Kelly's first varsity season ends against host Caruthersville

The seventh-seeded Kelly Hawks saw their inaugural varsity season end with a 63-18 loss to second-seeded Caruthersville in the first round of the Class 2 District 1 tournament.

"I'm proud of our kids," Kelly coach Kenneth Riedinger said of the season. "We competed and we got to play football for the first time at the varsity level. We'll get better and move forward, keep working and get after it. We're looking forward to next year."

The Tigers (6-4) led 22-0 after the first quarter and were up 43-0 before Kelly got on the board.

Kelly quarterback Kyle Fitzgerald completed a 25-yard pass to Dalton Huffman for a touchdown in the final seconds of the first half. A two-point conversion pass to Jacob Black made it 43-8 at the break.

Caruthersville scored the first 20 points of the third quarter before Kelly's Maurice Davis scored on a 70-yard touchdown run with two minutes left in the third for the final score.

The Tigers defeated Kelly 63-18 during the regular season.

"We got to experience Caruthersville twice now, and they're just a lot better football team than we are," Riedinger said. "It kind of allows us to gauge ourselves and see where we need to go to work and go from there."

Caruthersville's Daniel Fugate rushed for 158 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries while Tigers quarterback Peyton Faulkner rushed for 109 yards and a touchdown on six carries. He threw for three touchdowns on the night.

"We just couldn't tackle No. 34 [Fugate], and their quarterback did a really good job, too," Riedinger said.

Davis led the Hawks, who finished the season 4-6, with 98 yards rushing and one touchdown on five carries.

Valle Catholic 55, Chaffee 0

No. 8 Chaffee lost on the road to the defending Class 1 state champion Warriors to finish the season winless at 0-9.

"I think the main thing is that with all the adversity we had with injuries -- we lost [Trevor] Morehead, who was our all-state player -- our kids fought," Chaffee coach Charlie Vickery said of the season. "We were under-manned in a lot of instances, but they came out and were ready to practice every day, and didn't hang their heads and didn't quit."

Top-seeded Valle led 41-0 after the first quarter and added seven points in the second and third quarters.

"We knew going in that they're solid everywhere from the kicking game to offense and defense," Vickery said. "They do so many things offensively that it's really hard to prepare for. ... There's just so many weapons that they've got and they're so fundamentally sound and well-coached that it's really hard to do much with them, and that's the reason why they're the defending state champs and ranked No. 1."

Vickery said that facing the perennially-strong Warriors (10-0) was a good gauge for his players to see what the top teams are like.

"We told the kids that are coming back that we were glad we were able to play somebody like Valle because we need to see where we need to be," Vickery said. "They could see that first hand instead of hearing about it or reading about it. They could see how to get ready, and you've got to change the mindset."

Hillsboro 66, Perryville 18

The sixth-seeded Pirates' season ended on the road against third-seeded Hillsboro.

Perryville finished the season 2-8 for the second year in a row after winning its first two games of the season.