MRH Overwhelms Brentwood With Ground Attack

A dominant Maplewood Richmond Heights performance on Friday night prevented the Brentwood Eagles from scoring a single point. The Blue Devils (1-1) tallied 55 points while holding Brentwood (0-2) to 0 in a shutout game at .

“Our guys came out and flew around like we wanted them to,” MRH coach Brandon Gregory said. “For the most part they did what (defensive coach) Coach Kime asked them to do and everything went the right way.”

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MRH junior Wes Williams, who finished up , stepped in for freshman runningback Elijah Keely and went 49 yards in five carries for his first three touchdowns. Keely, who tallied five rushing touchdowns in MRH's game , missed on Friday for personal reasons.

“Felt good,” Williams said. “Kind of different, getting a handoff instead of giving a handoff.”

Senior kicker John Barron drilled a 30-yard field goal with room to spare for his first score of the year. Barron also punted three times in the game, the last one sailing 62 yards.

Junior runningback PJ Grady-Liska, with 22 yards in five carries, scored his first two touchdowns of the year, and freshman runningback Kareem Harry kickstarted his career with six carries and a touchdown in the last quarter.

Brentwood received the first kickoff, but was held to three downs and a punt.

The Devils looked shaky in their first possession, but then found the end zone on the next six consecutive possessions, with Williams’ and Liska’s scores.

Junior quarterback Kahlid Hagens found pay dirt with a 50-yard  keeper. Hagens was the leading MRH rusher with 87 yards on nine carries – all in the first half. He also threw for 148 yards, completing 8 for 14 through the air.

“I told him going into the season that we were going to be relying on his feet,” Gregory said. “He’s very talented, to be able to throw and run. He’s a dual threat.”

All this MRH scoring was at the expense of the Eagles, and Brentwood head coach Keith Herring was left practically speechless at the end of the game.

“I’m completely embarrassed by our performance, by our lack of performance,” Herring said. “That’s a good team, OK, but they’re not 55 points better than us.

“We’ve got to get better,” he said. “That’s the reality of it, we’ve got to get better.”

Brentwood tallied 264 total offensive yards, with 181 of that coming on the ground. Junior Danny Lynch rushed for 45 yards in 10 carries. Junior quarterback Jordan Groth threw for 83 yards. Freshman Daron Starks had the longest run for the Eagles, a 79-yard carry.

Next week, Brentwood faces Wesclin, from Trenton, IL, (1-1) at home, and MRH travels south to Potosi (0-2). Both are Friday night games.