MONTGOMERY CITY - The South Callaway Bulldogs' running game powered back up.
Sophomore quarterback Landon Horstman ran for three touchdowns, while senior quarterback Ethan Livengood and sophomore running back Dalton Stone both ran for two scores as South Callaway mashed winless Montgomery County in a 57-20 Eastern Missouri Conference blitz Friday night.
The Bulldogs (6-1, 5-0 EMO) - winners of five in a row - came in averaging 286 yards on the ground, but were limited to just 119 in their 20-12 conference win at North Callaway in the annual Callaway Cup game Sept. 25. South Callaway showed no difficulty Friday night in denting Montgomery County's defense for 351 yards rushing and nine touchdowns.
"Coach (offensive coordinator Tucker) Bartley did a nice job with mixing up his play calls," South Callaway head coach Zack Hess said. "Montgomery County was stacking the box and bringing a lot of pressure up the middle.
"Tucker tried to soften them up on the edges, which allowed us to go back inside. He did a good job of keeping them off-balance and that opened up running lanes for us in the middle of the field."
Horstman scored on a 27-yard run with 5 minutes to go in the first quarter and his 4-yard scoring scamper with 1:22 remaining left in the second quarter sent the Bulldogs into halftime with a 33-6 advantage. He added a 14-yard touchdown run at the 2:15 mark of the third quarter in finishing with 57 yards on only five carries.
Livengood quickly put South Callaway on the scoreboard just :30 into the game with his 26-yard touchdown run and then burst into the end zone from 1 yard out with 4:43 remaining in the second quarter. He totalled 35 yards in seven attempts.
Stone - who ended up with 44 yards on five carries - scored on a 16-yard run at the 9:46 mark of the second quarter. He delivered the Bulldogs' final score on a 1-yard touchdown run with :33 to play in the game.
Senior running back Cameron Richardson had a 5-yard touchdown run with 6:59 to go in the third quarter and gained 48 yards in six attempts. Senior running back Brendan Vaughn accounted for South Callaway's other score on his only carry, a 1-yard touchdown run with 8:54 remaining in the game.
Senior running back Patrick Barnard topped the Bulldogs with 66 yards rushing in 11 attempts, while sophomore running back Kaden Helsel supplied 56 yards on seven carries.
Horstman completed all four of his passes for 68 yards, while Livengood was 1-of-4 for 23 yards.
Montgomery County (0-7, 0-5) accumulated 276 yards of total offense, including 225 rushing.
"Aside from that first series (of game), when Montgomery got us on a couple of long plays and we had a penalty that shot ourselves in the foot, the defense played really well," Hess said. "That's a challenging offense to play with their big, physical linemen.
"We did a good job of tackling and working off their blocks to make plays."
South Callaway will be back at home this week for an EMO showdown with Mark Twain (7-0, 5-0), ranked No. 7 in Class 1. The Tigers trampled Bowling Green 46-6 in a conference home game Friday night.
"We feel good about where we're at, but we have to continue to get better," Hess said. "Mark Twain will be a huge challenge. We have to have a great week of practice and get some guys healthy."