The Wright City Wildcats took the lead early and cruised to a win over conference foe Mark Twain last week. 

The 42-6 road win moved Wright City (2-1) over the .500 mark for the second time this season. 

The Wildcats scored four touchdowns in the first half to take a commanding 29-6 lead into halftime. Wright City scored a pair of first quarter touchdowns. 

The Wildcats opened the scoring with a 34-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Joey Gendron to Duan McRoberts. 

The Wildcats added to their lead with a 16-yard touchdown run by Denzel Dowdy. 

“We didn’t perform our best the previous week against Orchard Farm,” Wright City head coach Tyler Rickard said. 

“And so I thought it was very important for us to come out, start fast, build some confidence and show that last week was not how we’re going to play football this week. And so I thought that was really important for our confidence and to set the tone for the rest of the game.”

Wright City added a pair of touchdowns in the second quarter on 5-yard touchdown runs by Gendron and McRoberts to extend their lead to 27-0. After Mark Twain scored a touchdown, Wright City got two points on Devin Myers’ safety to take a 29-6 lead into halftime. 

The Wildcats added a pair of second half scores on touchdown runs by McRoberts and Carle’on Jones. 

Wright City recorded over 150 yards both on the ground and through the air. 

“We excelled both throwing the ball and running the ball,” Rickard said. “Our offensive line, once again, did a great job making holes for our running backs and giving Joey plenty of time to throw the ball.”

The Wildcat defense held Mark Twain to 127 total yards in the 36-point win. Wright City is giving up an average of 7.6 points per game so far this season. 

“Coach (Jacob) Wallace has done a really good job of putting our guys in position to be successful,’ Rickard said. “He’s doing a good job game planning each week and taking away not only the players that we think are going to be the most dangerous, but also making sure that we are in the right alignments to the different formations that the offense is going to run. And so, yeah, I’ve been really happy with our defense. They’ve played really well so far this season.”

After two consecutive road contests, Wright City will return home Friday and host South Callaway (2-1). The Wildcats beat South Callaway 40-24 on the road last season. 

Wright City is preparing to face South Callaway’s triple option offense. Rickard said while they have a good athlete at quarterback and go to shotgun more than in previous years, the Wildcats are preparing to face a strong dose of the Bulldog triple option offense. 

While the Wildcats have not faced a triple option offense so far this season, they had experience with a few conference opponents running the option offense last season. 

“We’ve seen it before in the past and all these guys were here last year so they understand generally what we’re talking about,” Rickard said. “And so we’ll have a little different scheme this year than we did last year to try and be a little more successful. But, ultimately, when we start talking option responsibility, they’ll have a good foundational knowledge of what we’re speaking to.”