The Tigers want the trophy!
After suffering a bitter home defeat to rival Rolla in the first annual Route 66 Showdown a year ago, the Waynesville football squad is on a quest to pay the Bulldogs back this week.
The two teams collide Friday in the second annual Route 66 Showdown, a rivalry game sponsored by Salem Publishing newspapers Pulaski County Weekly and the Phelps County Focus – the hometown newspapers of Waynesville and Rolla, respectively.
This time the game’s in Rolla. In Rolla’s homecoming game. With the winner goes the Route 66 traveling trophy.
To rehash some bad Tiger memories:
A year ago Rolla then-freshman wideout Colton Petersmith, playing in just his second varsity game, made a leaping catch of then-senior quarterback Broc Lyle’s long heave in the endzone for a 25-yard touchdown reception with :34 remaining to tie the game 20-20. Rolla then line-drived in the extra point for what proved to be the game-winner, 21-20.
After Waynesville again threatened in the final seconds with a 31-yard kickoff return to get the Tigers at midfield with :29 remaining, Petersmith, also a defensive back, struck again, intercepting a Tiger pass at the Bulldog 17 yardline, allowing Rolla to run out the clock and cling to the one-point win, thus accepting the trophy in the middle of Tiger Field.
That loving-cup trophy has been in a Rolla High trophy case ever since.
The Tigers want to take it to one of their trophy cases Friday night.
“I remember,” said Waynesville head coach Kyle Barkley. “I remember it was 21-20. I remember we go down and get a 20-14 lead, then Lyle made a great play for them late in the game.”
“It was really a close game,” recalls Waynesville senior linebacker Daylan Registe said of last year. “Knowing it was the first traveling trophy game…we wanted it bad. And knowing it was so close last year, that game has been on our radar. We all want it bad.”
“Last year I didn’t play in the game because I was in concussion protocol,” said Tiger standout running back junior Michael Kelsey, Jr. “We were up and they get a miracle play. I’ve been playing them since I was in seventh-grade, and knew some of them since the third-grade. If I had played last year, I think it could have been different.”
And Kelsey, Jr. wants to make that difference this week.
Junior lineman Kyle Wilking is another Tiger who could only watch the action a year ago, as he was rehabbing from wrist surgery at the time.
“I was injured and couldn’t play,” Wilking said. “But everyone wanted to win that game, and we didn’t get it. You remember them from year to year. This will be the first time I get to play Rolla on the varsity. And we want to win that trophy. We need to go out and execute.”
Both teams want to use Route 66 Showdown II for momentum leading up to district competition in two weeks.
There are a lot of similarities in the two squads this fall. Both Waynesville and Rolla are 2-5. Both have beaten the same teams – Springfield schools Parkview and Hillcrest. Both teams depend on having success with their respective rushing attacks.
Something’s gotta give Friday.
“They’ve got a great rushing attack,” Barkley said of Rolla. “They’re multiple and have got a strong runner in No. 34 (sophomore Hayden Emory). They just try to move the chains. They have a very similar philosophy to us. Defensively they move around and make plays. It’s their homecoming. It’ll be a great atmosphere.”
Emory is Rolla’s leading rusher with 643 yards and eight touchdowns.
But Rolla will have their hands full with the Tigers’ two-headed rushing monster. Kelsey, Jr. has run for 930 yards on 123 carries and scored 13 touchdowns while senior running back Tau Asi has rushed for 685 yards on 119 attempts and has six TDs.
The star of last year’s Route 66 Showdown – Rolla’s Petersmith – won’t be playing. After catching nine passes for 163 yards and three touchdowns in a Rolla 67-42 win over Parkview two weeks ago, Petersmith was diagnosed with a torn labrum in his shoulder which will require surgery, forcing him to miss the rest of the season.
Waynesville will be coming in angry for another reason after losing a late lead and falling to Bolivar 42-29 in the Tigers’ Homecoming Game last week. Earlier in the season Bolivar shut out Rolla 35-0 in a game the Bulldogs committed a whopping 10 turnovers.
“I’m proud of the boys,” Registe said of last week’s Tiger effort. “We fought for four quarters. The last couple of weeks we’ve played four quarters of football. We’re finally starting to trust each other.”
“I feel we’re playing better than the start,” Wilking said. “It’s still the little things that have held us down. We’ve got to get those squared away. I think we can be amazing, with the talent we have.”
“As a team I think we’re playing much better than from the first of the season,” Kelsey, Jr. said. “And as an individual, I think I’m playing good. These two teams will always be competitive. We’re about even as teams; we have about the same skill level. From film and from the (Rolla) Jamboree, we know they are very physical. And we know we’ve got to fight with them.”
