well. We never gave up, we kept battling the whole time. It was just a small microcosm of this group as a whole, just never giving up. No matter the event that happened, we always responded in the right way. We always came right back the next series and we’re ready to play. And so, I’m really proud of our kids for that.”

Wright City finishes the season with its most overall wins and conference wins in four seasons. After finishing with one win two seasons ago, the Wildcats won a combined 11 games the past two seasons. 

“The memories that these guys made together is what will stay with me about this team,” Rickard said. “We asked them at the beginning of the year to become one family and that’s what we did and that’s what I’m extremely proud of as well. It’s just off the field and even on the practice field, they were one cohesive unit and they were just a joy to be around each and every day.”