Scott City football rallies, powers past St. Vincent in fourth quarter

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- The Scott City football team didn't panic. It didn't waver. It didn't alter its course.

Down 14-6 in the fourth quarter Friday night, the Rams just kept doing what they like to do -- pound the football -- and in doing so ripped off 20 unanswered points in the final period to rally for a 26-14 win over St. Vincent in Perryville, Missouri.

Out of 30 plays from scrimmage in the second half, Scott City (2-0) threw the football just once, as it wore down the Indians (0-2).

"We're not real complicated to figure out," Scott City coach Jim May said. "We just kept hammering and hammering and hammering and we didn't make a lot of mistakes. We have some penalties we need to clean up, but we took care of the football and finished out.

St. Vincent's Gabe Naeger and Scott City's Jaden Kaiser fight for a pass reception intended for Kaiser during the second quarter Friday, Aug. 26, 2016 in Perryville, Missouri. The officials awarded possession of the ball to Scott City.Fred Lynch

"That's a good sign for the future. Now they can believe that even if it's not [working], we're going to get it figured out and we're going to work in the right direction. I'm proud of them. They fought and they didn't lose hope when we got down. We just kept grinding and doing what we do."

Braden Cox carried the ball 33 times for the Rams, racking up 153 of Scott City's 279 yards offense and all four of his team's touchdowns.

The visiting team scored twice off turnovers.

St. Vincent had some bright moments, with a stiff first-half defensive showing and some big offensive plays. But it also had some missed opportunities and self-inflicted damage that affected its ability to open up a bigger lead earlier in the game, including four interceptions and a fumbled snap in the first quarter that stalled out a promising drive.

Indians quarterback Tyler Monier finished the night 16 of 27 for 225 yards, a touchdown and four picks.

"We did some things that shot ourselves in the foot," St. Vincent coach Nathan Rowland said. "A couple of the interceptions are on the coaching staff, not on Tyler Monier. We've got to put him in better situations to succeed. We did not. That is on my shoulders and that is the weight I will carry this week. I will get better so that he can shine, because he is a special player.

"I tell you what, our kids played as hard as hard as any team has every played. They hit them as hard as any team has hit them. It just wasn't in our night. It boils down to a few plays; [some] were out of our control."

Some controversy ensued in the second quarter, and it was still a point of contention with St. Vincent once the game had ended.

After Eli Berry intercepted a pass for Scott City, the Rams took over at their own 45-yard line. On the first play of the drive, QB Ty Wilthong went deep over the top to Jaden Kaiser -- a repeat of a play run in the first quarter that was wide open for a touchdown, but the ball was dropped. This time Kaiser got his hands on it, but so did Indians defensive back Gabe Naeger. The two came down in a heap with the ball between them, and officials ruled dual possession, and therefore a catch for Scott City.

St. Vincent's Riley Riehn scores the first touchdown of the game against Scott City during the second quarter Friday, Aug. 26, 2016 in Perryville, Missouri.Fred Lynch

St. Vincent believed the play should have been ruled an interception.

On the very next play, at 6:17 of the period, Cox rumbled 29 yards down the right side of the field for Scott City's first score of the night. After the point-after attempt was missed, St. Vincent was left hanging on to a one-point edge, 7-6.

The home side missed an opportunity to extend its lead early in the third quarter when it faced first-and-10 from the Scott City 13-yard line but turned the ball over on downs without scoring. It was, however, able to find the end zone a few moments later with a seven-play, 62-yard drive that was capped by a Riley Riehn 5-yard run that made the score 14-6 at 2:06 of the third quarter.

Things went downhill from there for the Indians.

On the ensuing possession, Scott City began to drop the hammer, grinding out a 13-play drive that was capped by a 1-yard plunge by Cox with 9:22 left in the fourth quarter. A failed 2-point conversion left the Rams still looking up at a 14-12 score.

That didn't last long. An interception by Kaiser set up the go-ahead score for the visitors, as Cox crossed the goal line from 4 yards out, giving Scott City its first lead of the game, 18-14, with 4:21 left to play.

"We could have thrown the ball but we really felt like that was letting them off a little easy," May said. "We wanted to inflict some punishment on them and try to wear them down. At the end of the game there they were tired and we were feeling pretty good. ... We condition really hard each day for that moment."

Scott City coach Jim May talks to Eli Berry on the sideline during the first quarter of the St. Vincent football game Friday, Aug. 26, 2016 in Perryville, Missouri.Fred Lynch

Along with Cox's rushing effort, fullback Sam Elders ran the ball 13 times for 57 yards, much of it coming down the stretch.

"[Cox] knew coming in that he was going to get a lot of carries, but [Caden] Hillemann and Elders do an excellent job for us," May said. "Whenever [the defense] starts coming hard we'll go the other way. ... There at the end we were just running the fullback wedge and hammering Elders up in there and the lineman were feeding on that. That's a real good sign."

With just over 4 minutes remaining on the clock, St. Vincent was unable to generate any offense, going four-and-out and giving Scott City the ball in the red zone. The Rams chewed up some clock before Cox pummeled his way in for his fourth TD of the day with just 49 seconds remaining.

After a scoreless first quarter, St. Vincent took a second-quarter lead after Monier hooked up on a 35-yard connection with receiver Naeger over the top of a defensive back. Four plays later, the QB found running back Riehn in the flat to the left for a 9-yard TD and a 7-0 score with 9:04 let in the half.

Both Monier and Riehn had been question marks for the game after picking up injuries in Week 1. Riehn finished with 18 carries for 92 yards and a TD, while catching two passes for 13 yards and a score.

Naeger had four receptions for 83 yards and Tyler Unterreinner caught four passes for 54 yards.

"Coming in, I was worried about their offense," May said. "They have a good team and they can run or throw. I try to preach to the kids that [St. Vincent] play Valle Week 1 every year and [people] don't give them their due, but I tried to tell [the kids] that we were going to get their best shot. They're a quality ball club and they're going to have a good year if they can stay healthy."

St. Vincent travels to Kelly (0-2) on Friday.

Scott City will face a road game at East Prairie (2-0).

Scott City 0 6 0 20 -- 26

St. Vincent 0 7 7 0 -- 14

Second Quarter

SV -- Riley Riehn 9 pass from Tyler Monier, (Austin Dauster kick), 9:04

SC -- Braden Cox 29 run, (kick failed), 6:17

Third Quarter

SV -- Riehn 5 run, (A. Dauster kick), 2:06

Fourth Quarter

SC -- Cox 1 run, (run failed), 9:22

SC -- Cox 4 run, (pass failed), 4:21

SC -- Cox 2 run, (Caden HIllemann run), :49

TEAM STATISTICS

SC SV

First downs 15 11

Rushes-yards 52-229 23-78

Passing 5-9-0 16-27-4

Passing yards 50 225

Punts-avg. 5-31.6 2-31.0

Fumbles-lost 1-0 1-0

Penalties-yards 6-34 5-38

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Scott City: Cox 33-153, Sam Elders 13-57, Caden Hillemann 4-9, Chance McKinley 2-10; St. Vincent: Riehn 18-92, Monier 5-(-14)

PASSING -- Scott City: Ty Wilthong 5-8-0-50, Cox 0-1; St. Vincent: Monier 16-27-4-225

RECEIVING -- Scott City: Joe Panagos 2-15, Jaden Kaiser 1-26, Eli Berry 1-6, Elders 1-3; St. Vincent: A. Dauster 4-83, Tyler Unterreiner 4-54, Gabe Naeger 2-28, Tyler Wibbenmeyer 2-15, Riehn 2-13, Matt Rellergert 1-34, Layne Hlavek 1-(-2)