NEW MADRID HANDS TIGERS 1ST LOSS

NEW MADRID -- Cape Central coach Lawrence Brookins was worried that New Madrid County Central's slippery quarterback, Byron Minner, would be hard to contain.

Ultimately, it wasn't Minner's legs that beat the Tigers.

It was his arm.

Minner connected on two long touchdown passes to Brian Murph and that was basically the difference as the sixth-ranked Eagles downed Cape Central 20-7 Friday night at New Madrid County Central High.

"I told the guys that once they look at the video tape, they'll see it was a few little things that hurt us," Brookins said. "A missed assignment here, a missed tackle there, a bad read here, a missed block there. . . It wasn't any one person, one group or one position. It was just some little things."

The biggest "little thing" was a missed tackle at the 9:00 mark of the third quarter. Minner found Murph over the middle and he turned a 12- to15-yard pass into a 57-yard touchdown. Murph broke one tackle and was off to the races. That score deflated the Tigers, who were trailing 14-7 at that point.

"They were outside conscious and they had people flying to the ball," said New Madrid coach Ron Jones. "We set up those pass plays off the run."

New Madrid scored its first touchdown with 2:46 to go in the first quarter when Minner connected with Murph from 46 yards out. After a missed extra point attempt, the Eagles led 6-0.

On Central's next possession, Zac Fidler, who was injured last week, ran a reverse for 44 yards to the 1-yard line which set up an O.J. Turner touchdown.

Central took the lead 7-6 on a PAT by Brian Emmendorfer.

New Madrid responded in its next possession by driving 54 yards on 11 plays which was capped off by a 1-yard sneak for a touchdown by Minner. A two-point conversion gave New Madrid a 14-7 lead, where it remained at halftime.

Other than the long touchdown pass in the third quarter, the second half was all defense.

Central held New Madrid to just 26 yards rushing in the second half.

But the Tiger offense didn't fare any better.

Central managed just 79 yards rushing on 29 attempts on the night, 57 yards coming two carries by Fidler.

The Tigers didn't manage better through the air.

Quarterback Jeff Dunaway completed 6-of-16 passes for 20 yards, giving Central 99 yards of total offense for the game.

"We just couldn't get anything going offensively," Brookins said. "I told the team to forget about this fast. There's a lot of football left to play."

But Central may not want to forget how it played defense.

New Madrid averaged less than three yards per carry, rushing for 146 yards on a whopping 50 attempts.

Coupled with 105 passing yards, New Madrid managed 251 yards of total offense.

"My hat's off to coach Brookins," Jones said. "He's really pulled them together. The fans should be proud of Cape Central."

Friday's results

New Madrid 20, Cape Central 7

Jackson 42, Sumner 6

Scott City 27, Portageville 14

Ste. Genevieve 27, Perryville 14

St. Vincent 44, Brentwood 6

Sikeston 33, Charleston 14

Poplar Bluff 20, Blytheville 15

East Prairie 31, Corning 7

Malden 39, Hayti 20

Kennett 26, Caruthersville 20

Dexter 48, Jonesboro Westside 13

Anna-Jonesboro 21, Benton 20

Massac County 53, Cairo 6