TIGERS DUMP CHICKS

Cape Girardeau Central High School's football team wanted to make a major statement last week, but the Tigers fell a bit short of an upset at powerhouse New Madrid County Central.

There was no falling short Friday night, however, as the Tigers spoke loud and clear with a resounding 30-6 pasting of a perennially strong Blytheville (Ark.) squad that was coming off a last-second loss to Poplar Bluff.

That Central beat Blytheville probably wasn't all that surprising. But the margin of victory had to open plenty of eyes around Southeast Missouri, although Central coach Lawrence Brookins wasn't so sure.

"We still have to prove ourselves to a number of people," he said. "I think we'll have to win four, five games in a row before people really start to take us seriously."

But Central wide receiver/defensive back Zac Fidler, who caught a touchdown pass and intercepted two passes, said, "We want to make a statement every week. We had a great week of practice. All the guys gave a great effort. Our offense stepped up and our defense kept them down."

It was certainly an impressive all-around performance for the 2-1 Tigers, who have already surpassed their victory total during last year's dismal 1-9 season that seems to be nothing but a distant memory right now.

"We've come a long way, but we still have a long way to go," Brookins said.

Against Blytheville, which fell to 1-2, the Tigers trailed 6-3 late in the first quarter before they scored the final 21 points of the opening half to grab a commanding 24-6 lead at the break. The Tigers spent most of the second half simply using up the clock as they were never seriously threatened.

Central got a big lift from T.J. Erlacker, who moved into the quarterback role after playing wide receiver for most of the first two games.

Erlacker wasn't spectacular, but he was efficient, completing eight of his first nine passes. He finished 8-for-11 for 138 yards, with two touchdowns and no interceptions.

"I was a little nervous at first, but it was a lot of fun," said a smiling Erlacker. "The offensive line did a great job and everybody played well."

The Tigers had a balanced attack, with 139 yards rushing to go with their 138 passing yards (225 of the total yards came in the decisive first half). Tailback Jamell Austin led the way with 81 yards on 12 carries while fullback O.J. Turner added 58 yards on 10 carries and he scored three touchdowns.

Defensively, in addition to Fidler's two interceptions, the Tigers recovered four fumbles, one each by Turner, Chris Smith, Daniel Bird and Ben Carter.

Blytheville's normally potent misdirection offense was held to 226 yards, and 80 of those came on the Chickasaws' opening drive of the contest. Fullback Ivan Kelly did the bulk of the damage with 119 yards on 15 carries.

Central took a 3-0 lead on the game's opening drive when Brian Emmendorfer drilled a 42-yard field goal, but Emmendorfer would suffer a dislocated shoulder while playing defense later in the first quarter. His status for future games is not yet known.

Kelly's 18-yard run capped an 80-yard Blytheville march that put the Chicks up 6-3 later in the first quarter, but Central's defense dominated after that.

The Tigers took the lead for good late in the first quarter when a 70-yard drive was capped by Turner's 1-yard plunge. Austin ran for the conversion to make it 11-6.

Central took command of the contest by scoring two late first-half touchdowns, the first set up by a Fidler interception near midfield. Turner took a short pass from Erlacker and turned it into a 46-yard TD for a 17-6 lead with 3:32 left before halftime.

On Blytheville's next possession, Smith recovered a fumble at the Chicks' 45. Six plays later, with just 33.9 seconds left, Fidler caught an 11-yard TD pass from Erlacker to make it 24-6 at the break.

The only scoring of the second half came midway through the fourth quarter on a 1-yard Turner plunge.

"That's a quality team we beat," said Brookins. "They're big and fast. We talked all week about trusting our keys on defense. We didn't let them have any big plays. It was a great game for us, and we needed it."