Pulaski Academy wanted to be perfect Friday night. Beebe needed to be.
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Only one of those desires came true in the first half Friday, and thus the Bruins coasted to a 51-21 5A-Central Conference victory at Rector Field.
The No. 8 Bruins scored touchdowns on all seven first-half drives and piled up all of their points before halftime while romping to their 44th consecutive conference victory, a streak that dates back to the start of the 2010 season.
They did so while coming as close to perfection as Coach Kevin Kelley could hope for, racking up 494 first-half yards and getting touchdowns from six different players.
"You can't go 'Never miss a block,' or 'Never line up wrong,' that's unrealistic with 11 kids and 50 plays," Kelley said. "So, to set it as a realistic perfection -- isn't that the ultimate goal to score a touchdown? So, if you do it every time, that's perfection."
Beebe Coach John Shannon knows well how quickly Pulaski Academy (4-1, 2-0) can score and put games out of reach. That's why he was preaching to his team all week that it had to match the Bruins on almost every drive.
The start was just what the Badgers (1-4, 0-2) needed.
Ray Jackson's 12-yard touchdown catch from Layne Hatcher put the Bruins up 8-0, but they needed 14 plays to get in the end zone. Then, the Badgers went 52 yards in 7 plays and Taylor Boyce's 6-yard run made it 8-7.
But then Jaren Watkins' 69-yard dart up the middle made it 16-7, the Bruins recovered the ensuing onside kick and, two plays later, Hatcher's 54-yard pass to Tra Johnson on a post route made it 23-7 and the rout had been kickstarted.
After a good start, Beebe's deficit went from 1 to 16 points in 53 seconds for the type of dramatic momentum shift that Shannon feared.
"We talked all week about how we were going to have to play perfect," Shannon said. "If you make a mistake now you're down two scores and it takes you out of your game plan and they're very good at it. If you can't match them series-for-series, you dig yourself a hole and it's hard to get out of."
It only got worse for the Badgers.
The Bruins added to their lead with a 10-yard pass from Hatcher to Jacory McMillan, a 7-yard pass to Johnson from Watkins, then Watkins' 36-yard run and Cameron Fonseca's 1-yard run in the final minute of the second quarter made it 51-7 at halftime.
None of Pulaski Academy's starters played the second half, which came a week after a 48-6 victory over J.A. Fair in which its starters were pulled after the first quarter.
Hatcher finished 14 of 18 passing for 184 yards and touchdowns to Jackson, Johnson and McMillan.
Watkins rushed for 181 yards on 9 carries, scoring on runs of 69 and 36 yards. His touchdown pass to Johnson in the back corner of the end zone came on a run-pass option play in which he took a Shotgun snap and sprinted to the left edge before seeing Johnson open in the back corner of the end zone.
"That really puts teams in a bind," Kelley said. "If teams come up on him, he throws it just good enough to make them pay. I don't even know how I would defend him in that situation."
Beebe finished with 273 yards, but 52 were gained on its first-half scoring drive and 76 on the final drive of the second quarter that ended when Hudson Henry intercepted a pass inside Pulaski Academy's 10.
"We executed what we wanted to do," Shannon said of the game's start. "If we get the onside kick and go down and score, it may be a different ballgame."
Sports on 10/01/2016