MOKANE - South Callaway head coach Tim Rulo's thoughts were on a barrier, and how to bust it down.
With his state-ranked Bulldogs protecting a 6-0 lead midway through the third quarter of Friday night's season opener against the North Callaway Thunderbirds, Rulo was waiting for something momentous to happen.
"Either they were going to come up with a big play or we were just, finally, going to push the wall over," Rulo said. "We were leaning on the wall - we were pushing on it, pushing on it - and either the wall was going to come over or it was going to fall flat on us.
"And finally - praise the Lord - we were able to knock it over and it was able to kind of snowball from there, and snowball in our favor."
Junior quarterback Troy Hentges, making his first varsity start, pierced that partition to send South Callaway on its way. Hentges bolted through the heart of North Callaway's defense for a 45-yard touchdown - his second of three scoring runs - with 5:15 to go in the third quarter, and the Bulldogs breezed from there in a 31-0 runaway over the Thunderbirds.