JUNIOR HIGH BEARCATS CONTINUE TO DOMINATE 3A-1

Hitting the 40-point mark for the fourth straight time, the Booneville Junior High Bearcats continued their dominant march through Conference 3A-1 with a 40-6 win over Greenland Thursday night at Bearcat Stadium.

However, even before the Bearcat offense was unleashed, its defense and special teams had already made its presence known.

Greenland’s first three plays resulted in four lost yards and the punt that became the product of that possession was returned by Hayden Daniel for 38 yards and a touchdown.

Daniel (shown) also added the 2-point conversion for an 8-0 lead.

The first Bearcat offensive possession – after a second Pirate punt – took three plays with Ayden Rhinehart scoring from 38 yards out and Daniel adding his second conversion run for a 16-0 lead with 1:35 left in the first quarter.

At the 6:26 mark of the second quarter the lead grew to 24-0.

It was Cooper Smithson going 43 yards for a touchdown on his only carry of the night and, with a 5-yard false start degree of difficulty added, Drake Brackney hitting Caiden Poore for the conversion.

The Bearcats (7-0, 4-0 Conference 3A1) would suffer a rare turnover on their next possession but got a reprieve when Sadler Miller recovered a Pirate fumble with 60 seconds left in the half.

That was plenty of time as Miller scored two plays later on a run of 36 yards. Callen Montalvo got the conversion run for a 32-0 halftime lead.

Miller would log the three carries for 72 yards to lead the Bearcats as 11 rushers accounted for just 18 runs.

In a swiftly moving game, defensive numbers were on the smaller side as well, both in terms of yardage allowed and the tackle chart where Kenan Matheson and Laythen Shaffer had three solo tackles and an assist and both Nate Fowler and Rhinehart had three solo stops.

The Bearcats started the third quarter with a sportsmanship enacting drive capped by Daniel’s second touchdown on a run of 25 yards. Miller got the conversion run for a 40-0 lead.

Greenland got on the board with a 79-yard run on what would be the final offensive play of the night.

The Bearcats are on the road next week to take on West Fork. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.