Republic's 'Megatron' at receiver helps make Tigers a Central Ozark Conference contender
OZARK — Trying to score before halftime, Republic quarterback Wyatt Woods threw a deep ball to a well-covered James Rexroat near the endzone.
The ball was tipped by the Ozark defensive back, but it ricocheted perfectly, somehow, into Rexroat's arm to where he pinned the ball against his leg. He was tackled out of bounds at the Ozark 2 before turning to his sideline.
"I don't know how I just caught that," the 6-foot-4, 235-pound Memphis commit announced. Republic (2-0) scored a play later en route to its 41-14 win over Ozark (1-1).
Rare are the plays when Rexroat wonders how he caught the ball. According to his quarterback, every pass he throws to his star tight end is more of a 90-10 ball instead of 50-50.
"He's a freak," Republic quarterback Wyatt Woods said. "He's like Megatron. You just throw it up to him."
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Rexroat has emerged as one of the best targets in the Ozarks after going most of last season relatively unknown. Once he broke through late in the year, he saw more attention from defenses and college scouts.
He's also a big reason why the Tigers won their first-ever game over Carthage to kick off the season and then followed with a dominant victory over an up-and-coming team in Ozark.
"They're tightening down on him with one or two guys but we feel like we're still going to get him in space," head coach Ryan Cornelsen said. "That's a big body to defend whether it's one or two guys. If it's part of our package and he's open, we're going to him quite a bit."
Rexroat caught 25 passes for 604 yards and nine touchdowns as a junior last season. He first heard from Missouri State before others like Arkansas State and Memphis came swooping in.
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Late in the year, Rexroat saw more attention than he was used to against some of the best defenses. He was double-teamed in a district win over Webb City and the attention has carried over into the first two weeks of 2023 with Carthage even opting to triple-team him at times.
"I'm thankful for it because it's going to make me better," Rexroat said. "It's going to make it easier in college because there will be more guys and I won't be the biggest threat. There will be better receivers than me and I'll be single-covered so it'll be a bit easier."
Woods isn't afraid to throw the ball to Rexroat when he is getting the attention he's been receiving to start the year. Rexroat had his triple-team beat against Carthage on a deep ball that was slightly overthrown and he threw the ball up to the corner of the endzone when he had two guys on him on Thursday night against Ozark.
You'll also see Rexroat beating his defenders down the middle of the field, and that often turns into him catching and running for big gains. When Ozark dared to play man on him, Rexroat beat his defender and caught the ball on the run for a 59-yard gain to set up the game's first touchdown.
"I have a great quarterback," Rexroat said. "I know that the chemistry between my quarterback is very high, so I'm just confident in every ball that's thrown my way."
The numbers aren't quite there yet for Rexroat in an offense that prides itself in its run game. Republic had more than 300 rushing yards with an attack that wore out the Ozark defense in the second half. In a Week 1 thriller, Republic rushed for 271 yards
Rexroat has three catches for 115 yards so far this season but he's commanding a lot of attention and respect from opposing defenses. It's all but a guarantee big stat lines are headed his way as he has the traits of a FBS-caliber player.
Cornelsen believes once Republic is able to sustain drives as much as he would like it to do in future weeks, starting with a Week 3 home game against Webb City, that his offense will be able to feature Rexroat and take advantage of all of the things that make him special.
"We know people are trying to double him and they're playing games; sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't," Cornelsen said. "But we have to make sure we utilize his ability to go vertical to drop guys off and we don't have those safeties crashing down on us so hard like we have had in years past. Honestly, he's a guy that could hurt you if you do."
Republic is now 2-0 heading into a week where it will try to beat Webb City during the regular season and at home for the first time in program history. The Tigers beat the Cardinals 30-21 when the two met in the Class 5 playoffs in November.
The Tigers look like a true contender in the Central Ozark Conference. Once Rexroat starts putting monster numbers together, there might be no stopping them.
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: Republic tight end James Rexroat looks the part of Division I receiver
