Winless Tigers suffer 32-0 defeat against visiting Chickasaws

Blytheville employed trickery in dropping Central to 0-3.

Central nearly got a block on Blytheville's first punt attempt.

On the second Blytheville punt attempt the Tigers had a gang of tacklers bring down the punter before he got the ball off.

The Tigers had the line stacked on Blytheville's fourth punt attempt at the start of the third quarter, but this time the Chickasaws learned their lesson. Blytheville took a fake punt 70 yards for a score and never looked back in a 32-0 win Friday at Houck Stadium.

Blytheville coach Doug Quinn credited his special teams coach Roger Rico with noticing the opportunity.

"He said, 'Coach, we've got the fake to the left because they don't have enough folks there,'" Quinn said.

Central (0-3) trailed just 6-0 at the time and was coming off of its most impressive three-down stand of the night. Blytheville (2-1) was facing a fourth and 15 at its own 30-yard line.

"You don't want to get to the end of the ballgame up 6-0," Quinn said. "Sometimes you have to take a calculated risk."

Central coach Lawrence Brookins said Blytheville simply made a good call.

"We felt like they were a team you definitely could get blocks on, and maybe we went to the well one too many times," he said.

The fake punt only accounted for six points. It was the running game -- Central's inability to get its own running game going as well as its failure to stop Blytheville's -- which ultimately led to the lopsided loss.

Blytheville, which attemped just two passes, rushed for more than 200 yards. Sophomore running back Melvin Brooks led the Chickasaws with 155 yards on 19 carries and a touchdown, picking up yardage behind the fullback in Blytheville's wishbone offense.

"In my heart it wasn't the punt fake," Brookins said. "What hurt for us, was defensively our inability to stop their fullback."

On the other side of the ball, Central rushed for just 6 yards on 18 carries. Hykeem Hammonds, who rushed for 118 yards against St. Charles West last week, gained just 20 yards on 11 carries.

"Very disappointed, because offensively we had a decent showing against the Warriors of St. Charles," Brookins said. "Our game plan offensively was, we should be able to run the football."

Sophomore quarterback Garrett Stevens completed 20 of 35 passes for 153 yards for the Tigers. Stevens was intercepted twice, giving him seven interceptions and zero touchdowns through three games.

Against the Chickasaws, Stevens completed all of his passes within a 10-yard radius of the line of scrimmage. The Tigers installed some play-action pass plays specifically for the game, but they were ineffective due to the lack of a running attack.

"When you don't execute the run plays well, the play action has no merit," Brookins said.

Even with its running game stalled, the Tigers had several chances to score. Andy Billmeyer missed a 35-yard field goal attempt early in the second quarter. The Tigers also had two more drives stall within Blytheville's 25-yard line.

"Between the 20's and 30's the ball was moved real well by Cape Central," Brookins said. "But for some reason we couldn't break into the red zone."

Central will have a short week to prepare for Normandy at home on Thursday. Normandy was one of just two teams Central defeated last season.

"We've got to stay positive," Brookins said. "The coaches have to stay positive with them as much as possible. The kids have to stay positive."