The Wright City Wildcats overcame an early turnover to cruise to a 17-point conference win over North Callaway last week. 

Wright City (5-2, 4-1 EMO) earned a 45-28 road win over North Callaway last week. With the win, the Wildcats ensured their first winning regular season since the 2020 season. 

After fumbling the ball on the first play from scrimmage, Wright City responded with a defensive touchdown to take an early 6-0 lead. Duan McRoberts intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown to give Wright City the lead. 

“Duan did a good job of jumping the route, a hitch route underneath, he caught it and he took it to the house from there,” Wright City Head Coach Tyler Rickard said. “It was a good play on his part and a good job by our guys helping kind of spring him once he intercepted it to get him all the way in.”

Wright City extended their lead to 14-0 later in the quarter on Carle’on Jones’ 10-yard touchdown run. McRoberts scored on a 57-yard touchdown run later in the quarter to give Wright City a 20-8 lead at the end of the quarter. 

McRoberts threw a pair of touchdowns to Jones in the second quarter to extend Wright City’s lead. McRoberts hit Jones on a 20-yard touchdown pass early in the quarter and an 8-yard touchdown pass later in the quarter to give Wright City a 33-14 halftime lead. 

“We ran the ball really well and then we also were able to execute some big pass plays,” Rickard said. “We had fourth down completion to Carle’on in the second quarter on a 20-yard pass, we also had a 10-yard pass to him…We were able to throw enough to be effective and to help our running game out.”

North Callaway trimmed the Wright City lead to 33-20 heading into the final quarter with a third quarter touchdown. Wright City’s Denzel Dowdy scored on a pair of rushing touchdowns to give Wright City a 45-20 lead. North Callaway scored a touchdown later in the quarter. 

“We’ve been talking to them all week about making sure that our response to every event that we face both in football and in life has a direct result on the outcome,” Rickard said. “I thought that played out really well in our favor on Friday. We had some events that went not in our favor, but we always seem to respond in a positive and in the right way. And ultimately, that led to a positive outcome at the end.”

With the win, Wright City remained in contention to potentially win a conference championship. They will square off against the defending Eastern Missouri Conference champion Bowling Green (7-0, 5-0 EMO). The Bobcats are winning games by an average of over 46 points this season. 

“I’m really excited and our guys are really excited as well,” Rickard said. “This is a great opportunity for us to play for at least a share of the conference championship. And so I think they’re really motivated to go out and compete and play to win. And you can just kind of sense it just meeting with them today. That’s where they’re at. And so I’m excited, I’m fired up. I’m ready to go.”