NMS 7th-grade football splits with Joplin

Nevada Daily Mail

The Nevada Tigers seventh-grade football team played two games against the Joplin Eagles North and East seventh and eighth-grade team, winning the first game, 20-12 and taking the loss in game two, 6-0.

Noah Jones/Daily Mail/ Lane Brooks and Joshua Gibbs celebrate as Kaden Denney (4) scores on a 60-yard kickoff return to give Nevada a 12-6 lead.

The first game was a full, four-quarter game and the second game was two quarters long and had no kickoffs.

After going scoreless in the first half, Kaden Denny rushed outside for 65-yards putting the Tigers up a score against the Eagles. The Eagles defense then stopped the Tigers point after attempt when they went for two points.

Joplin tied the game, 6-6, with 1:24 left in the second quarter but missed their attempt at a two-point conversion.

On the following kickoff, Kaden Denny handled the ball at the forty-yard line and danced around the Eagles special teams unit to score another touchdown. The Tigers went up 14-6 after completing the two-point conversion.

The second half ended with a 14-12 score and remained that way until the fourth quarter when the Tigers quarterback snuck in to the end zone with a two-yard sneak on fourth down.

With 2:11 remaining on the clock, Eagles running back, Trenton Mitchell, took the ball to the outside and was hit hard by Tigers, Riley Trotter. Mitchell stayed down for about 15 minutes, but moved his hands while being checked by trainers.

An ambulance drove up to the field and placed him on a stretcher. Mitchell scored two touchdowns for Joplin.

"He's going to be OK," Nevada trainer Kaylee Peery said. "He was mostly just scared." Mitchell was taken to get a CT scan at Nevada Regional Medical Center.

In the second game, Tigers' quarterback Trey Moore turned a hopeless rushing try through the Eagles defense and was hit out of bounds after a 50-yard rush. He then ran the ball for 15 yards, stiff arming his way to the sideline. Nevada quarterback Blake Pryor checked into the game inside the Joplin 20-yard line and immediately threw an interception caught in the end zone. At 4:06 in the final quarter, Joplin ran in a 35-yard touchdown, the only score of game two.