DEXTER, Mo. -- Dexter safety Jake Cox intercepted quarterback Jamie Scholz pass on the first offensive play of the game to set up an early touchdown, and the Bearcats never looked back in a 43-7 win over the Scott City Rams on Friday night.

Dexter scored on its first four offensive possessions to jump out to a 28-0 lead in the first quarter.

Josh Overall scored two of Dexter's first four touchdowns on runs of 1 and 42 yards, while quarterback Cody Stevens hooked up with tight end Morgan Hedrick for a 3-yard score and later scampered in from 46 yards out to build the big first-quarter advantage.

"He understands reading the quarterback and he understands whenever that arm comes back to throw, he breaks on it and he's doing a real good job for us," Dexter coach Aaron Pixley said about Cox. "That got us going right there. We had a short field to score the first touchdown and we just built on it from there."

Dexter rolled up 380 yards of total offense and averaged nine yards per play. Overall finished with 107 on the ground on just eight carries and scored three times.

Scott City sophomore Logan Farmer hauls down Dexter runner Dylan Baggett during Friday's game in Dexter, Mo. (JERRY JARRELL ~ Dexter Daily Statesman)

Austin Featherston's 62-yard interception return of a Scholz pass in the second quarter set up Chase Young's TD catch that made it 34-0, while defensive lineman Dylan Sandlin came up with his second pick of the season on a deflection of a Scholz pass late in the second quarter that set the table for Overall's 25-yard scoring run in the third to make it 41-0.

Sandlin and Aaron Mace teamed up for a safety when they trapped Alex Eichhorn in the end zone early in the fourth quarter. The Bearcats had turned the ball over on downs at the Rams 1-yard line after Dylan Baggett was stopped just short of the goal line on fourth-and-4.

Scholz was intercepted three times and finished 2 of 10 for 14 yards.

Scott City's Garett Schaefer ran for 117 yards on 24 carries, but the Rams only could muster 135 yards of offense. Most of Schaefer's yardage came on runs of 26 and 22 yards in the first half as the speedy senior tacked on 31 more late in the fourth quarter as the Rams put together their only scoring drive of the game.

Schaefer entered the game with more than 500 yards rushing in the first three games.

"He had about four draws on us," Pixley said of Schaefer. "He probably had about 80 yards on draws. And that's disappointing because that was an opportunity for us to be great open-field tacklers. And we missed him.

"That is something here at Dexter that is our Achilles' heel -- open field tackling."

Scott City 0 0 0 7 -- 7

Dexter 28 6 7 2 -- 43

First Quarter

D -- Joshua Overall 1 run (Taylor Jarrell kick), 10:05.

D -- Morgan Hedrick 3 pass from Cody Stevens (Jarrell kick), 7:33.

D -- Overall 42 run (Jarrell kick), 5:15.

D -- Stevens 46 run (Jarrell kick), 0:04.

Second Quarter

D -- Chase Young 20 pass from Stevens (kick failed), 2:30.

Third Quarter

D -- Overall 25 run (Jarrell kick), 11:25.

Fourth Quarter

D -- Safety, 10:15.

S -- Garett Schaefer 5 run, (Schaefer kick), 1:15.

TEAM STATISTICS

S D

Rushes-yards 34-121 33-297

Comp-Att-Int 2-10-3 6-9-1

Passing yards 14 83

Total yards 135 380

Penalties-yards 2-15 7-74

Fumbles-lost 0-0 0-0

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing -- Scott City, Garett Schaefer 24-117, Alex Eichhorn 6-14, Hunter Griffith 2-1, Jamie Scholz 1-(-2), Jonathan McFall 1-(-9). Dexter, Dylan Baggett 13-68, Joshua Overall 8-107, Cody Stevens 7-67, Nick Summers 3-41, Aaron Mace 2-14.

Passing -- Scott City, Jamie Scholz 2-10-14-3. Dexter, Cody Stevens 6-9-83-1.

Receiving -- Scott City, Austin Atchley 2-14. Dexter, Jake Cox 2-35, Morgan Hedrick 2-15, Chase Young 1-20, Nathan Elliott 1-13.