Rams crash Hawks’ homecoming with 63-6 drubbing

For the second consecutive week, the Scott City Rams scored over 60 points in a win.

Unlike last week, the Rams did it against an undefeated opponent by clobbering Kelly 63-6 on Friday in Benton, Mo.

The Rams started the scoring with an eight-yard touchdown run by senior running back Tyson Underwood, who had 180 rushing yards and three touchdowns on the night.

“Tyson is Tyson,” Scott City coach Jim May said. “He’s going to run hard and get downhill. We’ve been able to get ahead, and when you get ahead you're going to run the football more. So he's getting carries.”

On the other side, the Hawks' inability to bring the senior down has also contributed to Underwood’s success.

“Just a combination of not wrapping up and not getting off the block,” Kelly coach Lance Powers said. “Just a rough night for us on defense.”

Scott City followed Underwood’s scoring run, the Rams scored a pair of passing touchdowns but with different passers. Senior quarterback Mark Panagos, later threw to senior receiver Gavin Venable for a 22-yard score to put the Rams up 21-0 in the first quarter. It was the senior receiver's first touchdown of the season.

"It's nice to see him get into the end zone," May said. "He's been close a couple of times and just had not had the lucky breaks."

Venable is one of the area leaders in receptions with 23 and has 263 yards through the first six games of the season.

"He's caught a lot of balls," May said. "He's one of our best receivers and I was happy for him to get into the end zone."

Their next score came from a little trickery. Jackson Gloth lined up in the slot, received a handoff from Panagos in motion, then threw to AJ Hayden for a 60-yard touchdown.

“The corner came down, so I popped it over the corner for a perfect pass and a touchdown,” Gloth said. “I was a little nervous but we’ve been practicing it all week.”

Panagos then scored two rushing touchdowns and threw a 30-yard touchdown to Gloth in the second quarter.

“Jackson has been our quarterback at times this year and he's a really good quarterback,” May said. “He's just behind Mark (Panagos), so he plays the slot.”

The passing opened up more space for the Rams to run wild on the Hawks. Underwood closed the first half and opened the second half with a rushing touchdown and freshman Chase Knight rounded out the scoring with a 17-yard rushing touchdown of his own late in the third quarter.

“The passing game has kept some defenses from loading the box against us,” May said. “If you load the box, you gotta be able to throw it. We can throw it well enough to make that happen.”

Kelly’s only score came on a four-yard rushing touchdown by senior running back Reece Eftink, who now has seven touchdowns and 742 rushing yards on the season.

The Rams defense held the Hawks to 19 passing yards and 50 rushing yards. Blake Wilburn and Levi Senn led the Rams with 10 tackles each.

“There are times we did well and there's times we didn’t,” Powers said. “Once that started snowballing, it was hard for us to dig out. We had opportunities. We took our shots downfield offensively, we just didn't connect.”

With the win, Scott City improves to 4-2 and keeps the Rams in third place in the SEMO South standings behind Kelly (5-1) and Portageville (5-1).

“We're starting to get healthy,” May said. “We’ve had a rough patch the first part of the year with some kids getting banged up, and we're starting to get healthier. We're starting to roll a little bit and our goal was to try and be 100% and be the best we can at the end of the year when it matters. And so, we're just gonna keep plugging along.”

Scott City takes on rival Chaffee on the road on Friday, Oct. 6.

Kelly looks to rebound at Hayti and get their sixth win of the season.

"No one likes losing," Powers said. "We don't condone losing here in our football program. We got to get right back up and we got another opponent next Friday."