The Cardinals earned a trip back to the Dome with a 35-14 win over the Cape Central Tigers on Saturday.
After falling behind early on a cold blustery day, Webb City answered back and took a 14-7 lead into halftime. Beginning near midfield after the Tiger score, the offense only needed 4 plays tie the score. Keaton Burroughs had a 24 yard run up the middle of the Tiger defense to get the ball to the 27 yard line, before finishing the drive on a counter play to the left that he cut back against the defense toward the right corner of the endzone.
A fumble by the Tigers on their next possession, recoved by Brandon Musselman at the Central 20, left the Webb City a short field to work with to take the lead. Kaleb Potts scored from 5 yards out as he took a sweep toward the left side and then back quickly into the end zone and Cory Duley added the extra point to give the Cardinals a 14-7 lead as the first quarter came to a close.
Each team had a long drive in the second quarter but could not find the endzone and the half ended with Webb City leading 14-7.
The Tigers took advantage of a Cardinal fumble on the first play of the second half and needed only five plays to tie the game 14-14 early in the third quarter.
Senior Nate Deadmond delivered the biggest play of the day later in the quarter as the Tigers were forced to punt. After the punt had bounced twice, Deadmond took it out of the air and danced his way down the sideline for an eighty yard touchdown run.
The defense held the Tigers on downs on their next possession. Hunter VanLue added to the lead when he broke off a 44 yard touchdown run on the sixth play of the next drive. The Cardinals found themselves leading 28-14 after three quarters.
Webb City finished the scoring early in the fourth quarter when Burroughs scored from 10 yards out.
The Cardinals will now travel to St Louis to meet Kearney in the state championship game on Friday. Kickoff is scheuduled at 1:00. Webb City will be looking for the sixth consecutive title and the fourteenth in program history.
Tickets will go on sale Monday at noon till Wednesday at noon. Price is $11. They can be purchased at the Central office, Mid-Mo bank (both downtown and Rangeline locations) and at the Rangeling and Zora location of Southwest Missouri Bank.