BOONEVILLE -- Andrew Robertson was the featured player on both sides of the ball in Booneville's 27-3 victory over 3A-1 rival Charleston.
"These kids just come out every night and play hard, and that's all we can ask out of them," said Booneville coach Scott Hyatt. "We just happen to be undefeated at this point. Breaks have fallen our way."
Booneville 42, Charleston 3
Booneville 7 14 6 15 — 42
Charleston 3 0 0 0 — 3
First Quarter
Boon—Robertson 71 run (Kent kick), 5:48
Charl—FG Taggart 31, 1:46
Second Quarter
Boon—Hesson 28 pass from Schlinker (Kent kick), 11:53
Boon—Robertson 22 run (Kent kick), 7:12
Third Quarter
Boo—Ray 11 run (kick failed), 6:23
Fourth Quarter
Boon—Hesson 4 run (Schlinker pass to Fennell), 10:59
Boon—Dobbs 34 interception return (Kent kick), 10:40
Those breaks seemed to be a given in a game where the Bearcats (8-0, 5-0 3A-1) fumbled the ball five times. Robertson, who had eight carries for 129 yards and a pair of touchdowns, was the culprit on one of those fumbles. Still, Charleston was only able to recover two--resulting in just three points.
"I think [the fumbles] were just because of how wet it was," Robertson said. "I hit that hole one time and tried to bounce it, but it was just so wet, man. That ball was soaked!"
Luckily for Robertson, that was basically the only negative result from one of his carries. He opened the Bearcats' scoring with a 71 yarder that showed off his impressive speed.
"We had the counter run in, and our tackled blocked it up," Robertson said. "I took it to the outside and then took it to the house."
Defensively, Robertson's highlight play came at the 6:23 mark in the third quarter. Charleston junior quarterback Brayden Ross tried to roll out right and didn't see Robertson blitzing. Instead of sacking the quarterback, the defender simply stripped the ball to get it back for his Bearcats, who scored shortly thereafter.
The victory set up a huge matchup against undefeated Lamar next week as both teams sit atop the conference with undefeated records.
With Lamar's 15-7 victory over Mansfield, the top two teams in the region will square off in a game with postseason seeding implications. Though the Bearcats are undefeated, Hyatt said there's a bigger goal in mind.
"I think [a deep playoff run] is always an expectation as a coach," Hyatt said. "Everybody wants to make a deep playoff run. Sometimes you reach it, sometimes you don't."
For the Bearcats to earn their first state championship since 2013, the running game will need to continue to evolve and set up the offense as a whole, Robertson said.
"We're all gonna have to play big roles. It's on all of us if we're gonna get there," Robertson said.
Sports on 10/20/2018