Faulkner leads Caruthersville past NMCC 49-14

sports@standard-democrat.com

NEW MADRID -- Led by senior quarterback Peyton Faulkner, Caruthersville had little trouble moving the ball in the first half against New Madrid County Central Friday night.

Faulkner had a hand in five of the Tigers' seven touchdowns on the night and Caruthersville put up 297 yards in the first half alone as they rolled to their third-straight win, 49-14, after an 0-3 start to the year.

"I think this was probably his best performance of the year," Caruthersville head coach Jimmy Jackson said of Faulkner. "He didn't run as much as what he usually does, but I was very happy with his ability to throw the ball today. Maybe he didn't set himself up, but he set his teammates up to be more successful."

With all of his 112 passing yards and 71 yards rushing before halftime, Faulker guided his team to five straight touchdowns to start the game. Their only punt of the first half came 20 seconds before the end of the second quarter.

Faulkner threw for 101 yards in the first quarter alone, including 20 and 30-yard touchdown strikes to sophomore Bryce Strawn.

Between Strawn's scores, Faulkner ran a score in from three yards out as the Tigers took a 21-0 lead after the first quarter.

Sophomore Demarco Slaughter scored on a 40-yard run with 7:34 left in the half and Faulkner broke free for a 32-yard touchdown run a minute later to head into the locker room leading 35-0.

"A game like this when you get ahead and score a lot of points early, personally I just look for all-around execution," Jackson said. "I thought we got kind of sloppy late there, but overall I'm very pleased. It's always fun to score a lot of points."

Trailing 42-0, NMCC finally got on the board early in the third quarter when Javarcus Word broke off a 75-yard run to put his team at the Tiger three-yard line.

Word took it into the endzone up the left side on the next play, but the Eagles would play the entire second half under the turbo-clock.

After a 48-14 win over Charleston last week, NMCC came into their game against Caruthersville without the services of starting quarterback Tyler Sprouse.

Sprouse was on crutches to start Friday's game and was forced out of few series last week against the Bluejays after getting hit on a run play.

"Offensively we struggled," Eagles head coach John Dryden said. "Of course not having (Sprouse) changed the entire game plan. A kid (junior Brock Blakey) who hadn't gotten but maybe 30 percent of the reps at quarterback finds himself at quarterback 100 percent of the time.

"It changed tempo and timing. but they played through and played hard."

Playing aggressive, Caruthersville (3-3) feasted on NMCC's offensive troubles.

They held the Eagles to just 77 total yards before the break and held NMCC (1-5) to negative yards on 11 of 32 first half plays.

Through the air the Eagles went 2 of 9 for 31 yards in the first two quarter, including three interceptions.

"Those guys were flying around," Jackson said of his defense. "We have some guys flying around making plays. I really like my inside linebackers Alvin Johnson and Amaud Bates. Those guys just always seem to be around the ball."

Caruthersville outgained NMCC 444-201 in total yards, rushing 31 times for 332 yards.

Slaughter needed just eight carries to rack up a game-high 104 yards, including a 40-yard touchdown run.

Faulkner rushed nine times for 89 yards and three touchdowns. He went 5 of 9 for 112 yards and two scores through the air.

Senior Scott Adams caught two passes for 57 yards and Strawn caught three for 55 yards and two scores.

"That was a part of our game we needed to work on and I thought the kids did that," Jackson said of his team's passing game. "We had a bunch of guys going up and making plays. Bryce Strawn, I thought, really stood out. A young guys who's very talented going up and making some plays for us."

Word, a junior, paced NMCC with 125 yards and two scores on 21 carries. Craig Beasley rushed six times for 34 yards.

Caruthersville 21 14 14 0 - 49

NMCC 0 0 6 8 - 14

First Quarter

C -- Bryce Strawn 20 pass from Peyton Faulkner (Terrius Rodgers kick good), 9:30

C -- Peyton Faulkner 3 run (Terrius Rodgers kick good), 7:06

C -- Bryce Strawn 30 pass Peyton Faulkner ((Terrius Rodgers kick good), 3:40

Second Quarter

C -- Demarco Slaughter 40 run (Peyton Faulkner pass failed), 7:34

C -- Peyton Faulkner 32 run (Rodrick Jones run good), 6:20

Third Quarter

C -- Bryce Strawn 24 fumble return (Terrius Rodgers kick good), 11:29

N -- Javarcus Word 3 run (Brock Blakey run failed), 10:04

C -- Peyton Faulkner 7 run (Terrius Rodgers kick good), 3:36

Fourth Quarter

N -- Javarcus Word 43 run (Javarcus Word run good), 10:59

TEAM STATISTICS

C N

Total Yards 444 201

Rushes-yards 31-332 32-163

Passing yards 112 38

Comp.-Att.-Int. 5-10-0 3-13-3

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing -- Caruthersville, Demarco Slaughter 8-104, Rodrick Jones 5-57, Peyton Faulkner 9-89, Scotty Adams 1-12, Adrian Rodgers 4-46, Lamonte Bell 4-24. NMCC, Javarcus Word 21-125, Craig Beasley 6-34, Brock Blakey 1-(-4), Rhiley Smith 1-(-3), Darion Hill 1-(-5), JaMonte Sykes 2-16.

Passing -- Caruthersville, Peyton Faulkner 5-9-0 112, Lamonte Bell 0-1-0 0. NMCC, Brock Blakey 3-12-2 38, Chris Farr 0-1-1 0.

Receiving -- Caruthersville, Scott Adams 2-57, Bryce Strawn 2-55. NMCC, Chris Farr 3-38.