Schools

MRH Football Season Ends in Quarterfinals vs Caruthersville and D1-Prospect

Maplewood Richmond Heights coughed up the ball three costly times in the game.

A 251-yard rushing game from Caruthersville junior, Division 1 prospect, Darrell Monroe, and four fourth-quarter touchdowns sunk Maplewood Richmond Heights' Dome hopes, on Saturday.

The Tigers crushed the Blue Devils 37-54, winning the Class 2 state quarterfinal, at MRH. Caruthersville will go on to the semi-finals, and MRH finishes with a 10-3 record.

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Three Caruthersville scores were on MRH fumbles. Two of those belonged to Monroe. He stripped MRH quarterback Kahlid Hagens of the ball for a score in the third, and scooped a loose ball and ran 91 yards for a score in the fourth.

MRH was ahead 13-0 after the first quarter, but three second-quarter Tiger touchdowns had MRH playing catch-up.

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MRH forced a Caruthersville punt to start the third, then moved the ball with Wes Williams and Elijah Keely runs. Keely scored to make it a 19-20 game. Both teams scored again in the third quarter, making it 25-27 after three.

Early in the fourth, two MRH loose balls turned into Caruthersville scores, then Hagens came back with a 22-yard run to make it a 31-40 game. Caruthersville scored with 3:16 remaining, then a Hagens pass to Keely with 1:41 left made it 37-47. Caruthersville had the final touchdown.

“You can’t win a game giving a team 28 points,” MRH coach Rich Nixon said. “I thought we had a some good adjustments at halftime, and we got some things going, and we just coughed it up. It’s the old proverbial, that’s how the ball bounced today.”

Hagens scored four MRH touchdowns with 132 yards rushing on 20 carries. He passed for 212 yards, going 9 for 20.

Sophomore, Elijah Keely went 105 yards on 11 carries and senior, Wes Williams went 73 yards on 8 carries.

Nixon took the season-ending loss well.

“Every one of those kids were there for a reason, that we counted on all year, and made great plays for us, so there’s no ill will,” Nixon said. “We’re going to win with them, we’re going to lose with them. This time we came up short.”

There were 12 seniors on the MRH team, including #2 Lawrence Hogue, #3 Alvin Garvin, #6 John Dudley, #59 Aaron Collins, #24 PJ Liska,  #44 Will Wadsworth, #50 Devontai Halfacre, #54 Aaron Spudich and #55 Antar Thompson.

This article previously stated Kahlid Hagens had an interception in the game, which was incorrect. It was removed.


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