McCray, Portageville runs past Scott City 38-30

SCOTT CITY -- Portageville senior Daniel McCray passed on his frustrations to the Scott City Rams on Friday night.

A 1,300-yard rusher as a junior, McCray had been held to 22 yards a week earlier in a loss to Hayti, his third straight game under 100 yards in a three-game losing streak for the Bulldogs.

"This year has been somewhat of a struggle [for him]," Portageville coach Jeff Bullock said. "He went over 100 yards the first two games of the year, and the last three games have been tough on him. Last year he was such a dominant runner, and the frustration was building on him, and it's such a good feeling to let him come out and have such a big night."

McCray shook his slump like a would-be Scott City tackler in Portageville's 38-30 victory over Scott City.

McCray piled up 244 yards on 32 carries and added 68 yards receiving on three catches despite being the primary focus of Scott City entering the game.

McCray scored just one touchdown on the night, a 2-yard run in the fourth quarter, but he handled the ball on 35 of the Bulldogs' 71 offensive plays. With McCray eluding tackles, the Bulldogs picked up at least two first downs on all 10 of their possessions in the game. The 10th drive milked the final 2 minutes and 56 seconds off the clock and secured the victory for Portageville (3-3).

Portageville's Daniel McCray runs through Scott City tacklers Friday, Sept. 25, 2015, at Scott City High School. (Fred Lynch/SEMO News Service)

"They always contained me from the long runs, but I kept gassing them and kept gassing them and do everything I need to do to make my team win," said McCray, whose longest rush went for 19 yards.

He did break three tackles on a 47-yard swing pass in the final two minutes of the first half that set up a touchdown with 27 seconds left in the first half that gave the Bulldogs a 24-14 lead at halftime.

"It just comes down to we didn't tackle," Scott City coach Jim May said. "I told them all week, everyday, 'If we tackle No. 3, we're going to win.' And we were not very good at that. There wasn't a scheme, there was somebody there right there to make a play, and we just didn't make it, and when you don't make plays, you don't win."

"There were so many times we had him tackled in the backfield, and then he ends up with seven, eight, nine [yards], and it just wears on you and wears on you," May said. "We just never could make the big play to get ourselves off the field. If we ever could have got a couple stops, we would have won the game."

McCray's 312 yards of total offense -- the Bulldogs had 463 yards overall -- offset a balanced Scott City offense.

The game was scoreless entering the second quarter, but that changed on the first play of the period when senior quarterback Jon Garrett Kellams connected with sophomore Hunter Gates on a 29-yard scoring pass. The conversion run by McCray gave Portageville an 8-0 lead.

Scott City, which had just eight yards of offense in the first quarter, used a special teams lapse by Portageville to gain momentum. A bad snap on a Bulldogs punt gave the Rams possession at the Portageville 39, and three plays later Bickings scored on a 5-yard run. The conversion pass failed and Scott City trailed 8-6 with 6:16 left in the half.

Portageville countered with a 15-yard scoring run by sophomore Lamar Alexander for a 16-6 lead, and Kaiser, who had two pick-sixes this season, answered with a 19-yard scoring reception from Wilthong with 1:24 left in the half. Kaiser's catch came on a fourth-and-7 play, two downs after a Cox touchdown run had been nullified by a holding penalty, and a conversion run by Cox cut the deficit to 16-14 with 1:24 left in the half.

McCray then bulldozed his way past three Rams on the swing pass down the left sideline to set up a 30-yard scoring pass from Kellams to a wide-open Will Chrysler with 27 seconds left in the half, and the conversion pass extended the lead to 24-14.

"We gave up the one long play on the flair pass out here to the sideline and missed him, missed him, missed him and he got them in scoring position and they punched it in," May said. "That's the difference in the game right there."

Scott City opened the second half with a 71-yard scoring drive in 10 plays. The Rams overcame two penalties on the drive, including a holding penalty on a first-and-goal from the 6. Rams junior quarterback Ty Wilthong connected with junior Kaiser on a 16-yard scoring pass on the next play, then hit Dylan Keller on the conversion pass to cut the deficit to 24-22.

Portageville scored touchdowns on its only two possessions in the third quarter, feeding the ball repeatedly to McCray on scoring drives of 53 and 48 yards. A 4-yard TD pass to sophomore Ian Torrey was followed by McCray's 2-yard jaunt with 49 seconds left in the third quarter for a 38-22 lead.

Scott City quickly cut the 16-point deficit in half, with senior Jordan Kluesner scoring on a fourth-and-1 pass from Wilthong with 10:31 left in the game.

Scott City started its next and final possession at its own 12 with 6:48 left and drove into Portageville territory. A 17-yard run by senior Nick Bickings gave the Rams a first down at the Bulldogs 26 before things unraveled. On third-and-9, Wilthong was sacked for an eight-yard loss, and his fourth-down pass deep to Cox was overthrown.

McCray and the Bulldogs offense never gave the ball back to the Rams.

"He's a strong runner," Kaiser said. "A lot of times we were just diving on the ground just trying to grab his legs. We're going to have to work on tackling."

Scott City fell to 3-3 with its sixth consecutive loss to Portageville.

Portageville will hosting East Prairie this Friday on the Vic Reaves Athletic Field.

Portageville - 0 24 14 0 --38

Scott City - 0 14 8 8 -- 30

Second quarter

P -- Hunter Gates 24 pass from Jon Garrett Kellams (Daniel McCray run), 11:54

SC -- Nick Bickings 5 run (pass failed), 6:16

P -- Lamar Alexander 15 run (Ian Torrey pass from Kellams), 5:12

SC -- Jaden Kaiser 19 pass from Ty Wilfong (Braden Cox run), 1:24

P -- Will Chrysler 30 pass from Kellams (Chysyler pass from kellams), :27

Third quarter

SC -- Kaiser 16 pass from Wilthong (Dylan Keller pass from Wilthong), 8:07

P -- Torrey 4 pass from Kellams (Torrey pass from Kellams), 5:39

P -- McCray 2 run (pass failed), :49

Fourth quarter

SC -- Jordan Kluesner 27 pass from Wilthong (Kaiser pass from Cox), 10:31

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing -- Portageville, McCray 32-244, Alexander 5-38, Chrysler 1-(-3), Kellams 5-4, Torrey 1-(-7), team 1-(-7); Scott City, Wilthong 5-3, Caden Hillemann 4-1, Cox 12-34, Bickings 14-82, Kaiser 5-40.

Passing -- Portageville, Kellams 15-26-0-215; Scott City, Wilthong17-28-0-200, Cox 1-3-0-4.

Receiving -- Portageville, Gates 4-45, Chrysler 3-46, Torrey 4-52, McCray 3-68, Ryan Priggel 1-8; Scott City, Kaiser 4-53, Trent Pobst 1-4, Cox 4-50, Dylan Keller 6-52, Bickings 1-13, Kluesner 2-36