FARMINGTON -- Carter Burcham didn't help his completion percentage Friday night when he closed out the first half with four straight incomplete passes.
[HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL SCOREBOARD: Full results + recaps, photos and more]
What Greenbrier's quarterback did before that short string, however, was a sight to behold. The senior quarterback completed 20 of his first 24 passes for 274 yards and two touchdowns, and he ran for another score in the Panthers' 41-14 victory over Farmington in 5A-West Conference action at Allen Holland Field.
Greenbrier^13^20^8^0^—^41
Farmington^0^0^14^0^—^14
First quarter
Green — Sutterfield 1 run (Hall kick), 9:30.
Green — Burcham 11 run (kick blocked), 3:15.
Second quarter
Green — Massey 9 pass from Burcham (Hall kick), 9:32.
Green — Sutterfield 2 run (kick blocked), 4:56.
Green — Brown 28 pass from Burcham (Hall kick), 2:19.
Third quarter
Farm — Williams 38 run (kick fail), 10:39.
Green — Burcham 7 run (Burcham pass to Massey), 1:50
Farm — Grey 80 pass from Waggle (Williams run), 1:22
"We just tried to see what they were in, at first, and work off that," Burcham said. "Our coaches prepared us well and had some good passes down the middle that were open. The receivers were open, and the line blocked pretty good. I really didn't have to do much."
Spencer Sutterfield added two touchdown runs for Greenbrier, including a 1-yard run to start the scoring. Burcham, who finished with 24 of 33 passing for 351 yards and added 66 yards on the ground, had touchdown runs of 11 and 7 yards, and he threw touchdown passes of 9 yards to Alex Massey and 28 yards to Grant Brown in the second quarter.
Farmington (2-4, 1-3 5A-West), on the other hand, struggled with its offense throughout the first half and had only 57 yards on 20 plays -- 33 of those yards coming as time expired. The Cardinals did get on the scoreboard on Caleb Williams' 38-yard touchdown run on the third play of the second half, then they added an 80-yard touchdown bomb from Trey Waggle to Jacob Grey after the running clock had started.
"A lot it had to do with Greenbrier, but we made a lot of mistakes," Farmington coach Mike Adams said. "We had manageable situations two or three times, but we had penalties from making first downs and fumbled three snaps.
"Part of that was we moved some offensive linemen around because of injuries. Once we moved them back to their regular spots in the second half, we operated a lot more smoothly."
The victory sets up Greenbrier (5-1, 3-0) for next week's showdown at home against Harrison. The winner claims sole possession of first place in the league standings as Morrilton handed Alma its first loss.
The Panthers wouldn't have been in this position had Morrilton was not forced to forfeit four wins earlier this week. That included the Devil Dogs' 35-27 win over Greenbrier last week.
"I told our players that was a gift," Greenbrier coach Randy Tribble said. "Sometimes you get gifts that you don't really deserve, then you want to appreciate it and take advantage of it.
"We knew we had one loss, which really doesn't knock us out of anything. Having zero conference losses, that's a good feeling. It's not the way we wanted to get it, but it's a good feeling to have."
Sports on 10/08/2016