BRANSON — Turned out Austin McCracken needed to feel the crack of his helmet and crush of an opposing defender upon his shoulder pads to get settled in for his varsity debut Friday.
The Nixa quarterback received such a gift of sorts from Branson on the Eagles' opening possession, as he was sacked.
"It was the best thing for me," McCracken said. "I was pretty nervous going in. I said I wasn't, but I was. That was a big relief. Once I got sacked, I thought to myself, 'Dang, I need to step it up. It's time to play.' It calmed me down.'
McCracken proceeded to enjoy the most productive passing night any Nixa QB has ever enjoyed. The sophomore sub for suspended signal-caller Reid Potts set a single-game school record with four touchdown passes and the Eagles blew out Branson 42-6.
One play after being sacked, McCracken set the tone for the night by delivering an 18-yard touchdown pass to Smith Wheeler on fourth-and-eight. It was fitting McCracken fed Wheeler, after Wheeler had been providing him words of encouragement.
"Austin had been nervous all day at school," said Wheeler, who made his varsity debut Friday, as well. "Any chance I got to see him, I told him to calm down and it was going to be all right. I had to remind him that this was my first varsity game, too and that we're going into this together. He said he wanted to do good and make no mistakes. He nailed it."
"I'm really proud of Austin," new Eagles coach John Perry said. "Today was his best day. That was better than any scrimmage and better than any practice. You love to see, as a coach, that a kid can actually pick it up a notch or two when the lights come on."
Nixa put up two touchdowns in each of the first three quarters en route to turning the turbo clock on midway through the third quarter. All four of the Eagles' touchdowns in the first half were through the air.
After McCracken found Wheeler to open the scoring, he hit Michael Sportsman for a pair of eight-yard touchdown passes and tossed a two-yard touchdown pass to Nate Nixon.
"Honestly, I thought I would be running the ball more," McCracken said.
Apparently, so did Branson. The Pirates were keying on running back Ramone Green and all but dared McCracken to throw. Perry obliged by calling for a pass without hesitation.
"You need to be able to throw the forward pass if they're going to stack the box and put eight guys in there to try to stop the run," Perry said.
The slant route proved particularly effective for Nixa receivers.
On his touchdown, Wheeler separated himself from his defender by running a slant. It was the route he had been preparing himself for all week.
"Coach sent me three emails of NFL plays this week and he said, 'Watch these routes,'" Wheeler said. "I watched them and practiced them and sure enough, we did a slant on fourth-and-eight."
"I saw slant and pumped a fake and let it go," McCracken said. "I thought I under-threw it at first."
Sportsman also found success on a slant by gaining position on his defender to set himself up for passes in the chest from McCracken.
"Normally, we run three-step slants where we run three steps and push (the defender's) outside shoulder and cut in front of his face," Sportsman said. "That gets him behind me and gets me open. You have to use your hands and your feet. Then, Austin knew exactly where to throw it."
McCracken showed that even at 5-foot-8, he could see over lineman and read the coverage.
"They had one safety and whichever side he went to, I threw to the other side and our guy was wide open," McCracken said. "The linebacker went with the bubble and the slant was open every time I threw it. I was reading the outside linebacker. If he went with the bubble, I'd throw the slant and if he went back, I'd throw to the bubble. He went to the bubble every single time."
Where does McCracken go from here? He dismissed any notion of a quarterback controversy by conceding Potts is Nixa's starting quarterback. Potts was sidelined for the opener due to his ejection in Nixa's finale last season, per MSHSAA rules.
We haven't seen the last of McCracken by no means. He doubles as a receiver.
"I'll go back to slot," he said. "I'm just trying to win football games. Whatever my team needs, I'll do. Reid is a great quarterback and he'll do great."
McCracken added he couldn't have asked for more out of Nixa's upperclassmen, as they embraced him in practices leading up to the game.
"A sophomore quarterback, usually they'd be a little iffy about it," he said. "But they've been great about it. They're great teammates and we're a great family."
Photos of the game can be found here.
Eagles 42, Branson 6
Eagles 14 14 14 0 - 42
Branson 0 0 0 6 - 6
Scoring
N - Wheeler 18 pass from McCracken (James kick)
N - Sportsman 8 pass from McCracken (James kick)
N - Nixon 2 pass from McCracken (Janes kick)
N - Wheeler 8 pass from McCracken (James kick)
N - Nelson 15 int. return (James kick)
N - Hammit 3 run (James kick)
B - Blackwell 13 pass from Pierce (kick no good)
