In a game that sometimes looked more like a mud-wrestling match than a football game, the Todd County Central Rebels braved plunging temperatures and a driving rain to plow through Butler County 44-6 on Friday night in Morgantown.
With Preston Moore under center in place of the injured Bryce Nolan, Ja’Twan Graham dragged Bear defenders all over the field on the way to four scores, while the Rebels stopped a two-game skid to improve to 6-2 overall. The Bears drop their fourth-straight to slip to 1-6 on the year.
Graham got started early when he finished off the Rebels’ first drive with a 13-yard touchdown run, taking an 8-0 lead after a 2-point conversion. After a short scoring run to start the second quarter, the advantage was 16-0 after Moore ran it in to tack on 2 more points.
Moore did it himself on a 14-yard scoring run with 33.5 seconds left in the first half, and this time Graham added the 2 points for a 24-0 halftime lead.
The Bears showed some signs of life early in the second half, taking advantage of a break in the rain to drive down the field and get in the end zone on a 4-yard run by quarterback Jagger Henderson. However, any momentum was quickly snuffed out when Graham rumbled 36 yards for a 30-6 lead with 5:16 left in the third.
Graham’s next trip to the end zone, a 7-yard carry, was set up by an unorthodox fake punt. With Moore set to punt the ball away, he fumbled the snap and picked it up and threaded his way for a 25-yard gain down to the Butler County 15-yard line. It’s unclear if the call for the fake came from the Rebel sidelines or was just a piece of improvisation by Moore, but after Nate Reding’s extra point a short time later the margin was 31 points.
With 7:18 left to play, Tanner McQuiston snatched a pass out of the hands of a Bear reciever and gave the Rebel offense a short field at the Butler County 22. Graham closed the show with a 12-yard touchdown run, followed by another Reding extra point, for the final 44-6 score.
