Charleston romps past Scott City, wins district

SCOTT CITY, Mo. -- The Charleston High School football team kept Scott City in a fog -- literally -- Friday night as the Blue Jays easily wrapped up their second straight Class 2A, District 2 title.

Much of the regular-season finale in Scott City was played under an extremely heavy fog cover that left most fans wondering what was happening on the field.

But the Blue Jays had no trouble at all as they rolled to a 44-0 victory. It was 38-0 at halftime and both squads played most of their reserves in the second half as the clock ran continuously under the mercy rule, employed whenever a team leads by 35 or more points in the final two quarters.

Charleston, which posted the school's best record since 1996, will carry an 8-2 mark into Wednesday's sectional playoff game at Portageville. The Blue Jays romped in all three of their district games.

Scott City finished its worst season in quite some time with a 3-7 record.

But much of the talk following Friday's game centered around the fog that left the head coaches -- who are both Scott City High School graduates -- shaking their heads.

"I'm 30 years old and I probably went to every football game here since I was old enough to get out," said Scott City coach Stephen O'Brien. "I have never seen the fog this thick."

Said Charleston coach Brent Anderson, "I've gone to games here since I was little. This has never happened before. It was unbelievable. Right in the middle of the field you could see but other than that is was tough."

Charleston started strong and never let up, scoring 18 points in the first quarter and 20 more in the second period.

Dontay Clark did much of the first-quarter damage. On the third play of the game the quarterback ran 58 yards for a touchdown. A short while later he hit Nelson French with a 28-yard TD pass. And late in the opening period, after the Rams had moved deep into Charleston territory, he intercepted a Jeremy Glastetter pass near the goal line and raced 100 yards for a TD.

"Dontay does so much for us," Anderson said. "He's a special talent."

Powerful back Jordy Mixon took over in the second quarter, scoring on runs of about 7, 5 and 40 yards.

Charleston's final TD, in the closing moments of the game, came on a 17-yard run by backup Trentez Lane.

"These are talented kids who have worked hard and it feels good to be in the playoffs again," said Anderson.

For Scott City, senior linebacker Andrew Estes broke the school's single-season tackle record that had been 124. And tailback Brad Glenn, despite being held to about 50 yards, finished the year with nearly 1,200 yards.