How Nixa football claimed its first outright COC title in dramatic fashion at Republic
REPUBLIC — With one second left on the clock, Nixa senior Jordan Cribbs lined up for a situation that every kicker dreams of.
Tied with Republic, Cribbs had an opportunity to give the Eagles their first-ever outright Central Ozark Conference championship if he could put the ball through the uprights.
The snap was good. The hold was good. The kick was good.
Nixa players stormed the field and chased after their kicker after a thrilling 31-28 win.
"It was crazy," Cribbs said with a laugh. "I was just hoping I didn't get hurt. There were a lot of big dudes coming at me. I was scared. It was nice. It was crazy."
Cribbs turned out to be the hero with his 25-yard make, but it wasn't exactly a situation he ever pictured himself in. The soccer player has dreamed more of booting in a Lionel Messi-type goal in stoppage time rather than an Adam Vinatieri field goal for the Super Bowl.
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Cribbs wasn't even on the team for the first few weeks of the season, focused on his club soccer schedule and not how the Eagles fared on Friday nights.
Cribbs said he watched the first few games from the Nixa student section as the Eagles struggled to make kicks. Classmates told him that he had been playing soccer his whole life and that he needed to see if he could help.
Nixa head coach John Perry was surprised Cribbs was even on the roster.
"He asked if he could help," Perry said. "I told him, 'Well, come on,' and, you know, I didn't think he could really help us. But then he got better and better while working at it. Oh my gosh, man. We've had so many kicking woes and we just won a game on a kick. I'm flabbergasted."
Cribbs' unexpected heroics capped a thriller that had been labeled one of the area's biggest games since before the season.
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Neither team led by more than a touchdown. When Nixa's Malachi Rider scored one of his three touchdowns, Republic typically had a Wyatt Woods-to-James Rexroat play to score, or set up a score, at the other end.
The game started to go off the rails on the opening kick of the second half. Nixa attempted a surprise onside kick, which Republic tried to fair catch but muffed it. An inadvertent whistle was blown as Nixa recovered the ball and the referees called for a re-kick.
Republic got the ball and tied the game at 21-21 on one of two Woods quarterback sneaks for a touchdown.
The Eagles were forced to punt on their following possession but got the ball right back when Republic fumbled on its next offensive play. Rider scored his third touchdown three seconds into the fourth quarter as the hard runner also finished with 86 yards on the night.
"He is absolutely fantastic," Perry said. "He is short but mighty. He's kind of like a cat that you can hit him, throw him in the air and he'll land on his feet and kind of scurry off."
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On Republic's final drive, it got to the Eagles' six and faced fourth-and-4. Needing a touchdown to tie, the Tigers went to the Philly Special play from Super Bowl LII, which found Woods on the receiving end from a Rexroat pass to tie the game with 5:54 left.
Nixa then milked the remainder of the clock, but it didn't go without a little extra drama when Nixa faced fourth-and-9 from the Republic 30.
Of course, Nixa's headsets decided to go haywire.
"The headsets were going out and in like someone from Republic was up there buzzing our headsets and cutting them off," Perry joked. "We can't hear what he says, so it's like 'eh-eh-eh-it-eh, right, right.' And we're guessing that he's saying 'empty right clear' so we called that."
Nixa quarterback Nate Uber found Rylan Michel wide open for a 17-yard gain and the play the Eagles needed to set up the game-winning field goal.
"We went over that a lot in practice," Uber said. "It looked good and I knew Rylan was going to get open."
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Nixa (8-0) will look to finish off an undefeated regular season next week when it hosts Ozark (1-7). Republic (6-2) will look to build momentum heading into district play when it travels to Carl Junction (1-7).
Between now and then, Cribbs will have driven back and forth between Republic and Mississippi for club soccer. To celebrate a moment he'll remember forever, Cribbs hopped in the car for a seven-and-a-half-hour drive through the night.
"I'm not going to be able to sleep at all," Cribbs said with a smile.
Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or X at @WyattWheeler_NL. He's also the host of the weekly "Wyatt's World Podcast" on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other podcasting platforms
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Nixa football beats Republic with FG at buzzer to win COC title
