MOKANE, Mo. - It was an anomaly that favored Montgomery County and confounded South Callaway head coach Zack Hess, considering his Bulldogs' margin of victory.
Hess was fairly certain Montgomery County had the edge in time of possession even though he doesn't track the number, but none of that mattered as South Callaway stayed unbeaten with a 26-6 Eastern Missouri Conference triumph over the Wildcats on Friday night.
The Bulldogs - who sat just outside the top 10 in the Class 2 state media rankings with 10 votes last week - improved to 5-0 overall and 3-0 in the EMO. Montgomery County tumbled to 1-4 on the season and 1-2 in conference play.
"It was just a game with a business-like atmosphere and we did a great job of taking care of that, aside from the time of possession," Hess said Saturday morning.
South Callaway carried an 18-0 advantage into the break after limiting the Wildcats to just 46 total yards in the first half, despite the fact that Montgomery County ran more offensive plays during that span than the Bulldogs.
"We talked about it at halftime, about how we had done a great job statistically on defense as far as (allowing) yardage and points, and tackles for loss and third-down percentage," Hess said. "Looking at the stat book doesn't do justice to what transpired.
"Our biggest Achilles' heel was not getting off the field in a timely manner."
Senior running back Bennett Hager put South Callaway on top when he scored the first of his two touchdowns on a 30-yard run with 10 minutes, 48 seconds left in the first quarter. Junior running back Dalton Stone then increased the Bulldogs' lead to 12-0 when he raced 52 yards for a touchdown as time expired in the quarter.
Hager gave South Callaway its halftime advantage when he scored from 8 yards out with 5:53 to play in the second quarter.
Junior running back Kaden Helsel added the Bulldogs' final score on an 18-yard touchdown run with 6:49 remaining in the third quarter.
Helsel finished with 96 yards rushing on six carries as South Callaway accumulated 321 yards on the ground. Hager was next with 89 yards in six attempts and Stone responded with 68 yards on five carries. Junior quarterback Landon Horstman also gained 43 yards in nine attempts.
Hess talked last week about the Bulldogs moving more quickly on offense and they were able to accomplish that objective Friday night, even if it didn't always result in points.
"We did a really good job of running plays fast and we might have caught Montgomery County off guard," Hess said. "The rain didn't affect us and we were able to snap the ball with about 20 seconds left on the play clock.
"Montgomery County did a great job of keeping our offense off the field and limiting the number of opportunities we had. There were several drives we left on the field and didn't finish very well."
The Wildcats ended up with just 188 yards of total offense. Montgomery County avoided being shut out when junior running back Corey Kroll scored on a 1-yard touchdown run with 2:36 left in the contest.
South Callaway, after two straight home games, travels to Mark Twain (3-2, 2-1) this week for an EMO clash. The Tigers rolled to a 40-7 conference win at Bowling Green on Friday night.
Ryan Boland can be reached at (573) 826-2422, or by email at [email protected].