MOKANE - The South Callaway Bulldogs exulted in an extraordinary 2014 football season that lasted until its final day, punctuating it with a 14-1 mark and a Class 2 runner-up finish.
The 2015 postseason has barely begun and South Callaway's season is shockingly over, the Bulldogs' exit taking place in stunning fashion.
Brandon Thoennes rushed for 266 yards and four touchdowns, and Cole Camp converted three South Callaway turnovers into 20 points as the No. 6 seed Bluebirds blindsided the No. 3 Bulldogs 47-27 in District 6 first-round play Friday night.
Just like that, South Callaway's first year under head coach Zack Hess came to an unexpected and unpleasant end. The Bulldogs finished with a 7-3 record.
"It's tough, because we had a good week of practice and we felt very prepared," Hess said. "We thought we had a great opportunity here tonight and it just didn't happen.
"You've got to give them (Cole Camp) all of the credit. They won the line of scrimmage, they were very physical, they had a great game plan and they stuck to it. They just beat us."
The Bluebirds (7-3) operated a single-wing, double-tight end offense similar to that of unbeaten, Class 1-ranked Mark Twain and its talented back, Tyler Elledge. Mark Twain rushed for 360 yards as a team - with Elledge gaining 309 and scoring three times - in an 18-7 victory over South Callaway for the Eastern Missouri Conference title Oct. 9 in Mokane.
Hess, the Bulldogs' defensive coordinator, expected Kendrick Logan to handle the majority of the workload in Cole Camp's running game Friday night. It was Thoennes, though, that literally pulled a fast one on the South Callaway defense.
Thoennes - who was responsible for 30 of the Bluebirds' 59 carries - scored on an 11-yard touchdown run with 2 minutes, 36 seconds to play in the first quarter to give Cole Camp a 14-0 edge. He followed that with a 19-yard touchdown run on fourth down with 8:01 left in the third quarter to stretch the Bluebirds' lead to 28-14.
South Callaway turnovers led to Thoennes' final two scores. Two plays after Cole Camp recovered a fumble by the Bulldogs, Thoennes darted 22 yards for a touchdown with 10:58 remaining in the game.
An interception of South Callaway senior quarterback Ethan Livengood then resulted in a Thoennes 25-yard touchdown run on the next play to increase the Bluebirds' lead to 40-21 with 5:14 to go.
Hess could not have predicted that Thoennes was capable of his prolific performance.
"I didn't see a lot of him on film - he kind of came out of nowhere, but he did a great job," Hess said. "You mention Tyler (Elledge), it was very similar to the way he ran.
"He (Thoennes) was kind of physical, but yet kind of smooth, very shifty. When he broke it, he seemed to get big yardage."
The Bulldogs had been mostly stout in defending the run this season and came into Friday night allowing just 132.8 yards per game on the ground. Cole Camp, however, amassed 375 yards rushing and inflicted most of its damage when its mobile offensive linemen pulled for blocks on sweeps in front of Thoennes and his running mates.
"They put us in a little bit of a predicament with our alignments," Hess said. "They did a great job washing down our defensive ends and our outside linebackers, and then our inside backers couldn't scrape over the top fast enough.
"There were just big running lanes to run through."
If South Callaway was overlooking Cole Camp, the Bluebirds didn't need long to grab the Bulldogs' attention. South Callaway fumbled five plays into the game's first possession and Cole Camp recovered the ball at the Bulldogs' 49-yard line.
On the Bluebirds' first play, quarterback Nik Clifton connected with Logan down the right seam for a touchdown. The pair hooked up again for the two-point conversion to make it 8-0 with 9:39 left in the first quarter.
South Callaway was futile on its first three offensive series, but finally got on track when Livengood lofted a 40-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Brandon Ward at the 7:05 mark of the second quarter. Junior kicker Dakota Kraft booted the extra point to make it 14-7.
Clifton countered with a 1-yard touchdown run on Cole Camp's next possession, but the Bulldogs continued to show signs of resurgence. Livengood plowed his way into the end zone from 1 yard out with :31 left to bring South Callaway within 20-14 at the break.
The Bulldogs, though, were constantly chasing points in the second half and could never quite catch the Bluebirds. Senior running back Patrick Barnard had a 4-yard touchdown run with 7:46 remaining in the game to make it 34-21 and fellow senior running back Cameron Richardson broke free for a 57-yard score as time expired.
South Callaway committed five turnovers, but could not survive the three miscues that resulted in Cole Camp points.
"We just couldn't move the ball consistently and stay on the field," Hess said. "The turnovers were killer. Those will get you every time, and the turnovers with the field position.
"They didn't have a long way to go on a couple of drives. ... As a defense, our mentality is it doesn't matter where we go out on the field, we need to stop them. Ultimately, we didn't get that done."
And that, in part, meant the Bulldogs were done for the year.