Baby Drake Update

We are down to just 4 weeks until Drake should be here. Does that freak anyone else out? Maybe it's just me.

Our final ultrasound yesterday was a little disappointing. He was curled up in a tight ball and refused to move, so we couldn't see a ton. They were able to get good measurements and said everything looks good.

According to Dr. Lacey - who is rarely wrong, I'm told - he currently weighs 6 lbs.


(Pause for that to sink in a minute)


Yeah, so he's predicting that Drake will be 8-8.5 lbs. at birth. My father-in-law is very excited. My wife has been trying to figure out which branch of the family is to blame for her having such a large baby inside. She had in mind something in the 6.5-7.0 range. One of her grandmothers is sure that the doctor is wrong, to which Britt replied, "Then he's coming in the next week and a half".

The car seat base is strapped into the Pilot. I'm a big fan of the "LATCH" system, which makes that process very, very easy. I was expecting to have to invoke differential equations to get the seatbelt contorted correctly. Not an issue.

Yesterday Britt commented, at least next Christmas Drake will be old enough to be fun (as opposed to being 2 months old and just sleeping or whatever). Shortly thereafter she realized he'd be mobile at that point and the tree would be in jeopardy. No word on how excited she is now. :)

Nursery is ready. Britt is ready. I guess I am... That's not a question of my excitement level only my confidence about what is getting ready to happen.

Semifinals: Kearney at WC

This is a week old now, but I don't want to get accused of not having anything to say when the Cards don't win.

If you missed it, Kearney rolled into WC and walked out with a 38-13 win. I'll confine this to comments only, no play by play:
- Kearney earned this win. They were big and physical, more so than I thought they would be.
- WC was in it at halftime and I thought would have a chance to win in the second half - they tend to be a 2nd half team, but not on this day. Rather than wearing down, the offensive and defensive lines for Kearney seemed to get stronger in the 3rd quarter. Kearney seized the momentum and rolled on.
- Kearney did add a late touchdown that probably wasn't necessary - up 31-13 with a couple of minutes left Kearney had their 1-Offense in there and decided to throw deep. Whatever, stuff happens.

Now, my editorial comments:
- The loss snapped a 28-game winning streak for Webb. That was going to happen at some point. No one needs to dwell on this. Losses for the Cards have a tendency spur them on to accomplishment.
- The loss was the first for WC in the new Cardinal Stadium (well, 3-years old now). Also bound to happen and given that Kearney is a very good team, if you're going to lose a winning streak or a home game at least it was to a worthy opponent who deserved to win the game that day.
- I have noticed that there are some people around town that tend to take pleasure in watching WC lose. That's okay, I even understand, I love watching OU lose. Here's where I want to draw an important distinction:

1. No one needs to be concerned for the community or fans of WC that they (we) didn't win a 9th championship in 2009. Certainly they (we) have celebrated more than our share.

2. BUT...Please be respectful of the young men who spent 10 years working toward their 1 shot at a title and didn't win. They are no more deserving than any other team or group, but their disappointment is real and they take little comfort in the fact that 8 other WC teams in the last 21 years have won a state title. While most of the 2009 Cards have a ring from 2008, few of them played a key role in that win (though there certainly are a few who did).

3. So, if you need to rejoice that WC didn't win, that's fine, but be respectful of the players. They worked hard and had a great season.

4. I have also noticed a tendency of the WC fan-base not to support their non-championship teams the same way they do the ones that do win. I get that you are going to celebrate a championship differently than a semi-final or state finals loss, but these boys worked as hard as the others did and they conducted themselves (off-field incidents aside, other teams have those issues too) just as admirably as others have. If you watched them on Saturday you saw that there was no quit in them. They never gave up. There is disappointment (in the outcome, NOT the players) in not making a victorious trip to the Dome, but no shame and anyone who suggests that the 2009 Cards are a disappointment or for some reason weren't worthy needs to check themselves. That's not being a good fan, that's placing unrealistic expectations (specifically that they should win a state title every year - watch "Friday Night Lights" and get back to me) on high school kids.

For WC the lights are out on the 2009 football season, but that just means we move on to other sports and eventually turn our attention to the 2010 season.

Quarterfinals: WC at Bolivar

Globe Article

The Cardinals hit the road on Saturday seeking a birth in the Missouri Class 4 semi-finals. This quarterfinal match-up was a rematch of the 2008 quarters held in Cardinal Stadium on a cold, windy day. On that day, WC prevailed 42-21.

The 2009 match-up was a little different. WC knew going in that Bolivar was big and could put a lot of offense. In the first half, the game was tight with a lot of back and forth. Not really a ton of mistakes - though each had a first half turnover. WC struck first when Patrick Drake hit Austin Daniel in the front corner of the end zone for a touchdown.

Bolivar responded and would have tied the game if not for a PAT block by Breckin Williams - to my knowledge this was the first block of the season for WC.

On the ensuing possession, Braxton Baker made his presence known in a big way by taking the first snap 64 yards to the Bolivar 12. Two plays later Jamison Cady scored from the 10. Bolivar returned the PAT block favor and we stood at 13-6. That score remained until half-time.

The second half mostly belonged to the Cards who managed 2 big interceptions in the 3rd quarter. The first came on the first play of the 2nd half when Scott Roderique jumped a route. Maddy Johnson scored shortly thereafter and a 2pt conversion made it 21-6 Cards.

Shortly thereafter, Nathan Ervin intercepted a pass and ran 80 yards to the end zone. The PAT made it 28-6.

WC got the ball back and after a Drake to Daniel connection to the 5 yard line, Patrick ran it in. Following the kick WC led 35-6.

The teams traded touchdowns late and Bolivar scored one final time near the end of the game against WC reserves to leave the score at 42-20 where it ended.

It wasn't the best I've seen this WC team play, but they did what they needed to do to secure a victory. The defense played well against a very big team - limiting them to 42 yards rushing (on 34 carries). They'll need to at least repeat the performance next Saturday against a tough Kearney team (who rolled Harrisonville 41-0 on Saturday).

The offense looked good in spots, but I honestly felt like it was a fairly conservative game plan. With the size Bolivar had up front I was surprised the Cards didn't attempt to get out on the edge more often. However, they didn't have to. What they were doing was effective enough to get the job done and it avoided major risks of turnovers.

The Kearney match-up will be another rematch (from the 2008 semi-finals). This time however, Kearney will make the long drive to Webb City. Kearney is tough and WC will have to play very well to win. Kearney has 2 losses on the season. One was to a very good larger class team. The other loss came against Staley on a night Kearney was plagued by turnovers. Kearney avenged that Staley loss in the 2nd round of the playoffs with a 28-0 win (at Staley).

My best guess here is that for WC to win this game, the defense will be key. I'm not sure the Cards want to get into a shootout with Kearney. If the Cards D can hold Kearney down, get a few take-aways and the offense can put together drives I like Webb's chances to return to the Dome on Black Friday.

The way WC won the 2008 match-up was by managing the clock, protecting the ball, and keeping Kearney out of the end zone. That was a game that Webb made some mistakes early and benefited from a couple of mistakes on Kearney's part in the first half before seizing control after the break and managing a 14-7 victory. One thing is sure, nothing will be easy against Kearney.

Kickoff is at 1:30 on Saturday. Get there early.

Round 2: WC v. Carthage

Globe Article

I'm wrong a lot, so when I get something right I have to fight hard not to make a big deal of it. If you read my post following the first round game against Branson, in my comments about the round 2 game against Carthage I predicted:
1. "I don't know why, but I suspect we didn't see Carthage's best game that [the first time they played] night. I fully expect the second match-up to be a battle."
2. "If they [WC] execute they will win this game."
3. "It wouldn't shock me to see Pat [Drake] have a huge performance."

Two out of three for sure, it's debatable whether Carthage played better than the first time. I think they showed more ability to stop WC at points and move the ball, but they had so many turnovers that it didn't matter.

The bottom line is that WC came out firing and rolled on to the next round.

Patrick had a huge game. No shock when he kept it on an option around the left side on the first drive and ran 55 yards into the end zone. No great shock when he scored the 2nd touchdown. But Pat wasn't done. He finished with 5 rushing TDs and 1 passing. For the record, I had no idea Pat running a lot was part of the game plan. Coach Roderique said after the game that he told Pat going in he was likely to have to run more, I didn't know that when I made my comments last week. What it comes down to is Carthage's defense chose to come down on the veer back and then take the pitch back instead of forcing Pat to make the pitch. Net result was #5 in the end zone a lot.

The defense for WC was good. One big play and one actual drive was all Carthage managed. Aside from that the defense made stops and forced turnovers (1 fumble recovery and 4 INTs).

Looking ahead to Saturday, WC will travel to Bolivar - a rematch of the 3rd round game held in WC a year ago.

This will be the first opponent in a while that WC hasn't had several common opponents with coming in. The book on Bolivar seems to be that they are balanced on offense and have a good QB and WR/DB.

A local sports guy said on Monday night that "Bolivar has a hard time stopping the run, and that doesn't usually work out too well when you're playing Webb City." I have no idea if that's true or not, but thought it was a great quote.

I'm looking for WC to pound the ball on the ground with one of its senior running backs returning to the field.

I do expect WC to win this game, but it's no gimme. As will be the case going forward, protecting the ball and stopping big plays on defense will be key.

SBU football stadium, 1:30 Saturday. Be there!

Round 1: WC v. Branson

I said before the game that Branson was better than they showed in the 47-7 beat down that WC issued them a few weeks ago in the mud bowl. I was right for once. If you didn't see or listen to this game, the score might be deceptive. A 40-21 win for WC almost looks like a snoozer, but that's not what happened. Branson pulled out all the stops and led WC at 21-14 and 21-20 in the third quarter before WC found its stride and put the game away.

Globe Article

Here are my observations on this one.
- WC came into the game with lots of questions surrounding an off field incident that resulted in 3 starters being suspended (and more rumors than you can imagine beyond the actual story). The struggles in the first half on Wednesday night - in my opinion - had nothing to do with the absence of those players, but probably did reflect the amount of emotional energy that was expended coming into the game and the difficulty of trying to re-direct a game plan in a 3-day period.

- This WC squad continues to struggle at times to hold onto the football. They had 3 first half turnovers (one was an INT in the end zone at the end of the half, you almost hate to count that one because they were out of time and downs and were either going to score or not and it didn't affect much). The games where they can turn it over and expect to win are now over. Whether it's center-qb exchanges, option pitches, punt return fumbles or whatever, they have to control the football. This issue is even more critical right now in the absence of some of their firepower on offense. I have repeatedly said that the 2008 squad was exceptional at protecting the ball and putting together drives. This squad has been far more explosive, but also less consistent. I'm good with the explosive, but the consistency has to be there in order to keep winning.

- The suspensions did give 3 running backs a chance to shine in ways we hadn't seen yet. Watching the season unfold we knew that Maddy Johnson could fly in the open field, but his carries out of the backfield had been limited. He carried the load on Wednesday and did well. I do think he's probably most effective in his first 15 carries and will benefit if they can balance his touches with Jamison Cady and the big surprise in the mix, backup QB Scott Roderique. We had seen Jamison a time or two, but never Scott. Both played well.

Looking forward now to Monday night, another cardiac comeback by Carthage at Neosho will bring the Tigers to Cardinal Stadium for the second time in about a month. When the WC game ended Neosho had just re-taken the lead and we thought we were traveling to Neosho on Monday. But if we've learned anything about Carthage this year it's that you had better be up by 9 or more to think you've got them beaten. They went 75-yards in :46 to pull out the win. By my count that's about their 4th late comeback of the season.

I said after the first Carthage - WC game that it was the least exciting one I'd seen in 6 years. It was. I don't know why, but I suspect we didn't see Carthage's best game that night. I fully expect the second match-up to be a battle. Anyone who thinks WC is going to roll over Carthage are either kidding themselves or don't know what their talking about. Here's how I see this breaking down:

- WC has to control the ball and keep their defense from having to spend the whole night on the field.
- Webb can't turn it over and expect to win. Patrick will have to manage the offense and make good decisions - which he generally does - when it's time to pitch or keep, throw or run. It wouldn't shock me to see Pat have a huge performance.
- WC must prevent big plays early. One of the big reasons Branson stayed in it as long as they did was they got some momentum early. Carthage strikes me as a team that is probably a lot better once something goes their way. I think one of the reasons they never really got going in the first match up was that they had little to be excited about until they were already way behind. Getting on top early will help avoid momentum working against the Cards - something you want to avoid when you're still playing at less than full strength offensively.
- I'm looking for WC to use all three running backs and probably show Carthage some looks they didn't see the last time. I'm also looking for Pat to rack up some yardage on the ground.

If WC plays well, they win this game. They have the ability to make stops on defense and grind it out on offense. They are balanced when they need to be. If they execute they will win this game. If they turn it over or simply don't execute it may be an entirely different story.

Gates open at 5:30, get there early, even on a Monday night it's going to be a big crowd.