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Caruthersville football ends Malden’s three-year grasp on Class 2, District 1
CARUTHERSVILLE, Mo. – The Caruthersville football team finally knocked Malden off the Class 2, District 1 mountain.
Caruthersville unseated the three-time defending champs with a 38-20 win Friday night at Hopke Field in Caruthersville, Mo., putting an end to three-straight district title losses to the Green Wave as well.
It’s the first district title for Caruthersville since 2013, which began a string of five-straight district championship meetings and 10 games overall between the two rivals.
“We’ve had some great games with those guys over the years,” Caruthersville head coach Jimmy Jackson said. “We won two this year and felt like we’ve been really close in past years and some things didn’t go our way and didn’t get the job done. We got it done today.”
Caruthersville (9-2) moves into a Class 2 sectional next week when they host District 2 winner Lutheran North.
The Tigers handed Malden their first regular season loss in four years when the two hooked up during their Aug. 25, regular season meeting with a 33-7 shelling. And much like that first game, the Green Wave had a tough time containing Caruthersville quarterback Charles Golliday.
The senior threw for three touchdowns and ran for another, which is exactly what he did the first time around. He finished Friday’s district title game with 119 passing yards and 126 rushing yards on a combined 26 touches.
His patient, controlled manner in the pocket led to three touchdown strikes to his favorite receiver, Bryce Strawn, who finished with four catches for 82 yards. But when things got dicey or designed runs were called, Golliday’s quickness came in handy.
“Their quarterback’s an awful good one and he’s hard to contain,” Malden head coach Kevin Collier said.
The Tigers took advantage of Golliday’s traits and a few Malden miscues to go ahead 21-0 in the first half.
A 27-yard touchdown run by Demarco Slaughter kicked things off during Caruthersville’s second drive of the night. They scored nearly two minutes later when Golliday found Strawn for the first of their three touchdown connections for a 14-0 lead.
Malden, who made a trip to the Class 2 state championship game in 2015 during their recent playoff success, committed four turnovers in the first half halting nearly everything positive they could muster.
“That hurt us and put us behind the eight ball,” Collier said. “We did shoot ourselves in the foot a couple of times.”
The first two passes from quarterback Mason Brown were picked off and one of their most promising drives of the first half was stopped dead after a high snap hit Brown in the hands and next the ground. The fumble was pounced on by Nicholas Davis at the Caruthersville 15.
The Tigers marched 85 yards on four plays during the next series, which was highlighted by a 49-yard touchdown haul by Strawn. That sequence erased what could of easily cut Malden’s deficit in half to a 21-point lead by the Tigers.
“We had a 14-point swing at the end of the first half,” Collier said. “They threw that long pass and scored on us and now we’re down by [three] possessions instead of [one]… every game there’s four of five turning points and that was definitely a turning point.”
Though down by three scores with just 1:12 to go in the first half, the Green Wave found some life before the break.
A 25-yard scamper by Brown put Malden in the red zone for the second time of the night. Facing second and long, a defensive pass interference call moved the Green Wave to the 7 where Brown found Colton Stark in the end zone to cut their deficit to 21-7 just six second before halftime.
That momentum stuck with the Green Wave in the third quarter, when they began feeding their beast, Tray Stevenson.
The 5-10, 206-pound senior wrecker started to make his presence felt a bit more in the third when the Green Wave lined up in their wishbone package. After getting just six carries for 19 yards in the first half, Stevenson racked up 94 yards on 13 carries in the second.
“They made some adjustments in the second half and really started running it downhill on us,” Jackson said.
Stevenson cut Caruthersville’s lead to 21-14 with a 12-yard run within the first two minutes of the third. And though the Tigers scored again on their next possession, Stevenson answered towards the end of the quarter carrying the ball 57 yards on a 53-yard drive to make it 28-20.
The Green Wave tried to go for two with another Stevenson run, but he was met with a thunderous blow by Caruthersville’s Amaud Bates that stopped him just short of the goal line to keep the margin at eight. That was the last carry Stevenson had.
“We wanted to control the box,” Jackson said. “They run the ball a lot so of course we wanted to shut that down, whether is was the QB or running back doing it.”
A 29-yard field goal by Terrius Rodgers put the Tigers up by two possessions with 7:46 left remaining. They tacked on another touchdown, which signaled the beginning of the end, when Golliday rushed for 53 yards and then took the next play in for a 1-yard score to make up the final.
Malden, facing long fourth downs each time, chose to punt during their last two tries.
“The kids never laid down and that’s what you want from them,” Collier said. “This hurts a whole lot and down the line, I told them this, they’re going to remember they had a heck of a season and a heck of a career here. Very few people in the entire world get to have what they’ve done the last several years.”
Though Caruthersville came out on top, they lost some key components along the way.
Slaughter was the first to go down after an apparent leg injury led to a gurney ride off the field in the first half. His status for next week was still in the air.
Nicholas Moore, who rushed for 114 yards on 22 carries and has been their go-to guy since losing former first-stringer Deandre Davis to an ACL tear earlier this year, was ejected from the game with 10 minutes to go for striking.
The Tigers are down to their fourth-string running back when they host Lutheran North next week.
“I hate that we lost Nick,” Jackson said. “We still got some good backs.”
State-ranked Lutheran North survived another state-ranked team in Trinity Catholic during a thrilling 48-46 District 2 final.
The Crusaders are undefeated at 11-0 and average 60.9 points per game.
“We just want to do what we do and compete hard,” Jackson said. “We’re looking forward to it.”
| Malden | 0 | 8 | 12 | 0 | – | 20 |
| Caruthersville | 14 | 7 | 7 | 10 | – | 38 |
First Quarter
C – Damarco Slaughter 27 run (kick failed), 8:58
C – Bryce Strawn 5 pass from Charles Golliday (Strawn from Golliday), 6:01
Second Quarter
C – Strawn 49 pass from Golliday (Terrius Rodgers kick), 1:17
M – Colton Stark 7 pass from Mason Brown (Broddric Annesser from Brown), 0:06
Third Quarter
M – Tray Stevenson 12 run (run failed), 9:46
C – Strawn 15 pass from Golliday (Rodgers kick), 7:23
M – Stevenson 10 run (run failed), 0:33
Fourth Quarter
C – Rodgers 29 field goal, 7:46
C – Golliday 1 run (Rodgers kick), 5:53
TEAM STATISTICS
| M | C | |
| First downs | 12 | 14 |
| Total yards | 227 | 392 |
| Rushes-yards | 48-190 | 41-273 |
| Passing yards | 37 | 119 |
| Comp.-Att.-Int. | 5-11-2 | 7-15-1 |
| Penalties-yards | 7-55 | 8-78 |
| Fumbles-lost | 4-2 | 1-1 |
| Turnovers | 4 | 2 |
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING – Malden, Tray Stevenson 19-113, Mason Brown 13-44, Malcom McBride 13-42, Onterio Reed 1-12, Broddric Annesser 2-(-21). Caruthersville, Charles Golliday 11-126, Nicholas Moore 22-114, Demarco Slaughter 2-24, Bryce Strawn 1-8, Adrian Rodgers 4-4, Chris Smith 1-(-3).
PASSING – Malden, Mason Brown 5-11-2 37. Caruthersville, Charles Golliday 7-15-1 119.
RECEIVING – Malden, Broddric Annesser 3-25, Dalton Lewis 1-5, Colton Stark 1-7. Caruthersville, Bryce Strawn 4-82, Chris Smith 3-37.