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Football Indians crush Versailles for fifth straight district title
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| Osage QB Kyle Crooks rushed for 215 yards, was 14-of-21 passing for 148 yards and three touchdowns Thursday night against Versailles. |
Crooks, Vincent, Shull ignite Osage in shutout
By LakeExpo.com staff
KAISER, Mo. - The Football Indians played at their best when they needed it the most Thursday in a 39-0 rout of Tri-County Conference rival Versailles in the final week of Class 3, District 9 play.
Led by more than 300 yards of total offense from senior QB Kyle Crooks, School of the Osage (6-4, 3-2 in conference) surged toward a fifth consecutive district title.
“We’re pretty high around here. It was a great win for us,” said Osage coach Dan Henderson in one of his biggest displays of emotion since taking over the program in 2007. “I never imagined that our kids would play (this) exceptional tonight. It was a total team (effort). We had some kids step up and make some plays. I thought we played (all) four quarters.
“(We had) no turnovers and really had (the Tigers) on their heels. I don’t think they knew what was coming at them next. Special teams were outstanding. A lot of things went right for us. We scored 39 on them and shut them out - that’s even bigger. I’m proud of our kids, I’m proud of our coaching staff and everyone associated with Osage football.”
After stumbling in a 30-27 road loss to California in the first week of district play, the Indians responded with a 29-7 victory over Eldon last week.
Osage needed to thwart Versailles to take second in the district, while a win by eight points would make up for the early loss to the Pintos and guarantee the district crown.
Osage now hosts Rogersville at 7 p.m., Wednesday in the newly added week of postseason play known as the Class 3 Regionals.
“They are an awfully good football team,” Henderson said of the Wildcats. “We’ll have to play awfully well.”
Henderson said he hopes Osage’s near-perfect execution, in a season which began with three straight lesson-filled losses to state-ranked opponents, can continue.
“I’m greedy,” Henderson quipped. “I want to play better Wednesday night. We played four great quarters. We need to turn it into eight great quarters.”
But postseason play has been a struggle recently for Osage. Despite their district success, the Indians haven’t made it past their first playoff game the past four seasons.
The silver lining for the Tigers (6-4, 3-2) is that they’ll still advance to the playoffs as the second-place district team, no matter what the outcome of Friday’s Mustangs-Pintos matchup.
Henderson said Crooks got plenty of support, but he was the catalyst for the Indians’ success as he was 14-of-21 passing for 148 yards and three touchdowns. Without senior starting TB/LB/K/P Tyler Davis in the lineup, Crooks was also Osage’s go-to rusher with 215 yards and a touchdown on 28 attempts.
Davis, reserve junior TB Spencer Webb and senior OL Chris Schneider were all out with injuries.
“Kyle did a great job,” Henderson said. “I thought we played well up front. We had them so off balance, Crooks was able to make the throws, get them on their heels and opened up some running lanes later on. Kyle played well.”
Osage senior WR Tyler Vincent was the recipient of two of Crooks key throws as he hauled in an 8-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter and a 5-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the second quarter that staked the Indians to a 12-0 advantage.
“Tyler Vincent again w as outstanding,” Henderson said. “He had a lot of highlight catches. His first touchdown … he goes up in the back of the end zone and got it. They covered everything else up and Tyler found an opening in the back of the end zone and just made a great play that really jump started us.”
Crooks added a 3-yard touchdown and a two-point conversion run with 2:35 left in the second quarter and the Indians led 20-0 at halftime.
Versailles bobbled the second-half opening kickoff and Osage recovered for one of the Tigers three turnovers.
The Indians capitalized on the extra-possession and good field position with a 3-yard touchdown pass from Crooks to senior TE Alex Edwards as Osage led 26-0 just 39 seconds into the third quarter.
Osage wrapped up the scoring in the fourth quarter on a pair of touchdown runs from a player Henderson says embodies the spirit of the Indians.
Senior Tommy Shull, who has bin hidden deep on the depth chart most of the season at running back, had explosive scoring runs of 17 and 33 yards.
“Tommy Shull came in and just gashed them on a zone play,” Henderson said. “We ran the same play three times for 50 yards and two of them were touchdowns.
“Tommy was forced into duty. He’s a quick little scat back that we haven’t used a lot.”
Most of the running duties early in the game fell on Crooks and senior FB/TB Steven McDaniel.
“Tommy came in and Steven banged them a little bit and what a great job blocking he did on the edge and up inside on the draw,” Henderson said. “But Tommy came in and gave us a little different gear.”
Shull, a speedster who now lists at 5-foot-6 and 145 pounds, has contributed to the varsity Indians wherever he could since he was a sophomore defensive lineman.
This year he’s listed as a defensive back, but on Thursday, he lined up at linebacker, nose guard and defensive tackle.
“He did a great job for us,” Henderson said.
Henderson was quick to point out that the defense also played at a high level as they shutout the Tigers’ offense, which averaged 27.3 points per game before Thursday, for the first time this year.
Versailles had outscored its last three opponents 104-7. But on Thursday when the Tigers threatened, the Osage D responded.
“We bent a little bit, but we never broke,” Henderson said. “We get situations we like and we get them shut down.”
Special teams also made plays for the Indians.
“Our kickoff team was good,” Henderson said. “(Junior) Jordan Byrd came in and kicked for Tyler tonight. (The Tigers have) got some scary guys back their returning the ball and we did a good job (bottling) them up.
“We didn’t punt in the first half. We punted twice in second half and one of them we got the ball back on a fumble. We had a great hit.”
Osage did miss two extra-point kicks before a third one sailed true.
“I was a little disappointed in our PAT team,” Henderson said. “We had some issues up front and finally go that squared away.”
School of the Osage 39, Versailles 0
Class 3, District 9 game
Tri-County Conference game
VER…..00…..00…..00…..00 - 00
OSA… 06…..14….06….13 - 39
First quarter
6:41 OSA- Tyler Vincent 8 pass from Kyle Crooks (kick failed) 0-6
Second quarter
11:55 OSA - Vincent 5 pass from Crooks (pass failed) 0-12
2:35 OSA - Crooks 3 run (Crooks run) 0-20
Third quarter
11:21 OSA- Alex Edwards 3 pass from Crooks (run failed) 0-26
Fourth quarter
6:01 OSA - Tommy Shull 17 (kick blocked) 0-32
2:55 OSA - Shull 33 run (Jordan Byrd kick) 0-39
Subscribe To Lake AlertsLed by more than 300 yards of total offense from senior QB Kyle Crooks, School of the Osage (6-4, 3-2 in conference) surged toward a fifth consecutive district title.
“We’re pretty high around here. It was a great win for us,” said Osage coach Dan Henderson in one of his biggest displays of emotion since taking over the program in 2007. “I never imagined that our kids would play (this) exceptional tonight. It was a total team (effort). We had some kids step up and make some plays. I thought we played (all) four quarters.
“(We had) no turnovers and really had (the Tigers) on their heels. I don’t think they knew what was coming at them next. Special teams were outstanding. A lot of things went right for us. We scored 39 on them and shut them out - that’s even bigger. I’m proud of our kids, I’m proud of our coaching staff and everyone associated with Osage football.”
After stumbling in a 30-27 road loss to California in the first week of district play, the Indians responded with a 29-7 victory over Eldon last week.
Osage needed to thwart Versailles to take second in the district, while a win by eight points would make up for the early loss to the Pintos and guarantee the district crown.
Osage now hosts Rogersville at 7 p.m., Wednesday in the newly added week of postseason play known as the Class 3 Regionals.
“They are an awfully good football team,” Henderson said of the Wildcats. “We’ll have to play awfully well.”
Henderson said he hopes Osage’s near-perfect execution, in a season which began with three straight lesson-filled losses to state-ranked opponents, can continue.
“I’m greedy,” Henderson quipped. “I want to play better Wednesday night. We played four great quarters. We need to turn it into eight great quarters.”
But postseason play has been a struggle recently for Osage. Despite their district success, the Indians haven’t made it past their first playoff game the past four seasons.
The silver lining for the Tigers (6-4, 3-2) is that they’ll still advance to the playoffs as the second-place district team, no matter what the outcome of Friday’s Mustangs-Pintos matchup.
Henderson said Crooks got plenty of support, but he was the catalyst for the Indians’ success as he was 14-of-21 passing for 148 yards and three touchdowns. Without senior starting TB/LB/K/P Tyler Davis in the lineup, Crooks was also Osage’s go-to rusher with 215 yards and a touchdown on 28 attempts.
Davis, reserve junior TB Spencer Webb and senior OL Chris Schneider were all out with injuries.
“Kyle did a great job,” Henderson said. “I thought we played well up front. We had them so off balance, Crooks was able to make the throws, get them on their heels and opened up some running lanes later on. Kyle played well.”
Osage senior WR Tyler Vincent was the recipient of two of Crooks key throws as he hauled in an 8-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter and a 5-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the second quarter that staked the Indians to a 12-0 advantage.
“Tyler Vincent again w as outstanding,” Henderson said. “He had a lot of highlight catches. His first touchdown … he goes up in the back of the end zone and got it. They covered everything else up and Tyler found an opening in the back of the end zone and just made a great play that really jump started us.”
Crooks added a 3-yard touchdown and a two-point conversion run with 2:35 left in the second quarter and the Indians led 20-0 at halftime.
Versailles bobbled the second-half opening kickoff and Osage recovered for one of the Tigers three turnovers.
The Indians capitalized on the extra-possession and good field position with a 3-yard touchdown pass from Crooks to senior TE Alex Edwards as Osage led 26-0 just 39 seconds into the third quarter.
Osage wrapped up the scoring in the fourth quarter on a pair of touchdown runs from a player Henderson says embodies the spirit of the Indians.
Senior Tommy Shull, who has bin hidden deep on the depth chart most of the season at running back, had explosive scoring runs of 17 and 33 yards.
“Tommy Shull came in and just gashed them on a zone play,” Henderson said. “We ran the same play three times for 50 yards and two of them were touchdowns.
“Tommy was forced into duty. He’s a quick little scat back that we haven’t used a lot.”
Most of the running duties early in the game fell on Crooks and senior FB/TB Steven McDaniel.
“Tommy came in and Steven banged them a little bit and what a great job blocking he did on the edge and up inside on the draw,” Henderson said. “But Tommy came in and gave us a little different gear.”
Shull, a speedster who now lists at 5-foot-6 and 145 pounds, has contributed to the varsity Indians wherever he could since he was a sophomore defensive lineman.
This year he’s listed as a defensive back, but on Thursday, he lined up at linebacker, nose guard and defensive tackle.
“He did a great job for us,” Henderson said.
Henderson was quick to point out that the defense also played at a high level as they shutout the Tigers’ offense, which averaged 27.3 points per game before Thursday, for the first time this year.
Versailles had outscored its last three opponents 104-7. But on Thursday when the Tigers threatened, the Osage D responded.
“We bent a little bit, but we never broke,” Henderson said. “We get situations we like and we get them shut down.”
Special teams also made plays for the Indians.
“Our kickoff team was good,” Henderson said. “(Junior) Jordan Byrd came in and kicked for Tyler tonight. (The Tigers have) got some scary guys back their returning the ball and we did a good job (bottling) them up.
“We didn’t punt in the first half. We punted twice in second half and one of them we got the ball back on a fumble. We had a great hit.”
Osage did miss two extra-point kicks before a third one sailed true.
“I was a little disappointed in our PAT team,” Henderson said. “We had some issues up front and finally go that squared away.”
School of the Osage 39, Versailles 0
Class 3, District 9 game
Tri-County Conference game
VER…..00…..00…..00…..00 - 00
OSA… 06…..14….06….13 - 39
First quarter
6:41 OSA- Tyler Vincent 8 pass from Kyle Crooks (kick failed) 0-6
Second quarter
11:55 OSA - Vincent 5 pass from Crooks (pass failed) 0-12
2:35 OSA - Crooks 3 run (Crooks run) 0-20
Third quarter
11:21 OSA- Alex Edwards 3 pass from Crooks (run failed) 0-26
Fourth quarter
6:01 OSA - Tommy Shull 17 (kick blocked) 0-32
2:55 OSA - Shull 33 run (Jordan Byrd kick) 0-39
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