The Ava Middle School football squads visited West Plains last Thursday to take on the Zizzers.
The West Plains seventh grade team made it a tough night for the Bears as they posted a 40-0 win. The Zizzer squad led 24-0 at halftime.
Leading tacklers for Ava were Colton Overcast with 5 tackles and Caleb McFarlin with 4 tackles.
The 8th grade game was an exciting contest that ended in a 20-20 tie. West Plains opened the scoring with a touchdown drive that consumed the entire first quarter and ended on the first play of the second quarter.
After the Bears were forced to punt on their first possession, the Zizzers completed a pass to the tight end that resulted in an 85 yard gain and put the ball on the Ava one yard line.
West Plains scored on the next play and added the conversion to take a 14-0 lead.
Ava responded quickly on their next possession when Colton Akers broke loose for a 66 yard touchdown run.
The score remained 14-6 until the Bears scored on the first possession of the second half.
Akers again escaped from the West Plains defense and scampered 49 yards for the score to cut the Zizzer lead to 14-12.
The Bears stopped the next West Plains drive near the Ava 20 yard line and five plays later scored on a 34 yard touchdown pass from Cody Huff to Kane Thompson.
Huff completed a pass to tight end John Luebbering for the two point conversion to give the Bears their first lead of the night at 20-14 with 6:30 remaining in the game.
West Plains answered with a touchdown drive to tie the game at 20 with 1:45 remaining.
The Ava defense came up strong and stuffed the conversion attempt to preserve the tie. West Plains then recovered an onside kick at midfield.
The scoring attempt was stopped when Thompson intercepted a pass on fourth down at the Ava 20 yard line. The Bears took possession with eleven seconds remaining and moved the ball to midfield but were unable to score on the game’s final play.
The game ended in a tie at 20-20, as there is no overtime for seventh and eighth grade football games in Missouri.
