Blair, Bolivar bully Nevada in opener

By Joe Warren

Herald-Tribune

NEVADA, Mo. -- On a night when memories of undefeated seasons and conference championships were stoked, the Nevada Tigers and their fans were left dreaming of better times.

After a pregame ceremony to honor the induction of past Nevada football heroes into the NHS Athletics Hall of Fame, the current Tigers opened the season against the Bolivar Liberators of the Central Ozark Conference.

The experience for Nevada was hardly liberating.

Bolivar quarterback Spencer Blair amassed 359 yards of total offense and accounted for three touchdowns as the Liberators (1-0) downed the Tigers (0-1) 48-14 at Logan Field Friday.

Blair rushed for 160 yards on 11 carries, then threw for 199 more on 9-of-13 passing as the Tigers couldn't find an answer for Bolivar's dual threat signal caller.

"That quarterback is really quick," Nevada head coach John Skeans said after the game. "He did a good job of getting on the edge."

Nevada had particular trouble stopping Bolivar's various option plays. The Liberators often ran a straight triple option, and when they were delving into the passing game, they sprinted Blair out on bootlegs and roll-out passes, giving him the option to either throw the ball or run it himself.

Blair ran the offense to near perfection, taking advantage of his superior speed and accurate mid-range passing ability to make Nevada's defense pay, regardless of what they keyed on.

"We worked on (the option) in practice," Skeans said. "But in the game we couldn't get everybody covered."

Blair scored on runs of 82 and 40 yards, and threw a 60-yard scoring pass to tight end Brock Hale.

Nevada got touchdowns from Jacob Cherry and Colby Shepherd.

Cherry's score came on a 41-yard run in the second quarter after Bolivar had already staked a 20-0 lead.

The junior tailback made a host of Bolivar defenders miss and set up key blocks downfield with some nifty moves as he outran the Liberator secondary to the corner of the end zone, diving across the goal line while reaching the ball just inside the orange pylon for Nevada's first score of the season.

Cherry would be the biggest bright spot on offense for Nevada, as he rushed for 109 yards on 10 carries.

Bolivar's first three scores came in a variety of ways.

They opened the game with a 10-play, 65-yard drive that was methodical and physical, punctuating it with a 3-yard scoring run by senior Brayden Payne. After a blocked extra point, Bolivar led 6-0.

Later in the first quarter, Blair was sacked by Ryan Herda for an 8-yard loss, but on the very next play he kept the ball on a roll out to his left, and raced 82-yards down the sideline for his first score.

The Liberators converted the two-point attempt and took a 14-0 lead.

Blair's touchdown pass to Hale came on a similar play to his scoring run. Blair rolled to his right this time, drawing the Nevada defenders away from Hale, then Blair hit the tight end over the middle and the senior did the rest, going 60 yards for the score to make it 20-0 midway through the second quarter.

Bolivar led 20-8 at the half.

Blair's second run made it 26-8 early in the third.

Nevada followed with Shepherd's score, a 39-yard pass reception from quarterback Ronnie Herda.

The 5-8 Shepherd raced past Bolivar's 6-5 cornerback Caleb Medley and caught the ball in the right side of the end zone, just getting his two feet down in bounds to make the score 26-14. That was as close as the Tigers would get the rest of the way.

Bolivar would tack on three more scores, the final two coming while using second- and third-team players.

The Liberators amassed just under 500 yards of total offense. They rushed for 298 yards, and passed for 199.

Nevada wasn't silent offensively, gaining 331 yards themselves, 225 of those on the ground.

The Tigers did look out of sync many times offensively though. Three times in the game Nevada had to use timeouts to avoid delay of game calls, despite employing their own style of the no-huddle offense.

Twice they called time out prior to the first play of a series, because they couldn't get the play called in time.

Skeans blamed the game mismanagement on players not being where they were supposed to be.

"We had to sub a couple of guys in (and didn't get it done)," he said. "Especially when we got in the situation with our younger guys."

Prior to the game, members of the 1966 football team were honored, as they joined the NHS Athletics Hall of Fame. Also honored was their coach, Chuck Shelton, who joins the Hall as well. Jim Rice, a running back and defensive back from 1973 to 1975, was inducted for his individual accomplishments, which included two 1,000-yard rushing seasons.

Notes: Nevada was almost even with Bolivar in first downs. The Liberators had a 17-16 edge. ... Herda struggled throwing the ball, completing just 9-of-26 passes for 106 yards and two interceptions. He also lost a fumble. ... Herda also didn't get much help from his receivers, who dropped five balls.