Back on track: Hounds football thwarts Wildcats in Week Two

After losing a heartbreaker in the season opener to Blair Oaks, the Maryville Spoofhounds football team made the necessary adjustments to get back to their winning ways in time for their August 31 home opener.

The Spoofhounds scored early and often in their 36-0 routing of the Harrisonville Wildcats, despite the fact their opponents were a class above them. The win improves the Spoofhounds to 1-1 for the season.

“I’ve talked several times about the process and how tradition never graduates,” Maryville Head Coach Matt Webb said. “I just don’t feel like we showed that last week, and through a hard week of practice and coaching, and the receiving of coaching from the players, we looked a lot different tonight.”

Webb went on to talk about winning the field position. Several times the Spoofhounds’ defense came up huge with third and fourth down stops, even breaking up a punt attempt to gain the short-field advantage. That success, and usual with Maryville, transitioned into momentum for the offense.

Despite a fumble on their opening possession, Maryville came out ready and held the Wildcats on a fourth and short situation to regain the ball. Penalties slowed the process a bit, but the Spoofhounds marched down the field and Tyler Houchin punched in a nine-yard touchdown up the gut to put Maryville on the board 8-0 with 3:49 left in the first quarter.

Defense came up big again for the Hounds, and special teams followed with a botched punt forced on Harrisonville. The short field advantage, on the Wildcat 16 yard line, set up an Eli Dowis touchdown in the closing minute of the first to double the lead to 16-0.

Much of the second quarter was back-and-forth between the two teams. With two minutes remaining in the half, Maryville forced a fourth and eight on the Wildcats deep in their own territory. Stopping the run yet again, Maryville took over at the 23 and Conner Weiss became the third scorer of the night on a two-yard play with 1:39 on the clock as Maryville went up 22-0 at the half.

At times, Harrisonville looked to gain some traction, but Maryville never let up on either side of the ball. Dowis scored his second touchdown on the night in the opening minutes of the third quarter. A kickoff return fumble recovery by Carter Reeves set up yet another short field position for the Hounds, who scored their last touchdown of the night on another nine-yard run by Houchin for the final score of 36-0.

Maryville’s bench finished the final quarter of the game as the Hounds held on to the shutout to level their record at 1-1.

“Last week I don’t feel that we represented ourselves by any stretch of the imagination,” Webb said of Week 1. “It’s fundamentals, it’s technique. We didn’t recreate a new defense this week, we all just did our 1/11th better. Maryville’s never beaten Harrisonville, who is a Class 4 opponent. Before tonight we were 0-3 against them, so these guys tonight get to be a part of a new tradition.”

The Spoofhounds host Chillicothe for Week 3 to open up their MEC play.

Maryville’s Tyler Houchin celebrates after scoring the opening touchdown August 31 as the Spoofhounds go on to defeat Class 4 Harrisonville 36-0 in Week 2.