Maroons run over Highland

HIGHLAND -- Confirming a long-standing truism, the Belleville West Maroons proved Friday there's still no substitute for speed.

The Maroons raced away to a 32-0 lead at halftime and ignited a continuous running clock in the third quarter as they dismantled Highland 53-13 in the season opener for both teams.

Senior Robert Murphy had 123 yards on six carries, including touchdown runs of 17 yards and 76 yards, to spark West's attack. Senior quarterback Jodeci Mack had a 10-yard TD run and a 64-yard TD pass to senior Jarvis Patterson.

"We're quite fast, and this is not one of the faster Highland teams," West coach Ric Johns said. "It was a real good matchup for us and it wasn't a particularly good matchup for them."

Also scoring for West were senior Travis Ruppert on an 11-yard run, senior Kyle Ishman on an 88-yard run and a 2-yard run, and sophomore Jeremy Hill on a 34-yard run. Ishman replaced Mack at quarterback in the second half.

The Maroons also had two touchdowns nullified by penalties.

"Several of the mistakes we made weren't really that big of mistakes," Highland coach Ron Holt. "A guy would just slightly overpenetrate, but against a team this good, they shoot through that gap so fast. And if they're in the open, I don't have anybody who can catch them.

"There were several times, the second they got a yard, I said, 'The refs might as well put both hands up right now because nobody's going to catch him once he gets in the open. It's over.'"

The Maroons took a 39-0 lead on Ishman's 88-yard run early in the third quarter. Senior Tony Kossina then intercepted a pass senior quarterback Kevin Keeven and returned it to the Bulldogs' 2. Ishman scored on the next play to make it 46-0 and begin a continuous clock.

Playing against West's reserves, the Bulldogs scored twice in the second half. Keeven hit junior Michael Buehne with a 32-yard TD in the third quarter and junior Cameron Smith had an 90-yard kickoff return.

After the Maroons took a 12-0 lead in the first quarter, Highland stopped West on its next two possessions, seemingly gaining a bit of momentum.

But the Bulldogs were plagued by dropped passes and other offensive maladies, and West went ahead 18-0 on Murphy's 76-yard run with 5:37 to play in the second quarter.

Highland sophomore Jordan Lobb then fumbled, and Maroons senior Jake Wagner recovered at the Bulldogs' 30. Murphy's 19-yard run put West on the Highland 10, and Mack scored on the next play to make it 25-0.

After another Highland punt, West poured salt in the wound with Mack's long pass to Patterson that made it 32-0.

"They really had to compensate to stop specific things," Johns said. "When they did, other things were opened up for us. We have some nice team speed and were able to score.

"The negative part is our execution sometimes was shoddy. The penalties, once we get into our (Southwestern) conference play, we're not going to be able to have so many penalties on big plays as we did tonight."

Holt said his team won't see a faster team than West "unless we're in the state-championship game."

"Our fastest guy on the whole team runs a 4.7 (-seconds) 40," Holt said. "Our next-fastest is 4.9. We knew we were going to be outmatched on speed. We don't have anything close to that kind of speed."

Murphy was impressive for West, showing power and speed.

"The nice thing about Murphy is he's a program guy," Johns said. "Nobody really knew who he was last year. He's built himself, he's worked himself into the fullback that he is this year. We really think he's a special player."

Johns considered it a plus that he was able to use a lot of players. Sophomore Cody Anderson even got time at quarterback, following Mack and Ishman.

"That was a real bonus for us --to get guys off the field that we needed off and to get guys on the field who have been working hard," Johns said.