Scott City stumbles at Hayti

~ The Rams allowed 290 yards rushing in their 43-7 defeat.

HAYTI -- Scott City coach Ronnie Jones knew about Hayti's big-play offense.

But the Indians' big-play defense also scored two touchdowns while shutting down the Rams for most of Friday night in a 43-7 victory.

Scott City fell to 4-3 on the season and 3-2 in the SEMO South Conference.

Hayti, ranked No. 3 among Class 1 schools in the state, improved to 7-0 overall and 3-0 in the conference with two games remaining. The Indians took a one-game conference lead with Chaffee's loss at Malden on Friday.

"We set goals of conference, district, 10-0," Hayti coach David Gilmore said. "It's all looking at us in the face right now."

Scott City, which returned several seniors from a team that finished 6-4 last year and beat Hayti, had similar goals. But the Rams entered Friday night without lineman Cody Page and defensive end/running back Chris Blankenship due to injuries. That didn't help matters against a team with Hayti's speed.

"It's kind of hard to tackle a waterbug," Jones said. "And they have more than one of them, too.

"Any fan in the bleachers can tell you what they're going to do, and we knew it, too. But in practice, we just can't simulate that speed."

Hayti ran for 290 yards, led by Jerome Covington's 131 yards on 12 carries. The Indians added 39 yards in passing.

Covington and Jamestic Gooden ran for scores in the first half to gave Hayti a 14-0 lead.

Scott City found out what kind of night it was in for late in the first quarter when its best chance to counter was denied. The Rams had a first-and-goal at the 1 after Shaun Jones couldn't handle a 45-yard missile punted by Cody Carlyle. But on the first play, Hayti surged into the backfield and forced a fumbled handoff to turn away the threat.

Scott City did close within one touchdown by opening the second half with a 4-minute, 80-yard march of running plays. Quarterback Caleb Estes had a 40-yard keeper and Trey Schlosser scored on a 7-yard run by following fullback Carlyle into the end zone.

Scott City even took possession back when Schlosser intercepted a pass by Jones at the Scott City 5.

But Hayti's defense allowed nothing, and Carlyle's punt from the back of his end zone went about half as far as his other two punts -- 20 yards.

"It's hard to get something going when you're three-and-out," Ronnie Jones said.

Hayti needed just two plays to cash in, with Gooden running 12 yards for the score.

In a short time, Scott City's seven-point deficit had grown to 29.

On the first play from scrimmage following Gooden's TD, Shaun Jones intercepted Estes' pass -- the seventh pick for Jones this season -- and weaved his way 40 yards for a touchdown. Hayti was backed up to the 18 for the extra point, but Jones fired to Gooden for two points and a 29-7 lead with 1:55 to go in the third quarter.

Scott City's next drive moved 25 yards to Hayti's 35 when Estes was sacked trying to lateral the ball. Covington picked it out of the air and ran 52 yards for the score.

Covington added another TD on a 20-yard run with less than a minute to go in the game.

"We've been waiting for this all year," Shaun Jones said. "It was big. We wanted to shut them out."

Close.

After giving up 50 points the last two weeks, Hayti allowed 170 yards rushing and zero yards passing to Scott City.

"We were very proud of our defense tonight," Gilmore said.

"They sustained their blocks, and they run to the football," Ronnie Jones said. "We don't have a lot of running back depth and then you're asking kids to get out of position.

"There were a lot of positives, if we can build off that."

Estes led the Rams in rushing with 56 yards. Carlyle added 48 yards.

With conference play concluded, Scott City steps into Class 2 district play with winless Grandview next week. Unbeaten Crystal City follows.

"We've got to worry about Grandview," Ronnie Jones said. "We've got to make sure we get by them if it's going to mean something when we line up against Crystal City."