The Montgomery County Wildcats lost their second straight game on Sept. 11, when they dropped their Eastern Missouri Conference opener 54-6 at North Callaway.

Montgomery County had 80 yards on offense while the reigning conference champion Thunderbirds finished with 441 yards on offense.

Lafe McCurdy ran for a 25-yard touchdown in the third quarter to prevent the Wildcats from getting shut out, but head coach Matt Smith said something is clear after this loss and the previous week’s 33-6 loss to California at home.

“We don’t have a lot of vocal leaders,” Smith said. “Sometimes, you’ll get on people and be a leader. At some point, they’re either going to want to step up or get run over. It’s that simple.”

As for how leadership can emerge, Smith said experience matters. Montgomery County has eight seniors on its roster with McCurdy, Tyler Rodgers and Issac Hinkel all returning all-conference selections, so Smith said it starts with them.

“If you know what’s going on you can communicate to the rest of the team what’s going on,” the second-year MCHS coach said. “When you’re on defense, you’ve got to communicate what they’re doing on offense. They line up in this, the chance is that they might run this.”

Smith said the interior defense is mostly sophomores, and kids are moving around to unfamiliar spots. This leads to struggles against teams like North Callaway because Smith said younger kids aren’t as acclimated to the necessary level of physicality.

“That’s a really physical team and probably the best team in the conference,” Smith said. “We just didn’t show any fight back.”

Whether a player is bigger or smaller, Smith said it doesn’t matter as each kid needs to show some fight to avoid being pushed around.

North Callaway’s Coltyn O’Neal threw for five touchdowns and 235 yards on 13-for-20 passing and led the offense to a 54-0 halftime lead. MCHS was chasing the senior quarterback all over the field, but O’Neal still managed to complete multiple passes of more than 20 yards.

“We talked about and worked on it,” Smith said. “He does a great job. He never gets in a rush and puts the ball on the money when he rolls out. We just didn’t contain him and didn’t do much of anything. He just did whatever he wanted to.”

Smith added the North Callaway offensive line is a big unit, and Jaiden Galbreath has some size at running back and needs to be accounted for as well. Galbreath finished with 170 yards and one touchdown on seven carries.

Montgomery County plays the second game of a stretch of three straight road games at 7 p.m. on Sept. 18 against South Callaway (2-1). Smith said the Wildcats have more time to lay the foundation to avoid losses like the last two weeks.

“It’s just experience and earning your teammates’ trust,” Smith said. “If you’re one of the hardest working dudes, you work your butt off and do things right, if you tell guys to follow you, they’ll follow you.”