Friday night brought a close to the 2018 Waynesville Tigers football season. The Tigers traveled to Willard and competed in the Class 5 District 5 Semi-Final game. With hopes of moving on to the District Title game, Waynesville quickly lost track of that opportunity. The Willard offensive line and defensive line proved to be a far greater obstacle to hurdle in the end.

On the offensive side, Waynesville found themselves stuffed by the Willard defensive line in their attempts to jump start the run game. A varied mix of pass and run defense by Willard kept the Tigers from finding their groove. Willard’s offensive line made lanes for their runners and protected their quarterback as they were able to tally up 28 first half points. Willard just simply over powered Waynesville on both sides of the ball.  Waynesville was able to score a late touchdown when Sophomore QB Michael Lewis completed a 44-yard pass to Junior WR Anthony Bledsoe.

Waynesville sends off 17 Seniors from the 2018 team; a group that had endured the struggles of the football program’s 24 game non-winning streak. This Senior class hung in and broke the streak when they pulled off a victory over Hillcrest 19-0 in week 4. This group parlayed the success against Hillcrest into a victory over Central High the following week. By the time Rolla rolled into Waynesville for a week 5 homecoming matchup, the Tigers were firing on all cylinders. At the time, Rolla was ranked #10 statewide in Class 4, and the Tigers pushed them to the limit. In one of the most exciting games of the season, Waynesville fell 34-28 in overtime. 2 weeks later, the Tigers closed out their Senior Night with a satisfying 53-14 victory over the Glendale Falcons.  The grit of the 2018 Tigers is what made them a unique group overall.

Waynesville finished the season in 6^th place in the Ozark Conference and completed the season with an overall record of 3-7.

All Conference Awards will be announced once each team from the Ozark Conference is no longer competing in the playoffs.