No. 4 Ritchie County powers past No. 13 Clay-Battelle in first round of state playoffs
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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