Monroe City’s defense tightens up after offensive blitzkrieg, beats Palmyra to win Mayor’s Cup

MONROE CITY, Mo. — Monroe City and Palmyra wasted no time in throwing punches.

The two Clarence Cannon Conference football rivals needed just 13 combined plays to score two touchdowns apiece in the opening 5 minutes, 58 seconds Friday night in the annual Mayor’s Cup game at Lankford Field.

“It was crazy,” Monroe City coach David Kirby said. “They were making some big plays, and we made some big plays. It was like two heavyweights just going at it, slinging haymakers, and those haymakers were hitting early.”

Monroe City withstood the early flurry, regrouped to score 22 straight points while its defense kept Palmyra out of the end zone until the final two minutes to post a 36-20 victory.

The victory was Monroe City’s fourth straight in the series and its eighth in the last 11 meetings. Importantly, it moves the winners ahead of Palmyra in both the CCC and district standings with three weeks remaining in the regular season.

“They’re a good football team,” Kirby said after his team improved to 4-2 overall and 3-1 in the CCC. “I wouldn’t be shocked if somewhere down the road we see them again.”

Quincy Mayfield ran for 98 yards and two touchdowns, Trey Smyser 86 yards and two more scores and Dylan Ross 81 yards and another touchdown to spearhead a Monroe City attack that piled up 295 of its 345 yards on the ground.

Meanwhile, quarterback Rylan Compton completed 15 of 24 pass attempts for 216 yards and a touchdown and ran for another score for Palmyra.

But Palmyra managed just 66 yards rushing on 31 attempts and was whistled for 12 penalties for 115 yards, including a holding call that erased a touchdown on its opening drive in the second half that could have made it a one-score game.

“You can’t let your foot off the gas, and you can’t become undisciplined,” Palmyra coach Dalton Hill said after his team lost for the first time in three CCC games and fell to 3-3 overall. “If you want to win these types of big games, you can’t make as many mistakes as we did. The penalties were drive killers.”

A 31-yard scamper by Smyser set up a 7-yard scoring run by Mayfield less than two minutes into the contest to stake Monroe City to an 8-0 lead.

Palmyra used two Compton-to-Tyler Spicknall completions to move the ball to the Monroe City 11 on its first possession, and Wyatt Augspurg scored from there on the next play. But Palmyra was called for a false start on the two-point try, and Smyser broke up Compton’s ensuing pass attempt at the goal line.

After a failed onside kick and a defensive holding call, Mayfield took a pitch, swept right and raced down the sideline from 40 yards out to give Monroe City a 14-6 lead.

Palmyra answered two plays later. Compton rolled to his right and found Raeson Miller behind the secondary in the middle of the field for a 58-yard touchdown with 6:02 remaining in the first quarter.

Compton hooked up with Spicknall on the initial two-point attempt that would have tied it, but Palmyra was called for holding. His ensuing pass sailed out of the end zone, keeping Monroe City on top 14-12.

That’s when the Monroe City defense took control. Palmyra didn’t record another first down until the third quarter.

“We just knew we had to let that adrenaline burn off and see who could play more dialed-in football,” Mayfield said.

Palmyra appeared to have Monroe City pinned deep in its own territory midway through the second period and was poised to regain possession when it was whistled for being offsides on third and 8 from the 18.

After the 5 yards were marked off, Mayfield picked up 2 yards and Kirby went for it on fourth down, with Jayden Holland powering his way for 5 yards and a first down.

Five plays later, Ross went off left tackle and outraced the secondary for a 55-yard touchdown run to make it 20-12.

An Augspurg fumble then gave Monroe City possession at the Palmyra 43. Monroe City ran the ball seven straight times, with Smyser scoring on an inside reverse from 8 yards out with 49.8 seconds remaining to boost the lead to 28-12.

“The thing about our offense is we’ve got a lot of different weapons, and we’ve got a lot of different ways that we can score,” Kirby said. “We’ve just got to keep grinding and grinding.”

Monroe City nearly scored again, but Ross was dragged down at the 2 as time expired after hauling in a 31-yard pass from Wyatt DeGrave.

Given a reprieve, Palmrya took the second half kickoff and marched from its own 33 to the Monroe City 14, chewing up nearly six minutes. Augspurg appeared to score from there, diving at the pylon after racing around end, but it was negated by a holding call and the drive fizzled.

The only scoring in the second half came on a 48-yard burst up the middle by Smyser with 8:25 to go and Compton’s 10-yard run after he evaded the rush on fourth-and-goal with 2:26 left.

Monroe City travels to Lawson for a non-conference game next week, while Palmyra will attempt to snap a two-game losing streak when it faces Clark County.

“There were some things we did exceptionally well, and I’m proud of several of our players,” Hill said. “We just didn’t do enough things well to come away successful.”