Getting out to an early lead and seizing the momentum to start was what the New Madrid County Central football team game planned to do against Kelly on Friday night. As the first round of the Class 2, District 1 tournament got underway, NMCC (6-4) jumped out to an early lead, thanks to three touchdowns on their first three drives of the night, en route to a 48-18 win over Kelly. “Our plan going into this game was to grab the ball, grab the momentum, and score quickly, score often,” NMCC head coach Tyler Fullhart said. “We made some changes to the offense; we moved some guys around just to try to give us a little more explosiveness. These guys can play. They can play, and they can score at any time on the field; that’s the way our offense is built. The offensive line did a great job. They don’t get a lot of praise, but we had to shake some things up on the offensive line, and they were able to clear some way for Q to run the ball.” Junior running back, Quazavion Jackson scored the first two touchdowns of the game. Jackson’s first touchdown came on a one-yard run, while his second was a 15-yard score — after sophomore Kenyon King intercepted Kelly’s Bryce Morgan and returned the ball to the 7-yard line. Senior Christen Phillips would then add-on both two-point conversions to make the score 16-0 with 6:25 left in the first quarter. The Eagles’ workhorse in the backfield had himself another banner night, with 209 yards rushing on 28 carries and three touchdowns. “I just had that mindset, and nobody can stop me,” Jackson said. “I just want to win; that’s my mentality. That just boosted my confidence up and got me ready to play.” As an added dynamic, Fullhart also changed the offense. Returning at signal-caller was sophomore Matt Riley, and at wide-receiver was Phillips. However, Fullhart added that Phillips could be used at any position and make an immediate impact. “Matt does a really good job of staying calm,” Fullhart said. “Under-pressure, he stays calm, and he does a great job. We just thought Christen could give us another level of the offense if we moved him around a little bit. He knows the offense; he’s been in the offense for four years. He’s been a quarterback for three, and he played receiver as a freshman. We knew he would be comfortable moving around, and we could literally put him anywhere, and he would know what to do.” Riley finished throwing 9 of 17 for 115 yards and two touchdowns. He threw a 29-yard strike to senior Austin Davis in the second quarter and a 10-yard pass to Phillips in the third. Phillips added 51-yard on-the-ground, on five carries, and scored twice. He also added 14 yards receiving, on two catches, with the touchdown. Davis had five receptions for 64 yards, along with the touchdown. Overall, options are what Fullhart is looking for the most out of his offense. “When you’re calling offensive plays, you want options to get the ball in guys hands and make plays,” Fullhart said. “You can draw any play up on the whiteboard, and it will work, but the job is to get the ball in the playmakers’ hands. Matt does a good job of that.” There were two many weapons on the NMCC’s side for the Hawks to combat, in the end. Additionally, stringing together consecutive positive drives was hard for Kelly (5-5) to do. The Hawks finished with five first downs for the game. Junior Evan Urhahn rushed for 95 yards, on 16 carries, and one touchdown. In special teams, though, he did provide a spark to start the second half. Urhahn picked up the ball at the 11-yard line, got some blocks, and raced down the sideline to the end zone for an 89-yard touchdown to open up the scoring for the Hawks. At the time, his score made it 28-10 Eagles. Heading into the game, Fullhart knew what his team needed to do against Kelly’s dynamic runner. Get your Semoball fix in one daily email Your email address “We knew going in they were going to pound the rock,” Fullhart said. “They run power really well. The coaching staff there is tremendous because they always do a good job game planning us, and they take away things that we like to do offensively, and they’re able to find holes in the defense. Coach Dace did a good job adjusting, and the guys responded well. The guys just played relentless, and that’s what we try to preach to them. Be consistent this week, and just keep playing.” For six Kelly seniors, it would be the last time on a football field. Despite having their careers end on a sour note, Kelly head coach Lance Powers had nothing but praise for his group. “We were battling right to the end,” Powers said. “We just kept fighting. I hate it for the six seniors. Those six seniors won the most games here at Kelly. I know we’re a fairly new program, but they were that freshman class that went through 2016. A lot of those kids had to play as freshmen. Unexpected and unrealistic for them to have to go in there and play that schedule that we had then. My hats off to that senior class and the hard work that they put in to get us where we’re at.” Kelly 3 0 7 8 — 18 NMCC 22 6 12 8 — 48 First Quarter N — Quazavion Jackson 1 run (Christen Phillips run), 8:37 N — Jackson 15 run (Phillips run), 6:25 N — Phillips 23 run (pass failed), 2:04 K — Ty Powers 25 field goal, 9:57 Second Quarter N — Austin Davis 29 pass from Matt Riley (run failed), 0:16 Third Quarter K — Evan Urhahn 89 kickoff return (Powers kick), 11:47 N — Phillips 10 pass from Riley (run failed), 7:59 N — Jackson 5 run (run failed), 1:17 Fourth Quarter N — Phillips 7 run (Jackson run), 11:14 K — Urhahn 3 run (Bryce Morgan from Gavin Jansen), 0:30 TEAM STATISTICS K N First Downs 5 19 Total Offense 83 360 Rushes-yards 24-59 44-245 Passing yards 24 115 Comp-Att-Int 3-18-1 9-17-1 Penalties-yards 9-79 13-58 Fumbles-lost 1-0 3-0 Turnovers 2 2 INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING — Kelly, Evan Urhahn 16-95, Bryce Morgan 6-(-45), Christian Williams 1-7, Bryce Phelps 1-2; NMCC, Bryshawn Williams 4-9, Quazavion Jackson 28-209, Matt Riley 5-(-28), Christen Phillips 5-51, Corvel Williams 1-6, Kannon Nowell 1-(-2). PASSING — Kelly, Bryce Morgan 3-18-1 24; NMCC, Matt Riley 9-17-1 115. RECEIVING — Kelly, Ty Powers 1-10, Bryce Phelps 1-9, Drew Dirnberger 1-5; Kelly, Austin Davis 5-64, Bryshawn Williams 1-27, Christen Phillips 2-14, Shamar Williamson 1-10.