Potosi's air attack guns down Pirates

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- It's not easy to upstage Potosi senior running back Brandon Bourbon.

The Trojans' offensive star, who has committed verbally to Stanford University, came into Friday night's game at Perryville High School with more than 900 yards rushing on the season and topped the 1,000-yard mark in a 35-7 victory against the Pirates.

However it was a junior tandem of strong-armed quarterback Matt Marler and speedy wide receiver Garth Rogers that played pinball with the scoreboard. The pair hooked up for four touchdowns in the first half that covered 212 yards and staked the Trojans to a 35-0 lead by intermission.

Rogers hauled in touchdown catches of 45, 16, 70 and 81 yards.

"He was just beating his guy every time," Marler said. "He told me he could get him every time, and he kept doing it. It was a good night."

Marler, who reportedly is receiving Division I interest, had thrown three touchdown passes in each of his last two games.

"He's a nice quarterback, and we saw that on film," Perryville coach Keith Winkler said. "We made a conscious effort to try and stop the running game first, and say, 'OK, if you're going to beat us with the pass, you're going to beat us with the pass,' and hopefully we could stop the pass, and it didn't happen."

Marler, who had his first four-touchown game passing, completed seven of his eight first-half attempts for 236 yards.

The first touchdown came just 43 seconds into the game on the second play from scrimmage. After Bourbon introduced himself with a 15-yard run on the first play, Rogers went up with Perryville's Jared Hotop for a Marler pass, came down with the ball and covered the remaining distance for a 45-yard score.

Rogers' next three touchdowns were more picturesque. Marler hit him on a 16-yard slant pattern with 4:49 left in the first quarter, then went over the top of the Perryville defense and hit Rogers in stride on a 70-yard scoring play down the left sideline 2 minutes into the second quarter.

"We thought there would be a lot more running than they showed," Perryville linebacker Andrew Martin said.

Dylan Wyrick briefly interrupted the Marler-Rogers show with a 3-yard touchdown run on Potosi's next possession.

Potosi's final possession of the half lasted just one play as Marler sent another long pass to the left side and hit Rogers in stride for an 81-yard touchdown.

"Their quarterback was making money throws," Winkler said. "He hit them in full stride. He didn't have to slow down or break stride and he put it away."

Bourbon carried nine times in the first half for 116 yards as the Trojans unleashed 379 yards of offense in the half. Perryville netted 85 yards of offense in the half.

"At first we didn't think Brandon was going to be able to play, and then we found out today that he was going to be able to play," Marler said. "We tried to start with the same game plan, but we wanted to come out and take some shots down the field the first couple plays, and we did that and got a touchdown."

Bourbon's status was in doubt much of the week after he mistakenly was ejected from Potosi's previous game after receiving two personal fouls. State rules call for an ejected player to be suspended for the next game, but the rules do not require an ejection after two personal fouls.

"We prepared for him all week," Winkler said. "We figured he was going to play. I think it would of been a shame if he didn't play tonight because it would of been a judgment of error, a technicality. A kid only has so many games as a high school senior, and to lose a game like that on a technicality, and it shouldn't of happened in the first place, would of been a tragedy for him.

"And we want to see the best. If we want to take the step up and be the caliber of team that Potosi is right now, we see where we've got to go and see what we've got to do."

Bourbon, who rushed for more than 2,400 yards as a junior, fittingly displayed his skills on a 38-yard run in the second quarter that put him over the 100-yard mark for the game and the 1,000-yard mark for the season. Originally headed for the left sideline, Bourbon found his route crowded with Pirates and cut back to the middle, and when that path closed, cut back to the sideline and then turned upfield. He fell three yards short of the end zone, but Wyrick scored on the next play.

"He's elusive," Perryville linebacker Ryan Kassinger said. "He's not really a power back. He wants to juke and cut back. He's good at those."

Perryville scored its touchdown in the fourth quarter when quarterback Garrett Flentge scored on a 21-yard run. Flentge led the ground attack with 42 yards on 18 carries.

Potosi played reserves most of the second half and added just 18 yards of offense to its first-half output. Perryville finished with 104 yards rushing on 36 attempts and 76 yards passing.

"It's tough, but we saw a lot of good things we improved on from last game," Martin said. "We had a lot more first downs and more positive yards. We need to cut down on the mental mistakes. We shot ourselves in the foot with a bunch of turnovers."

Perryville turned the ball over on four of its eight possessions in the first half and had five for the game.

"We just want to turn it around," Kassinger said. "The plan is to get back in practice this week and work our butts off to get a win at homecoming. That's what we plan on doing -- turn it around."

Potosi 14 21 0 0 -- 35

Perryville 0 0 0 7 -- 7

First Quarter

PO -- Garth Rogers 45 pass from Matt Marler (kick failed), 11:27

PO -- Rogers 16 pass from Marler (Brandon Bourbon run), 4:49

Second Quarter

PO -- Rogers 70 pass from Marler (kick failed), 10:04

PO -- Dylan Wyrick 3 run (Wyrick run), 9:16

PO -- Rogers 81 pass from Marler (Andrew Thurmond kick), 1:31

Fourth Quarter

PV -- Garrett Flentge 21 run (Andrew Martin kick), 4:03

PO PV

First downs 11 10

Rushes-yards 25-161 36-104

Passing yards 236 76

Passes 7-8-0 7-16-3

Punts 4-34.0 4-37.2

Fumbles-Lost 2-2 2-2

Penalties-Yards 1-5 2-25

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Potosi, Bourbon 10-116, Wyrick 7-42, Tanner Glore 1-(-3), Marler 1-(-5), Bryan Greer 4-3, Aaron Thompson 1-2, Beau Missey 1-6; Perryville, Ryan Kassinger 6-22, Jared Hotop 4-24, Flentge 18-42, Mitchel Lukefahr 3-(-12), Brandon Hudson 3-16, Jeff Baughman 1-11, Lee Thaxton 1-1.

PASSING -- Potosi, Marler 7-8-236-0; Perryville, Flentge 7-16-76-3.

RECEIVING -- Potosi, Rogers 4-212, Glore 2-20, Wyrick 1-4; Perryville, Martin 2-15, Jason Thieret 1-14, Joey Bauwens 1-16, Hotop 3-31.