The Globe is a small regional newspaper so it doesn't seem unusual to me. It's no different than one of the TV stations opening the sports segment with Webb City, which happens almost weekly. It was a high profile game that drew interest from a lot of people, even outside those two communities. In fact there was a second article about the same game, I think in Sunday's paper. The local media is very generous with their coverage of Webb City sports compared to other towns including Joplin, so I don't think it's unusual at all, especially given the nature and recent history of the CJ/WC game. In all reality it's one of the most exciting local sports events they get to cover.
Its called community support. Probably the lack of it is a big reason for Joplin never doing anything worth writing about
