How Rock Bridge football used a physical start to win its first district title since 2013

For the first time in a decade, Rock Bridge claimed its first district title after dismantling Troy Buchanan 38-7 in the Class 6, District 4 championship game.

“I’m so proud of our guys,” second-year head coach Matt Perkins said. “It’s been a weird year. It’s been a tough year where not everything goes smooth. You know, we’ve been working since Dec. 5, the first day we got together, so this was like our team goal and let’s go get it done.”

The Bruins did get it done in a dominating fashion. Two days before facing Troy Buchanan, Perkins mentioned how the Bruins needed to match the physicality of the Trojans, a team Perkins compared to Lebanon. He felt that the Bruins played physically enough in last week's 69-32 victory over Francis Howell Central, but that would have to carry over against the Trojans.

It’s safe to say that goal was accomplished as well.

“Our kids, they did it, man,” Perkins said. “They came in. It’s time to put the ball on the ground and run it a little bit, and I thought we did a really good job.”

Troy Buchanan struggled to match the relentlessness of the Bruins defense, turning the ball over three times in the first half alone. Its rushing attack, a team's strength, was kept in check. The Trojans tallied over 25 rushing attempts but were held to under four yards a carry.”

“Their favorite play was like a counter play, I would say. So, stop that one play, then it’ll be alright,” senior linebacker Elijah Morton said.

Following Rock Bridge taking a 21-0 lead, the Trojans attempted to find momentum midway through the second quarter. A trick play moved into the Troy Buchanan inside the Bruins' 20-yard line. But, the drive stalled from there, thanks to the outstanding defensive effort by Morton.

“It’s a toss-up between him and (Grayson) Cutchlow on who is the best kid I’ve ever coached,” Perkins said. “And I’ve had some good ones like Connor Lair out of West Plains, now at Missouri States. He’s right there in the discussion, but man, there’s some good ones, and Elijah is special.”

After stopping a screen pass on third and long, Morton stepped in front of a Hunter Keene pass on fourth down before racing all the way to the Trojans 18-yard line.

“The linemen went,” Morton said. “So I knew something was going up, so I just went backside and jumped on the ball and picked him.”

Morton stepped into the linebacker position after Grayson Cutchlow left with an ankle injury, but the Bruins defense didn’t miss a beat.

“He hadn’t played linebacker truly in a while,” Perkins said. “We get into the locker room at halftime and kind of survived that moment with Cutchlow going out, and Elijah is like, okay, tell me what I need to know. And it’s like, there’s a lot, so we start going over stuff on the board…Kid balled out.”

Rock Bridge’s offense capitalized off the momentum as it moved inside the one-yard line with 17 seconds left in the fast half.

On fourth and goal, the Bruins offensive line outmuscled the Trojans as Cooper Myers found enough room to plunge in from a yard out for his second touchdown of the night. Controlling the trenches, Rock Bridge rushed the ball over 30 times for around 200 yards.

The Bruins' defense continued to prevent the Trojans from getting remotely close in the second half. Junior hybrid linebacker and safety Crew Norden stopped Keene on fourth down on Troy Buchanan’s opening drive in the third quarter.

Joey Scardina followed the stop up with a 25-yard field goal, making it a 31-0 game. Dreyvn Seamon set up Rock Bridge’s final score by hauling in a long 25-yard pass from Brady Davidson, who finished the night going 19-25 for over 140 yards. Senior running back Stefan Williams shortly followed that up with a one-yard score, extending the Bruins lead to 38.

Rock Bridge advances to the state quarterfinals, which takes place next Friday. The Bruins will take on De Smet Jesuit, who defeated SLUH 19-13 in the Class 6, District 3 championship game. De Smet knocked out Rock Bridge last season in Columbia in district finals 44-21.

The contest started sloppy between both Rock Bridge and Troy Buchanan. After Morton made his defensive presence known by recovering a Trojans fumble on the game’s opening possession, Scardina missed a 39-yard field goal.

The Trojans attempted to capitalize as Keene, a 1,000-yard passer and rusher, took advantage of the Bruins' pass rush by completing screen passes to Ethan Lollar and Chris Wenger for sizable gains. Keene again connected with Lollar for seven yards and Hopmann for 14 more, moving into Bruins territory.

Rock Bridge caught a break as Trojans tight end Cooper Helvey dropped a wide-open pass near the end zone, but another screen to Hoppman, who picked up the first down inside the Bruins ten.Morton once again came up huge with a stop on third down, bringing out Trojans kicker Jackson Hirschbuehler, who missed a field goal wide right, keeping the game scoreless in the moment.

That wouldn’t last long as the Bruins offense finally heated up. On the first play off the missed kick, Drevyn Seamon took a jet sweep 80 yards to the house outracing everyone once and getting across the first level, putting Rock Bridge up 7-0.

“Great hole, great blocks by the linemen, clear field. I just accelerated right through the hole,” Seamon said.

The play proved to be the spark plug that the Bruins offense needed for the rest of the game.

“I think that’s a huge momentum swing,” said Perkins when talking about Rock Bridge being able to score off the missed field goal. “It also showed us a couple things with what we could accomplish on the night on the ground. We found something we liked, and we went to it quite a bit.”

After forcing the Trojans' defense to go backward on the ensuing possession, the Bruins took advantage of good field position following the punt. Brady Davidson hit Seamon for nine yards, followed by the junior running back picking up gains of five and four yards through the ground and through the air.

Following Seamon’s touchdown run, he became a big emphasis of the Bruins offense on the night. The junior hybrid running back and wide receiver tallied over 150 total yards against the Trojans.

Showing versatility in the run game, Williams and Davidson took the Bruins inside the five. A holding call wiped out a potential Seamon touchdown, but on a 3rd and goal from the 15, Davidson hit Devin Holt on their own screen pass down the Trojans' two-yard line.

On a fourth and goal, in a heavy formation, Norden, playing on the offensive side, took it in from two yards out, making it a two-possession game at 14-0.

The Bruins defense again game up big as senior linebacker Grayson Cutchlow picked off Keene for Troy Buchanan's second turnover.

Rock Bridge's offense, building off the defensive success, once again matriculated downfield with the combination of Meyers, Seamon, and Davidson’s arm. Once down to the Trojans one-yard line, Meyers rushed in from a yard out, extending the Bruins lead to three possessions. The running back by committee thrived as Myers finished the night with over 50 yards, Williams with 21 on just five carries, while Derrick Young and Riley Rowling also got in on the action.

Troy avoided a shutout with a late touchdown pass from Kene to Jackson Trower with under two minutes to play in the game.

It’s the third time in the last 11 years that Rock Bridge defeated Troy Buchanan in the MSHAA Playoffs. The Bruins also defeated the Trojans 34-0 in 2012 and 31-20 in 2020. With the magnitude of the game, this is perhaps the more special of the three. Rock Bridge’s last district championship win came on Nov. 15, 2013, where it defeated Ft. Zumwalt West 21-14.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Rock Bridge football beats Troy Buchanan for district title