Ste. Genevieve rips NMCC, 45-7

NEW MADRID - The New Madrid County Central Eagles showed some promise in the early going Friday night when they hosted the Ste. Genevieve Dragons.

But the Eagles couldn't sustain the early momentum as they fell to the Dragons 45-7.

On the opening drive of the contest, Central drove the ball from its own 38 to the Dragon 5-yard line. The drive was keyed by a Terrance Smith 20-yard run on a third and eight. A fumble at the 9:09 mark was recovered by the Dragons and the Eagles came up empty.

After the Dragons put together a 12-play drive that ended in a 3-yard run by Taylor Huck to put the visitors ahead 6-0, the Eagles promptly took their only lead of the evening on a 39-yard pass play from Jordan Kimball to Eugene Cooper at the 3:42 point.

Kimball's kick put Central's Eagles up 7-6, but that was all the points they could muster in the contest and fell to the Dragons 45-7, making their record 1-6 on the season.

"The score was not really what we were looking for as a coaching staff. We played with great effort for four quarters and we played almost every one of our freshmen. We have four freshmen playing on defense," explained Eagle coach Arlen Pixley. "We also rotated three freshmen on offense. Those guys have been playing hard. We over-ran a couple of plays and gave them some big plays in the second half. I thought our freshmen did a really good job against their juniors and seniors."

Ste. Genevieve began its domination of the Eagles in the second period. The three-touchdown outburst was engineered brilliantly by quarterback Tanner Wolk who carried two of the scores on keepers at the 11:34 and 6:52 marks of the period. The runs of 38 and 18 yards coupled with a 22-yard pass from Wolk to Huck put the Dragons ahead 26-7 at intermission.

"Coach Stolzer and his coaches run a classy program and he has his kids ready to play and they methodically took it right at us. We got a lot of kids who really showed a lot of heart and a lot of effort, and I hope they come back Monday and step up like they did tonight," said Pixley.

Brad Schweigert scored the only third quarter touchdown for the Dragons from the one-yard line with 4:16 left in the period to make the score 32-7 after three.

The Dragons tacked on 13 more points in the final quarter. Michael Schlueter ran it in from the one with 11:30. Adam Johnson scooped up an Eagle fumble at midfield with less than 20 seconds left in the contest and scampered for the final score of the game.

The two teams will begin district play next Friday night as New NMCC will host Perryville and Ste. Genevieve will entertain Potosi.