Conditioning Was Key for MRH Football's Win

At 2-2, and in front of hundreds of alumni at the game for homecoming, the Blue Devils were looking for a win any way they could.

They found it against Park Hills Central, winning 31-6, scoring with passing, rushing and a 39-yard field goal. The win puts MRH at 3-2 and leaves the Park Hills Central Rebels at the opposite: 2-3.

“Defense finished,” MRH coach Brandon Gregory said. He was referring to when MRH was up 19-0 at the half but lost 25-26.

(A photo gallery from the game is available on our Blue Devils Facebook page: www.facebook.com/MRHBlueDevils)

The Devils worked extra hard on conditioning during the week and it paid off.

“Nobody cramped up,” he said. “When you’re not tired you can perform better, so I think we’re going to take the same approach with conditioning a little bit more.”

“Beside the big run, we basically shut them down. So they answered the task of running, playing physical for us on defense and doing what we had to do,” Gregory said.

In the first half, the Devils took away what the Rebels do best: pounding up the middle. “They had basically everybody jammed in the box so we figured we had to try and get outside,” Rebels coach Kory Schweiss said.

The Devils held the Rebels on their first possession, then scored in 10 plays. Junior quarterback Kahlid Hagens had a 3-yard keeper for the score. Senior kicker John Barron’s one-point kick was good, as they were for all four MRH touchdowns.

Park Hills then tried running outside and had success with one 65-yard touchdown run. MRH freshman Elijah Keely took the kickoff up to the Park Hills 40-yard line to give the Devils good position. It took seven plays, finishing with a 12-yard pass to sophomore Aaron Collins in the end zone for the second MRH touchdown, making it 14-6 at the half.

Park Hills tries to get ahead then run up the middle and run down the clock, but MRH had other plans. The Rebels were forced to throw.

“We’re not real good at throwing the football,” Schweiss said. “We did some decent things in the passing game tonight, but we’re not the type of team that does very well when we get behind.”

MRH scored on the Devils' second possession on an eight-play drive from the Park Hills 42. Hagens again kept the ball for the last 1-yard push. The Rebels fumbled on their next two possessions, the second gave the Devils the ball on the Rebels 5-yard line. Keely ran it in a yard for the final MRH touchdown of the game.

Keely led MRH in rushing with 67 yards on 13 carries.

The final Rebels possession ended when 6-foot-4 junior Aaron Spudich reached up and grabbed Park Hills junior quarterback Jon Comfort’s pass before it could get too far. The Devils moved the ball 41 yards in nine plays, ending with Barron’s 39-yard field goal. The 3-pointer equaled what Barron had previously done in practice.

Senior Kashon Hagens led MRH in tackles with 11, junior Wes Williams had 10 and junior Antar Thompson had eight tackles, one sack and a fumble recovery.

“The undefeated season goes out the window,” Gregory said. “We’re just going to prepare ourselves so we can win the state championship.”

MRH's next game is at 1 p.m. on Saturday against Perryville, who was 1-3 as of publication time, but had a game against Fredericktown on Friday night.