Showdown threatened

Ozark Catholic did its part to set up the showdown for the 1A-1 West Conference lead, but Mother Nature might not let it happen tonight.

The Griffins (22-5, 7-0) are scheduled to travel to The New School (22-3, 5-0) to battle for sole possession of first place in the league standings, but the threat of winter weather today may cause the game to be pushed back to a later time.

“We’re hoping to play,” Ozark Catholic Coach Cody Vaught said. “But it’s frustrating to be this way. The guys were already looking forward to this game and talking about it [Wednesday], and I’m sure The New School is looking forward to it, too. It’s not easy to push a game like this back when they want to play.”

Vaught said it would have been possible to play today’s game a day earlier had Ozark Catholic not had its game against Founders Classical Academy pushed back to Wednesday because of the weather. Vaught also pointed out the weather may also affect his team’s game Tuesday against Decatur, which will make the remaining schedule even tighter.

“It would have been hard for us to play games on back-to-back nights with little preparation,” Vaught said. “That’s the reason why we play a lot of games early. When we get to this point, I don’t like having many games because I want our team’s full effort when they play.

“Right now, we’re caught up in our schedule, and I hate to fall behind with another game against The New School, plus games left against teams like County Line and Mulberry. A delay is not what we want, but I think Mother Nature doesn’t care about that.”