Semoball

Malden football team storms past Kelly for conference win

Ben Striker ~ Daily American Republic

BENTON, Mo. — Scoring in quick bursts has become second nature for the Malden football team again.

The Green Wave scored on their first five possessions for a second straight week, this time needing just 12 seconds to go ahead for good, as the defense and special teams set the tone early in a 50-0 win against SEMO Conference East foe Kelly.

“If we can start out like that against anybody, I think we have a good chance in any game,” junior linebacker Gavin Bristow said. “Since that loss to Caruthersville we’ve realized we need to getting going early, and from the get-go we were fired up, ready to hit somebody.”

Bristow didn’t need to do much hitting to get things started on the opening kickoff. Kelly picked up a few yards before Bristow met the Hawks’ return man at the 30-yard line. Instead of taking his counterpart to the ground, Bristow ripped the ball from his grasp and returned it for a touchdown with 11 minutes, 48 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

“At first I was running to go and make the tackle and I noticed when he hit me it wasn’t full contact,” Bristow said. “I realized when I wrapped him up my hand was on the ball so I said, ‘Hey, I’m going to take it from him.’”

The Green Wave (3-1, 1-0 East) took a lot more from the Hawks (2-2, 0-1) throughout the night. Senior running back Tray Stevenson ate up chunks of yardage every time he touched the ball, rushing for 189 yards and three touchdowns on 13 carries. Senior quarterback Mason Brown ran for 99 yards on six carries and added a touchdown in the first half.

Brown also completed all three of his passes for 45 yards, including two to senior Broddric Annesser, who rushed for one score, returned a punt for another and had one called back.

“I was pleased we threw the ball well, ran the ball well and made good decisions on special teams throughout the game,” Malden coach Kevin Collier said. “Add that to the way our defense played and that might be the most complete game we’ve had all year.”

When the offense wasn’t breaking through the Kelly stacked defensive front, Malden’s defense was terrorizing the Hawks. Junior quarterback Christian Worley completed just 1 of 10 passes for 12 yards and Kelly’s run game produced -1 yards on 22 carries.

Kelly, coming off back-to-back wins to move over the .500 mark for the first time in program history, had one positive yard from scrimmage and one first down via a Malden penalty in the first half. The Hawks finished with two first downs and 11 total yards, punted eight times, turned the ball over on downs three times and only crossed the 50-yard line twice.

“It was real tough to get anything going, especially when they take the opening kickoff strip it out of our arms,” Kelly coach Lance Powers said. “It was almost like they kicked the air out of us right then.”

It took Malden five plays following a Kelly 3-and-out to go 73 yards for a touchdown. Annesser capped the drive with a 21-yard run to make it 16-0 before the Green Wave defense went back to work.

Bristow, Romero Slavings and Jackson Wilson each came up with tackles for loss to force a second Kelly punt with 6:44 left in the first.

Four minutes later, Brown found pay dirt with a 15-yard scamper to boost the lead to 24-0. Stevenson followed up another Kelly punt with a bulldozing 20-yard TD run for a 30-0 advantage at the end of the first quarter.

“He had a good night, we blocked well for him and we’re going to have to continue to do that because it’s not going to get any easier on him down the line,” Collier said of Stevenson, who opened the third quarter with a 36-yard touchdown run.

After letting Kelly’s first four punts go untouched, Annesser got one to bounce right to him. The senior scooped it up at his own 49-yard line and scurried down the right sideline and past the pylon untouched.

“They were getting too many yards back on the bounces on all their other punts, so I just figured it was time to grab one and take it to the house,” Annesser said. “I had a lot of green grass in front of me and knew it was going to be a touchdown.”

Malden’s two remaining drives in the first half ended in fumbles recovered by the Hawks, who were forced to punt both times.

Stevenson and the rest of Malden’s starters stayed in the game for three plays to open the second half before Stevenson capped a 90-yard drive with a 30-yard score. The Green Wave’s ground-and-pound workhorse is averaging 175 yards per game and 9.6 yards per carry this season.

Aside from the overall loss, the Hawks lost two key linemen on the same play late in the third quarter. Senior Dylan Sander and junior Issac Faire both suffered knee injuries and had to be helped to the sideline.

“We lost some key pieces tonight and those two looked like bad ones,” Powers said. “We won’t know what the results are until we get them to the hospital, but it’ll just have to be next man up.”

Though it wasn’t the result they wanted, Kelly improved incrementally against the Green Wave. In last season’s meeting, Malden put up 50 points against the Hawks in the first quarter — a state record — and won 80-0.

“I felt like we were ready but obviously we weren’t and that’s on me,” Powers said. “I don’t like losing, that part sucks, but we did some things better tonight compared to last [year] and we’re seeing improvement.”

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