sports@standard-democrat.com
CHARLESTON -- Playing the underdogs served Scott City well Thursday night as they kicked off the Class 2, District 1 tournament.
Going into third-seeded Charleston's stadium, the sixth-seeded Scott City Rams put up two late touchdowns to stun the Bluejays in a 20-14 win that propels them to the tournament semifinals.
"We knew no one gave us a chance, but we felt like we had a chance to win this game," Rams' head coach Jim May said. "We knew they would be tough. We just had to do a better job tackling than we've done (lately) and we didn't make mistakes.
"That's two weeks in a row we haven't turned it over and we minimized the penalties. When we do that we can win."
Scott City's defining moment came late in the third quarter after forcing the Bluejays to turn the ball over on downs just four yards from the end zone. The Rams took over with seven minutes left in the quarter and, with a little trickery, marched 96 yards down the field for the go ahead score.
After calling nothing but run plays while moving to their own 44-yard line, Scott City quarterback Braden Cox pitched out to Zach Carlyle for what looked like another sweep.
Instead Carlyle fired a pass to a wide open Skyler Bewley behind the Bluejays' defense for a 56-yard touchdown. A two-point pass play was unsuccessful, but the Rams now held a 12-6 lead.
"We were running the football and they were just crashing their corners and their safeties and they weren't honoring it," May said. "Carlyle's used to being a quarterback from whenever he was younger. He can throw it so we threw it. We thought (Bewley) would be wide open and he was."
Though Charleston was unable to answer on their next drive, they got the ball back and worked their way to the Ram's 34-yard line. Disaster struck soon after, however, when the Bluejays quarterback was caught deep in the backfield before an eventual fumble set Scott City up 34 yards from the end zone.
With the help of a few Charleston penalties, the Rams drove down to the four-yard line before Cox found Carlyle for another score. Cox found Carlyle again for the two-point conversion to put their team up 20-6 with 10:14 to play.
Charleston came back and answered to stay in the game when Robert Bogan broke off a 23-yard run on fourth-and-eight. Demontrail Clark ran in the two-point conversion to leave the Bluejays within a score, at 20-14, with 6:46 remaining.
Needing one final stop on defense to get the ball back, the Bluejays watched Scott City get several crucial first downs with a heavy load of Carlyle and Cox on the ground to keep the clock running.
Only 2:49 remained when the Rams faced a 4th-and-two near midfield, giving Charleston a chance to get the ball back. Instead, a five-yard run by Cox gave Scott City a fresh set of downs.
Cox found Carlyle soon after for a 27-yard pass for one of two final first downs that allowed the Rams to kneel out the clock and seal the win.
"They came out and were ready to play," Bluejays' head coach Brett Blackman said. "We necessarily weren't as aggressive as what I thought we needed to be early on. We battled back there at the end, but we just didn't have enough time."
Early in the contest both teams looked ready for a shootout as each scored on their opening possession.
It took Scott City 19 plays before Cox found Austin Spriggs on fourth-down for a 4-yard touchdown pass to cap the first series of the game. It took Charleston only three plays to answer when Devonte Ware broke off a 57-yard run to tie the game, 6-6.
One problem the Bluejays faced against the Rams was that their backfield, usually one of their biggest strengths, was much thinner than normal. One of their leading rushers this season, Rontavious Clark, was absent from the game entirely while Ware was hampered in the second half with injuries.
Still, the Bluejays out-gained the Rams on the night. Charleston ran 35 times for 263 yards for a 7.5 yard-per-carry average while Scott City carried 56 times for 203 yards and a 3.6 yard-per-carry average.
In his final game for the Bluejays, Bogan rushed for 96 yards on 15 carries with Clark and Ware adding 61 and 60 yards respectively.
Blackman admitted being without some key contributors on Thursday left his team trying to fill voids and with a thinner than usual depth chart.
"This team was let down by a lot of people not taking care of their business," Blackman said. "A lot kids, a lot of seniors, were let down by those people. We had to plug some people in there and try to get as far as we could with them and in the end it stopped tonight. A lot of our seniors did a great job doing what they could to try and get us in positions in ball games. But if we would have had this person or that person here and that person would have been a little bit smarter and taken care of their personal business, then they would have been out here and we would have been a much better football team."
For Scott City, Bradley carried 22 times for a game-high 111 yards with Cox contributing 94 yards on 32 carries.
The Rams threw for 110 yards with more than half of those coming on one play. Charleston only attempted three passes without a completion and one interception.
A move just as important as any play on the field Thursday came days earlier when Scott City, originally seeded seventh, appealed to move up to the sixth seed, which was held by East Prairie.
Though both East Prairie and Scott City came into the tournament with only one win to their names, the Rams won their appeal due to the fact their win came at the hands of the Eagles, 33-27.
Like most games in the area, Scott City and Charleston sat through an hour delay as they waited for severe weather threats to pass through the region. The stoppage in play came late in the second quarter, with 6:26 left in the half, and the teams knotted up 6-6.
After playing on a relatively solid field before the delay, the teams came out and were forced to deal with swampy conditions on most of the field.
"The thing that we're second guessing ourselves the most on tonight was maybe deferring and playing the field conditions and with the wind," Blackman said. "That's my fault and if people want to blame me that's fine, but in the end circumstances are what they are.
"We still have to play and rise to the level if we're going to be a championship team."
Charleston finishes the year at 5-5 and lose several key contributors to their success the past few years, including running backs Bogan and Clark, lineman Ryan Houseman and linebacker Austin Haley.
Scott City moves on to play Malden in the semifinals on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Malden High School.
Scott City 6 0 6 8 - 20
Charleston 6 0 0 8 - 14
First Quarter
S -- Braden Cox 4 pass to Austin Spriggs (Brad Cox run no good), 2:31
C -- Devonte Ware 57 run (Delfincko Bogan pass no good), 1:01
Third Quarter
S -- Zach Carlyle 56 pass to Skyler Bewley (Braden Cox pass bad), 3:26
Fourth Quarter
S -- Braden Cox 4 pass to Zach Carlyle (Braden Cox pass to Zach Carlyle good), 10:14
Team Statistics
S C
Total yards 257 263
Rushes-yards 56-203 35-263
Passing yards 110 0
Comp.-Att.-Int. 6-10-0 0-3-1
Individual Statistics
Rushing -- Scott City, Braden Cox 32-94, Gordon Bradley 22-11, Zach Carlyle 2-(-2); Charleston, Demontrail Clark 10-61, Robert Bogan 15-96, Devonte Ware 4-60, Delfincko Bogan 6-46.
Passing -- Scott City, Braden Cox 5-9-0 54, Zach Carlyle 1-1-0 56; Charleston, Delfincko Bogan 0-3-1.
Receiving -- Scott City, Drew Short 1-10, Austin Spriggs 2-13, Zach Carlyle 2-31;