By ray benton
Special to The Leader
A shootout turned into a rout at Bro Irwin Stadium in Beebe Friday night, as the Badgers ran away from Greene County Tech in the second half to take a 57-27 victory and stay undefeated in the 5A-East Conference.
Beebe (5-3, 5-0) trailed 21-14 with 10:20 left in the first half, but reeled off the next 37 points to take a commanding 51-21 lead with 6:45 remaining in the game.
“We’re just clicking right now on offense,” Beebe coach John Shannon said. “We challenged them all week to come out in the second half. We didn’t score to start the half at Blytheville and let them right back in it. Tonight they came out and answered the challenge.”
Beebe racked up 562 yards of offense, with all but 29 coming on the ground, but it was a crucial 29 yards.
With the score tied at 21, Beebe’s Dakota Lovston intercepted a Clayton Curtis pass - the only turnover of the game - to give the Badgers the ball with 3:32 left in the first half.
The Badger drive sputtered at the Tech 44-yard line, and the Eagles picked off a desperation heave at the buzzer for what would have ended the half. The Eagles, however, were flagged for a personal foul, giving Beebe an untimed play from the 29.
This time quarterback Scott Gowen found receiver Matthew Pursell cruising all alone down the right sideline for the score and a 28-21 lead.
The Badgers got the ball to start the second half and drove 65 yards in 11 plays before settling for a 25-yard field goal by Jordan Goss with 6:45 left in the third quarter.
When Beebe’s defense took the field for the first time in the half, the rout was on.
After getting torched for 245 yards in the first half, the Badger defense stiffened and Tech (4-4, 3-2) could barely move forward. In fact, the Eagles failed to run a play for positive yards in the second half until their third possession.
Tech’s first drive went backwards four yards before Beebe blocked a punt to set up a 13-yard scoring drive and a 38-21 lead.
The visitors’ second possession of the quarter went six yards in the wrong direction and was further hampered by another personal foul.
A Tech punt set Beebe up at its own 46, and the Badgers needed just two plays to make it 44-21. Colby Taylor went 53 yards with 46 seconds left in the third.
The Eagles’ next drive ended when Beebe stuffed a fourth-and-one at the 10-yard line.
From there, the Badger offense 90 yards in eight plays to put the Eagles down by 30. Jay Holdway got 68 of it in one play.
From there, the Badger offense 90 yards in eight plays to put the Eagles down by 30. Jay Holdway got 68 of it in one play.
After the stellar first half for Tech, the Eagle offense managed just 73 yards in the second half.
“We thought we had a pretty good game plan defensively but they were doing a good job with their option stuff at pinching us and not letting us get outside,” Shannon said.
“We just took our ends off the pitch man and put them on the quarterback because we realized they were wanting their quarterback to run the ball.”
Taylor finished with 180 yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries. Holdway ran the ball 15 times for 167 yards and three scores.
