HobbsDailyReport.com
TAYLORSVILLE – Alexander Central High held West Caldwell to minus 47 yards offense on Friday night, rolling past the visiting Warriors 69-0 to open the Northwestern 3A-4A football season.
The Cougars (6-0, 1-0) limited the Warriors (0-5, 0-1) to 27 rushes for minus 34 yards, and West Caldwell went 3-for-12 passing for minus 13 yards.
ALEX CENTRAL 69
WEST CALDWELL 0
Alexander Central — gaining 448 yards and 316 on the ground — had nine players with a least one rush, led by A.J. Miller’s 99 yards on four carries and two scores.
Daniel Morgan added four carries for 62 yards, Steven Montgomery had three carries for 58 yards and a TD, and Russell Frazier scored on a 28-yard run on his only carry for Alexander Central.
Jordan Brown led a Cougars defense that had 15 tackles for lost yardage (for 71 yards) with 4 ½ of his nine tackles going for minus 25 yards. Will Elder added two tackles for lost yardage while JaiKwaun Tilley had six tackles for Alexander Central.
Will Gause had seven tackles – two for lost yardage – for the Warriors.
The Cougars led 27-0 after one quarter and 55-0 at the half.
Alexander Central scored in the game’s opening 15 seconds when Miller caught a 66-yard pass from Easton Rhoney (3-4-0 for 132 yards, three TDs).
Rhoney’s 10-yard TD run about two minutes later opened a 13-0 lead, and Tevin Clark had a 9-yard scoring run for a 20-0 lead.
Montgomery scored on a 30-yard run with 35 seconds left in the first quarter, helping make it 27-0.
Miller’s 5-yard TD run and a 2-yard punt return by Rhyeem Craig extended Alexander Central’s lead to 41-0.
About four minute later, Clark caught a 34-yard pass from Rhoney to make it 48-0. A 32-yard Rhoney-to-Montgomery pass in the final minute of the second quarter boosted the lead to 55-0.
Miller broke a run 50 yards for a score with 4:11 to play in the third quarter.
The only score of the final quarter was Fraiser’s TD scamper with 7:51 to play.
West Caldwell ended up 0-for-11 on third-down conversions and 0-for-2 on fourth-down conversion attempts.
Alexander Central went 1-for-3 on third-down attempt, converted both of its fourth-down tries and did not punt.
Alexander Central picked up its 22nd win in 29 games under head coach Butch Carter, who has 126 career victories as the Cougars head to Boone on Friday night (7:30 p.m.) for a showdown with the unbeaten Pioneers (5-0, 1-0).
West Caldwell, which had won its last three visits to Taylorsville, continues league play on Friday (7:30 pm.) at home against South Caldwell.