Scott City snap losing skid with win over Perryville

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- After suffering three straight losses, the Scott City Rams were eager to show they still had some fight left in them.

The Rams did just that by scoring four first-half touchdowns and spoiled Perryville's homecoming festivities on their way to a 28-13 win over the Pirates on Saturday afternoon at Perryville High School.

Scott City (4-5) suffered a late loss last week at home. The Rams struggled to play good defense down the stretch against Red Bud, Illinois, which defeated Scott City 36-34 on a late game-winning touchdown with 55 seconds to go.

"We've lost too many close games this year already," said Scott City quarterback Braden Cox, who had two rushing and two passing touchdowns to lead the Rams on Saturday. "It feels great to kind of get back to winning and forget about those losses. I'll defenitely have a better weekend now, compared to others where a loss has just kind of hung over my head and stuck with me."

Perryville (2-7) turned the ball over on downs on its opening possession, and Cox carried the ball four times for 62 yards to give the Rams their first lead of the game on a 52-yard run with 6 minutes, 33 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

The Rams ran an option to the right side of the field. Cox kept the ball and appeared to be tackled at his own 48-yard line. However, the Pirates' defender who tackled Cox never made sure his knee had touched the ground before easing up on his grasp. Cox, who realized his knee had never touched the ground, popped up and found an open lane down the right sideline to score. Cox scored on a two-point conversion following the touchdown to extend the lead to 8-0.

"I guess he thought I was down, but I knew I wasn't down so I jumped up and took off," Cox said with a laugh. "I've seen that play on SportsCenter a couple times, like when college or NFL players do it, but I was just like, 'Wow, I can't believe I just did that.'"

The Rams got the ball back with three minutes to play in the first quarter after forcing the Pirates to punt for the second straight drive.

Scott City started on its own 13 and picked up two first downs before Cox found a wide-open Nick Bickings running up the middle of the field. Cox completed the pass to Bickings, who shook a defender and scored on a 69-yard reception with 1:39 left in the first quarter.

Bickings, a junior who has spent time on varsity and JV this season, said he had been working on that same route with Cox this week in practice.

"I hadn't been running that route completely right this season, but we worked on it a lot and I fixed it," Bickings said. "He sees me really well. Before the huddle, he told me it was coming my way because we had seen them kind of come off that route a few plays before. I ran a quick out then just shot up the seam, and the ball was right there."

Perryville had a chance to make it a one-possession game during its next drive. The Pirates started at Scott City's 43 and ran nine plays to get it down to the 1-yard line. But the Rams defense held strong, stopping the Pirates on three straight plays to set up a fourth-and-goal.

The Pirates ran a quarterback draw from the shotgun formation on the following play. Brandon Renaud was stopped for no gain, and the Rams took over on downs.

"I told our boys I wanted 11 heads to the ball on every play, and they really came through for us today," Scott City coach Jim May said. "It was on that play and many more. They're the real reason that we didn't need to score any more points in the second half."

Perryville made up for it three plays later when Trevor Green recovered a fumble to give the Pirates the ball at the Rams' 14-yard line. Two plays later, the quarterback Renaud found Austin Mills in the back of the end zone for a 28-yard touchdown strike. Kameron Fears tacked on the extra-point to make it 14-7.

Cox scored his second rushing touchdown of the game with 2:32 remaining in the half on a 1-yard run. The sophomore quarterback finished with 23 carries for 168 yards.

Jaden Kaiser intercepted Renaud during Perryville's next drive, and the Rams scored five plays later when Cox connected with Scott City sophomore Nick Bickings for a 21-yard touchdown.

Bickings got the chance to start in his first-ever varsity game after May noticed his speed.

"He was playing in a JV game last week and looked really impressive, really fast," May said. "We actually put it in a package just for them and he did an exceptional job with it whenever he had opportunities."

Scott City ran the ball to consume clock for most of the second half and finished with 237 total rushing yards.

Perryville added a late touchdown with 1:39 remaining in the game when Renaud hit Green for a 15-yard touchdown to make it 28-13.

The Rams will now look ahead to the postseason, where May said they'll have to continue playing for four quarters.

"It's always nice to win especially losing right at the end the last two weeks," May said. "We felt like we played a four-quarter football game today, and that's what it's going to take to win from here on out. If we don't play like we did today in a district game it's going to get ugly fast. We'll have these guys on their toes and be ready to play."

Scott City 14 14 0 0 -- 28

Perryville 0 7 0 6 -- 13

First Quarter

SC -- Braden Cox 52 run (Cox two-point conversion), 6:33

SC -- Nick Bickings 69 pass from Cox (failed two-point conversion), 1:28

Second Quarter

P -- Austin Mills 28 yards pass from Brandon Renaud (Kameron Fears kick), 6:26

SC -- Cox 1 run (Caleb Sykes two-point conversion), 2:32

SC -- Caden Hilleman 21 pass from Cox (failed two-point conversion), 59 seconds

Fourth Quarter

P -- Trevor Green 15 pass from Renaud (kick no good), 1:39

SC P

First downs 17 13

Rushes-yards 38-237 28-123

Passing yards 166 210

Passes 9-21-1 15-27-2

Punts 3-20.3 1-47

Fumbles-Lost 1-1 1-0

Penalties-Yards 9-90 4-45

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Scott City, Braden Cox 23-168, Caleb Sykes 13-63, Nick Bickings 2-6; Perryville, Brandon Renaud 16-45, Austin Mills 8-10, Trevor Green 2-6, Blake Mattingly 1-3, Aaron Mueller 1-(-4)

PASSING -- Scott City, Braden Cox 8-21-166-1; Perryville, Brandon Renaud 14-26-188-2, Trevor Green 1-1-22-0

RECEIVING -- Scott City, 2-62, Caden Hilleman 3-49, Austin Spriggs 3-39, Drew Short 1-15; Perryville, Trevor Green 6-91, Austin Mills 3-53, Holden Stortz 2-42, Garrett Dix 5-41, Brandon Renaud 1-22, Aaron Mueller 1-7.