East Prairie gets ground game going in 41-8 victory

EAST PRAIRIE -- Coming off a tough two-point loss to Hayti last weekend, the East Prairie Eagles let their ground game do the talking Friday night against visiting Grandview.

Rushing for 199 total yards, East Prairie would build a 34-point lead by half in route to a 41-8 win to improve to 1-1 on the season.

"We want to run the ball and we play smash mouth, everybody knows it" East Prairie head coach Jason Aycock said. "It was huge to get the running game going because if we do that our kids gain confidence."

With a 1-2-punch of Aaron Miller and Zach Shipman, East Prairie had little trouble moving the ball early as Shipman followed up a 55-yard punt return by JT Aycock with a two-yard run past the goal line for the early 7-0 lead with 9:41 to go in the first quarter.

Capping off a 10-play drive to start the second quarter, Connor Scott would run a quarterback sneak one-yard up the middle to pay dirt to push the lead to 14.

Scoring another three rushing touchdowns by the end of the half, two by Miller and one by Shipman, East Prairie would enter the second half with the game easily in control.

Following one more score by East Prairie in the third quarter, Grandview would finally break up the shutout with only second left in the game.

At their own 10-yard line, Grandview quarterback Andrew Holland would hit Macklin Parks for the score with 9.2 seconds left in the game, followed by Cody Voyles successfully rushing for the two-point conversion.

"We came out on fire this week," Connor Scott said. "Last week kind of made us mad.

"We talked about it all through the week of practice that we were mad and we came out and took care of business this week."

Easily leading East Prairie, Miller had huge night offensively rushing for 144 yards on 21 carries while scoring three touchdowns.

"I couldn't ask for anything better out of our line," Miller said. "I told them guys I loved them tonight, they were sensational. The best I've ever seen them play.

"Last week I had something like 13 yards so I felt like I had to come out here and redeem myself. I was embarrassed."

While he only had 50 total yards, Shipman was lethal where it counted, punching both his scores in at the goal line.

He credits the team's 14-12 loss to Hayti the week prior to giving himself and the team the extra motivation it needed.

"We were fired up," Shipman said. "When you lose like that it hurts so bad. You just don't want it to happen again and you'll do whatever it takes."

Grandview 0 0 0 8 - 8

East Prairie 7 27 7 0 - 41

First Quarter

E -- Zach Shipman 2 run (JT Ayock kick good), 9:41

Second Quarter

E -- Connor Scott 1 run (Aycock kick), 10:50

E -- Aaron Miller 4 run (Frankie Nave kick), 10:36

E -- Zach Shipman 1 run (Nave kick), 7:21

E -- Aaron Miller 34 run (kick failed), 2:51

Third Quarter

E -- Aaron Miller 7 run (Nave kick), 3:16

Fourth Quarter

G -- Macklin Parks 10 pass from Andrew Holland (Cody Voyles run)

TEAM STATISTICS

G EP

Rushes-Yards 33-102 43-196

Comp-Att-Int 4-12-0 2-4-0

Passing yards 38 39

Total yards 140 235

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing

Grandview -- Wes Sullivan 10-50, Robby Allen 5-21, Macklin Parks 5-31, Andrew Holland 7-(-12), Cody Voyles 3-17, CJ Rustemeyer 1-(-5). East Prairie -- Aaron Miller 20-144, Zach Shipman 11-36, JT Aycock 4-20, Connor Scott 4-(-3), Frankie Nave 3-4, Brad Beck 1-(-5).

Passing

Grandview -- Andrew Holland 4-12-2 38. East Prairie -- Conner Scott 2-4-0 39.

Receiving

Grandview -- Shane Harris 1-14, Macklin Parks 2-16, Sam Smith 1-8. East Prairie -- JT Aycock 1-5, Mikey Russell 1-34.