SCOTT CITY SCORCHES E. PRAIRIE WITH 49 POINTS IN FIRST HALF, WINS 56-0

SCOTT CITY -- Just about everybody expected Scott City High's football team to roll past East Prairie Friday night.

And all those people were right on the money with their assessment of the SEMO South Conference mismatch, won by the Rams 56-0.

Scott City, which led 49-0 at halftime and used mostly reserves in the second half, improved to 2-1 overall and in the conference.

East Prairie, which starts a host of sophomores, fell to 0-3 overall and 0-2 in league play. The Eagles have allowed 123 points while scoring just six points.

"It went better than what we had hoped tonight," said Scott City coach Roy Williams. "We were hoping to get 30, 35 points in the first half and we ended up getting 49. We stunned them pretty good."

And it's not like Scott City ran things up. The Rams were able to score so much in the first half because of five East Prairie turnovers that resulted in five Scott City touchdowns.

"They kept giving us the ball in great field position," Williams said. "There wasn't a whole lot we could do about the score. We got all the younger guys in the game in the second half."

Matt Underwood, the area's leading rusher last season with more than 1,800 yards, had his first real breakout game of the season, rolling up 205 yards on 26 carries and scoring three touchdowns. Underwood did all his damage in the first half.

"We were trying to get Matt going," said Williams. "He didn't have a touchdown the first two games. We pointed at 200 yards and two touchdowns and he got more than that."

The final yardage figures were as lopsided as the score. Scott City rolled up 433 yards of offense, 325 coming in the first half. The Rams, who had 17 first downs, rushed for 384 yards, sophomore Marcus Klund adding 74 yards on eight second-half carries.

East Prairie managed just 42 yards of offense, including 37 on the ground. The Eagles had only three first downs and never crossed midfield.

Quarterback Scott Johnston opened the scoring with a 5-yard run less than five minutes into the game and Lucas Ward kicked the first of his eight straight conversions.

Scott City then broke the contest wide open with 28 points in a span of 1:02 late in the first quarter.

Underwood scored from one yard out after a Brad Glenn interception; Underwood scored from 28 yards after Brett Howell recovered a fumble on the kickoff; Johnston hit Carl Lange with a 49-yard TD pass after Justin Wilhelm recovered a fumble on the kickoff; and Underwood went over from three yards after David Enderle recovered a fumble on the kickoff.

The Rams tackled on two more touchdowns in the second period, on Enderle's 6-yard run and Johnston's 18-yard run after a Jacob Ressel interception.

Scott City's only second-half TD came on Jerod Schenimann's 1-yard run early in the fourth quarter. The second half was played with the clock constantly running, which happens whenever a team leads by 35 or more points after halftime.

The Rams will host Perryville next Friday night.