Pirates' Unterreiner joins 1,000-yard club in district win

Matt Unterreiner crashed through the 1,000-yard plateau for the 2004 football season in fine fashion Friday night, racking up 317 yards and scoring three touchdowns in Perryville's 49-30 victory against New Madrid County Central.

"That was one of the greatest performances I've ever seen," Perryville coach Rick Chastain said.

For good measure, Unterreiner added 124 yards in kick returns, including a 93-yard jaunt for a touchdown.

The second straight win for the Pirates (3-5) gave them a 1-0 mark in Class 3 District 1. New Madrid, the defending district champion, fell to 1-7.

"We saw some things that we could do offensively," Chastain said. "When you've got a running back like Matt Unterreiner, my game plan the last three or four games has been to find a way to run the ball."

Unterreiner, the second-leading rusher in the area, pushed his total for the season to 1,199 yards.

The Pirates finished the game with 401 yards of rushing.

Kicker Greg Wibbenmeyer was perfect on seven extra-point kicks, bringing his total to 16 conversions for the year. He also scored his second touchdown of the year on a 4-yard run.

Wide receiver Clinton Rice added a 21-yard touchdown run, and quarterback Cory Buerck snuck in for his sixth touchdown of the year.

Defensive lineman Matt Schamburg even got in on the scoring by recovering an NMCC fumble in the end zone.

"He and David Ochs had a really good ballgame on defense," Chastain said.

Perryville hosts Kennett on Friday in its second district game.

-- Larry Lewis

St. Vincent rolls

Another Perryville team racked up impressive numbers Friday night. St. Vincent hammered winless Chaffee 61-6 in its Class 1 district opener by piling up 349 yards of rushing on just 29 carries.

Five different running backs rushed for more than 40 yards, as the Indians advanced to 6-1 in pursuit of their second consecutive state playoff berth.

Dustin Winkler led the way with 75 yards on six carries, Kyle Kline added 66 yards on four carries, Luke Guyot had 64 yards on four carries, Waylon Richardet added 60 yards on three carries, and Luke Klump chipped in 43 yards on three carries. Richardet had two touchdowns while Winkler, Guyot, Klump and Daniel Ochs each scored one.

The passing game also was effective: Alex Armbruster completed 5 of 9 passes for 116 yards and three touchdowns. Joey Guilliams caught three balls for 89 yards and three touchdowns.

St. Vincent travels to Valle (5-2) this weekend in the hopes of setting up a winner-take-all finale with Hayti on Nov. 4.

Defense never rests

With 286 total yards of offense on Friday in the 27-7 victory against Poplar Bluff, the Central football team rolled up 256 more yards of offense than they had the prior week.

The Central offense had highlights -- Brandon Twiggs' 112 yards of rushing, Garrett Stevens' 119 yards of passing and two trick plays on a turnover-free night -- but had to battle the defense for the spotlight.

The Tigers limited the Mules to 113 total yards and may have pitched a shutout if not for a bad snap on a punt.

Twiggs, Marcus Rice and Ty Craft had some big hits on defense while Will Brown spent much of the night in Poplar Bluff's backfield. Central made 11 tackles for losses, including four sacks of Mules starting quarterback Mark Gum.

After completing one pass for 1 yard in the first half, Gum finished 8 of 21 for 81 yards. He was intercepted once.

Poplar Bluff featured back Todd Tinsley ran 25 yards around the left end on his second carry of the Mules' first drive, which ended with a missed field goal off the left upright, and had just 17 yards the rest of the night.

"They're obviously a great passing team," Central coach Lawrence Brookins said. "They put that fear in everyone they play. What you don't want to do is give them two apples. We told our players, 'Don't allow Tinsley to have a great game,' and they didn't."

Brookins said Garrett New played the part of Tinsley in practice last week, allowing the Tigers to learn his tendencies.

The team also had pep talks, first from Southeast Missouri State professor Dr. Tim Rademacker on Tuesday and Southeast baseball coach Mark Hogan on Wednesday.

"When you're 1-6, you try anything," Brookins said.

In addition a middle screen pass that covered 61 yards for one of Twiggs' three touchdowns, the Tigers pulled out a flea-flanker flanker reverse option. After Stevens handed to Twiggs, the running back flipped to former QB-turned-receiver Tyrone Reece, who pitched a 13-yard touchdown pass to a wide open Craft.

Central (2-6) sets up a crucial district matchup 7 p.m. Thursday at Houck Stadium against West Plains (4-4), a 35-0 winner against Sikeston in its district opener.

-- From staff reports