Jace Ellis and Dayton Simmons made sure the Montgomery County football team wasn’t going to lose to the Hermann Bearcats again on Aug. 25.

The Montgomery County seniors helped their team pull off a 27-21 road win over Hermann by turning in the biggest play of their brief high school football careers with 10:39 remaining in the fourth quarter. Ellis threw a 23-yard touchdown pass to Simmons to break a 14-14 tie.

“Last year was our first year playing (football),” Ellis said. “Now, we can come out here and do some special stuff like this.”

The Wildcats won at Hermann for the second time in three years. In 2021, MCHS cruised past the Bearcats 31-16, snapping an eight-game losing streak to its Highway 19 rivals.

Last year, the Wildcats lost 25-13 to Hermann at home. This year, MCHS came back from a 14-0 deficit to pull off a win in a contest that took over three hours to play.

“We were down 14-0 and our guys were still plugging,” MCHS coach John Klekamp said. “A lot of times, our kids would head back down from a situation like that and start looking at each other and blaming each other. We didn’t have that.”

The Wildcats will look to go to 2-0 on Sept. 1, when they take on Monroe City at 7 p.m. in a Week 2 game on the road. Ellis said he has high hopes for his team for the rest of the season after getting the win over Hermann.

“I told my brother (Colby) that this will set the tone for our season,” the senior quarterback said. “It’s not a must-win game, but we needed this game for confidence. We put in a new offense, so it’s awesome to see it work and see people having success. It’s awesome to see everyone contributing right now.”

Ellis and Simmons played baseball together for many years before deciding to play football for the first time last fall. Ellis, a two-time all-state selection in baseball, turned in a strong first season for the Wildcats, finishing with 47 tackles and 4.5 sacks, while Simmons played only two games.

Simmons joined the football team in Week 5 of the 2022 season.

“I always wanted to play, but I never got the chance to,” Simmons said. “Halfway through the year, something clicked in my mind. I wanted to play football. I want to do this. Next year, which is this year now, I want to come out here and do special things. That’s the plan. That’s what I want to keep doing.”

Klekamp said he is optimistic Simmons will turn in a strong season.

“Dayton is a kid who is a tremendous athlete,” the MCHS coach said. “I told people before that Dayton is maybe one of our best athletes in our high school. He has worked really hard and is committed to something. If you’re going to play this sport, you have to commit. He played last year, but he wasn’t as committed. He hasn’t missed a single practice.”

Simmons caught Ellis’ TD pass on first down and 10 to give the Wildcats a 21-14 lead. His first high school football touchdown ended an 11-play, 68-yard drive that began late in the third quarter.

“There were no words to describe it, especially coming from not playing at all last year and barely getting any reps to coming out here, being a starter, getting a touchdown and making catches,” Simmons said. “It’s just awesome.”

Ellis finished with four touchdown passes. He also threw two TD passes to Mason Leu in the final minute of the second quarter and a TD pass to Landon Massey with five minutes to go in the game.

Ellis said he was excited about being the starting quarterback in a contest that pushed back its starting time to 8 p.m. due to the heat.

“I got up at 5:30 that morning and I wanted to play then,” Ellis said. “Then, they pushed the game back a couple of days before. I just wanted to play. We talked about it all day. We met at the bakery (Sugar & Spice Laura’s Delights) that morning and hung out. We’re super close. It’s awesome.”