ELLENBORO — No. 4 Ritchie County came away with 24 unanswered points in the second half to pull away from No. 13 Clay-Battelle, 46-14 in the first round of the Class A playoffs at Chuck Schofield Stadium.
Following a slow start, Carson Shriver and Drew Boczek put the Cee-Bees (8-3) on their backs with 375 total yards and two touchdowns.
In raising its record to 10-1 and gaining a second straight home playoff game next week against Mount View, Ritchie County rode the superb performance of its own combo of quarterback Ethan Haught and tailback/wide receiver Gus Morrison in posting the victory.
Haught’s 13-yard TD and Morrison’s scoring runs of seven and 20 yards put the Rebels up 24-0 with still 4:30 left in the first quarter.
Following Ritchie County’s third touchdown, Shriver began to bring Clay-Battelle back with a 90-yard kickoff return for a score.
The second quarter, marked by a dominating performance by the C-B defensive line saw both teams go scoreless.
Along with Shriver, Boczek tried to rally the Cee-Bees in the second half by completing 8 of 16 passes for 130 yards.
He scrambled out of pressure and hit teammate Johny Arnett with a 13-yard score to make it 24-14 with a sidearm pass.
That’s when Ritchie County took control.
The Rebels mounted two long drives of their own highlighted by scoring runs of 12-and 14-yards by Haught to seal the first round triumph.
Box score
Clay-Battelle 7 0 0 7—14
Ritchie County 24 0 16 6— 46
SCORING SUMMARY
R-Cole 13 pass from Haught (Bartlett pass from Haught)
R-Morrison 7 yard run (Morrison run)
R—Morrison 20-yard run (Morrison run)
CB—Carson Shriver 90 kick return (Drew Mercer)
R—Haught 12 yard run (Bartlett pass from Haught)
R—Haught 14 yard run (Morrison Run)
CB—Johnny Arnett 12 pass from Drew Boczek (Drew Mercer kick)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: C-B— Shriver 16-54; Boczek 2-17.
PASSING: C-B—Boczek 9-20-131-TD; Shriver 0-2
RECEIVING: C-B—Arnett 3-46-TD; Shriver 3-41; Zac Hall 2-21
