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Photo Credit: PrepsKC staff

Columbia, Mo. — Members of the Maryville football team will tell you they never doubted the fact they’d be playing for a state championship.

Even after dropping a pair of regular season games by a combined 60 points, they believed they would find themselves at midfield of Faurot Field hoisting the Missouri Class 3 Championship trophy.

Call it the power of positive thinking.

The Spoofhounds did just that on Saturday, rolling past Mount Vernon 47-9 in a game that felt decided midway through the first quarter.

“The first loss we had, we didn’t really play like a team,” senior Jacob Reuter said. “On down the road we thought we were going to start playing like a team and then we knew we had to get ourselves together. As soon as we got to the playoffs we knew there wasn’t going to be a chance (we would lose).”

Maryville, who won its first state title since 2013 and fifth all time, jumped out to a quick 20-0 first quarter lead behind a fast start from Eli Dowis. The junior running back, ran for 135 yards and three touchdowns. He ran for 133 of those in the first half.

The big opening quarter turned the game into a celebration for Maryville who finished 13-2.

Even with the huge start for the Spoofhounds, a Mt. Vernon penalty got things rolling for Maryville. On the opening drive, Maryville was stopped and punting on 4th and 18. A personal foul on the punt game Maryville the ball back and they didn’t slow down.

“I think it’s was (big),” Maryville coach Matt Webb said of the opening drive.”It’s the first drive. When you are playing at Faurot Field for a state championship that touchdown loosed us up mentally. Obviously I think we were able to continue to establish that, but it was a big momentum thing right off the bat.”

It was just that kind of day for the Mountaineers. Trailing 33-0 Mt. Vernon intercepted Maryville and tried to regain all the momentum it lost on the opening drive. After picking up just its second first down of the game, that quickly went away as well when Tate Oglesby hauled in an interception and returned it 26 yards to make it 40-0 at the half.

For as impressive as this victory was offensively, the Spoofhounds defense was equally strong. The Mountaineers finished with 168 total yards. In the decisive first half, Mt. Vernon had just 67 yards and two first downs.

They did find the scoreboard in the second half when Will Boswell scored on a five-yard receptioni from Ty Boswell. On the ensuing possession, the Mountaineers blocked a punt and picked up a field goal to close the gap to 40-9.

“I think our defense played really well. It starts with stopping the run and taking them out their game plan. The coaches came up with a great game plan of stopping the run and making them do something they aren’t used to doing.”