The longest drive of the first half for the Booneville Bearcat offense lasted just seven plays but that does not mean the unit was not offensive.
Quite the contrary. By that point the Bearcats had run for 457 yards, had scored seven offensive touchdowns, and with one on defense led Quitman 62-20.
A second defensive touchdown was forthcoming in the second half as the Bearcats rolled to a 69-27 win to move into the second round of the Class 3A playoffs next week, earning a trip to Rivercrest, who had a first round bye..
The first drive took one play. After Hunter Warren made a fourth down stop at the Bulldog 35, he got the first carry of the game and scored to make it 7-0.
Warren went over the 2,500-yard career mark, would get just four carries and run for 115 yards.
Oliver Loaeza kicked the point after. He was 9-of-10 on the night, tying a single game record for successful kicks. Loaeza later converted his 100th career PAT.
The second drive, which followed a tying touchdown by Quitman, took six plays with Conner Droemer (shown) scoring on a 10-yard run to make it 14-7.
Quitman again tied the game but had to give the ball back to the Bearcats. The next possession lasted a single play, a 62 yard run by Hayden Daniel and it was 21-14.
There was still 5:54 to play in the first quarter.
After a Bulldog punt it took only three plays to double the lead to 28-14 with Warren scoring for the second time, on a run of 25 yards.
Following another Bulldog punt the Bearcats were in the midst of the 7-play drive when the opening quarter ended.
Brody Chambers became the fourth different Bearcat to find the end zone on a 1-yard carry that made it 35-14 with 11:20 to go in the first half.
Quitman used a pair of Bearcat penalties to reach midfield on the ensuring possession and had a completion at the Bearcat 35 but Daniel caused a fumble that Droemer collected at the 34 and returned 66 yards for a touchdown and a 42-14 lead.
That started a series of three touchdowns in four plays.
A 77-yard kickoff return by the Bulldogs made it 42-20.
After Chambers recovered an onside kick at midfield, Warren went 50 yards for his third touchdown and it was 48-20 with 8:59 to play in the half.
Chambers, who ran 11 times for 108 yards, added to the lead with 1-yard touchdown run after the Bearcats forced another punt and it was 55-20 5:28 before halftime.
The third one-play drive of the half would be a 72-yard Droemer run, which made Droemer the third rusher over the century mark in the half – 3-108 – and it was 62-20.
The Bearcats had yet another possession in the half, but after one first down opted to take a knee twice to run out the clock.
To that point the Bearcats had not faced a third down. They would do so only twice, converting both, on the opening possession of the second half which ended in a fumble at the Quitman 6-yard line.
The Bulldogs crossed into Bearcat territory late in the third quarter only to surrender a sack by Braxton Hubble, then suffered a 61-yard interception return for a touchdown by Devon Ritchie on the final play of the quarter and it was 69-20.
Hubble’s sack was his second and the team’s seventh of the game. Warren had two and Cutler Haller had three sacks on the night.
The Bearcats were unsuccessful on a 28-yard field goal try with about five and a half minutes to play and Quitman set the final with a 52-yard scoring pass on what would be the final offensive play of the night.
BEARCATS QUITE OFFENSIVE AGAINST QUITMAN
