Van-Far had a two-point lead in the fourth quarter Friday at Wright City.

The Indians had just set a new season-high in points after quarterback Nikos Connaway ran in a score that followed the set up from Gage Gibson’s 53-yard return, but Wright City scored the final 15 points to defeat Van-Far 41-28.

Van-Far finished with a season-high 290 rushing yards on 46 carries, with fullback Brandon Eoff leading the way with 129 yards and two touchdowns on 25 carries. Nikos Connaway and Gage Gibson each scored a touchdown as Connaway ran for 91 yards on seven carries and Gibson had 70 yards on 14 carries.

Head coach Lucas Gibson said there were a couple instances the offense was just a yard short of converting on fourth down. The offense couldn’t match the efficacy of Wright City’s, but Gibson said a 13-0 first-quarter lead Wright City had set a bad tone for the night.

“We were literally one yard of converting for first down on two drives but just didn’t quite make it,” Gibson said. “We can do better by not spotting them 13 points before we get started. We battled back into halftime and then we lost by 13 points.”

Gibson had an interception that gave Van-Far a chance to get on the scoreboard after falling behind by 13, which the Indians did with a two-point conversion. Van-Far lost a fumble after recovering an onside kick but still led 22-19 at halftime.

The Indians’ first drive of the second half stalled, but Wright City’s didn’t so the Wildcats had a 26-22 lead. Gibson said Van-Far did have issues tackling Wright City running back Duan McRoberts, who had 317 yards and four rushing touchdowns.

“They do have a good running back,” Gibson said. “We couldn’t bring him down a couple times so there were long runs and missed tackles.”

With some injuries that are cropping up for Van-Far, including the starting left tackle being out Friday because of a broken ankle, Gibson was impressed how a few players stepped up despite not playing a lot previously. Defensive end Tyrece Cole, who led the team with five tackles and two tackles for loss, and safety Kasen Christian are a couple that come to mind.

“(Cole) had a great game and made some big stops,” Gibson said. “Kasen Christian got an interception. Some that normally don’t see the field as much got on there and showed out.”

Gibson said he thought his team’s performance against a Class 3 Eastern Missouri Conference opponent is still a sign Van-Far (1-4, 1-3 EMO) is going in the right direction but wants get better at its strategy starting with North Callaway (3-2, 2-1 EMO), who won 34-22 at Mark Twain in Week 5, on the road Friday.

“We’re getting better,” Gibson said. “We had a good week this week other than some kids getting hurt. The kids are starting to get what we’re trying to do – the way we’re trying to run the games, control the clock, control the game. You can’t start out behind when we’re trying to do that.”

Softball

Van-Far drops 20 at Wellsville for victory

After the recent offensive issues, Van-Far let loose Monday at Wellsville-Middletown.

The Lady Indians scored a season-high 20 runs on 12 hits to defeat the Lady Tigers 20-4 in six innings and snap a four-game losing streak. The scoring output is the most for a Van-Far team since its 23-7 district win against Elsberry in 2018 and helped the Lady Indians secure their first Eastern Missouri Conference victory.

Sophomore Dalana Gay led thre way with six RBI on a 2-for-5 day that included her first home run of the season. The long ball was a grand slam in the middle of a 10-run sixth inning for the Lady Indians that started on a leadoff home run by Mara Jensen — her third of the year. 

Jensen finished 2-for-4 with four runs scored and a double, Hailey Lowry went 2-for-5 with three runs, two RBI and a triple, and Kayla Sutton had two RBI. Jensen struck out seven in six seven-hit innings with four unearned runs as the only blemishes.

Mark Twain tied Van-Far at 2 in the first inning on a double but six errors helped Van-Far build a 6-2 lead after two innings and then a 10-2 advantage in the fourth inning after Lowry drove in a couple on a triple and crossed the plate later on a passed ball.

Van-Far (4-9, 1-6 EMO) hosted Class 1 No. 4 Silex (10-8, 4-2 EMO) on Tuesday before it plays at Community R-6 (8-10) on Thursday.

Cross country

Childs finishes 22nd in Elsberry Invitational

Van-Far's Erin Childs was in the middle of the pack Monday .

Childs finished 22nd out of 34 runners at the Elsberry Invitational with a time of 26:58.60. Richard Hayden ran for the Indians in the boys 5K, taking 37th out of 42 runners with a time of 26:21.09.

Winfield's Kadence Berry won the girls 5K with a time of 20:14.02, and St. Louis Blue Knights' James Wamsley won the boys race with a time of 18:04.76.