Burnett buries Charleston

Sunday, October 13, 2002

DEXTER -- Derek Burnett rushed for a career-high 301 yards on Friday night, leading Dexter to a 44-13 win over conference-rival Charleston.

He carried the ball 32 times, scoring four touchdowns, increasing his season total to 980 yards on the ground. "In the first half, he didn't do a whole lot against us," said Charleston coach Brent Anderson. "In the second half, he had a huge night. He's a good runner. Defensively, we're not tackling anybody. A kid like him, you've got to tackle. He made us pay."

Charleston standout Orrice Stanback also checked in with a solid performance, rushing for 150 yards on 26 attempts. Stanback leads the SEMO Conference with 1,136 yards on the ground.

The Bearcats had no turnovers in the game, while Charleston had six.

"We turned the football over...again," said Anderson. "I guess we're back in that mode. We turned it over six times, and they got points off of every one of them."

Dexter got on the board early as Willie Dooley intercepted an A.H. Marshall pass and returned it 16 yards for a touchdown on the first drive of the game.

Charleston fired back later in the first as Marshall hooked up with Deshaundray Hamilton for a 58-yard TD pass. The PAT failed, making the score 7-6.

In the second quarter, Dexter's Tyler Grovenor booted a 35-yard field goal to make it 10-6. Burnett then scored his first TD with 3:34 left in the half, giving Dexter a 17-6 advantage at the break.

"We played a decent first half," said Anderson. "We gave them one touchdown on the interception early, then fought back. (Dexter) just physically wore us out in the second half."

In the third quarter, Burnett tacked on two more scores on runs of 1 and 17 yards. He scored his final touchdown in the fourth quarter, on a 66-yard scamper to make it 38-6.

Teammate Ryan Hyslop then scored a TD from three yards out to make it 44-6. With 7:17 left in the game, Stanback broke loose for an 80-yard touchdown to shave the lead to 44-13. "We felt like (Dexter) was very good defensively," said Anderson. "We moved the football, and I haven't seen too many teams move the ball against them. Again, we're moving it 20 to 20 and not getting points out of it. We've got to get that solved."

Dexter quarterback Preston Clark completed just one pass on nine attempts -- an 11-yarder to Dooley. Marshall had eight completions on 17 attempts with three interceptions for 151 yards.

Hamilton had two catches for 58 yards, Travis McCann had one for 45, and Nelson French had four for 49.

The Bearcats (4-2) have now won four straight games heading into a Week 7 showdown with Caruthersville. Charleston (1-5) will face East Prairie on Friday.

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