For one and a half quarters, Newton County played even with homestanding Scott Central.
But once the Rebels got rolling, they didn’t stop.
Scott Central scored 44 second-half points as the Rebels beat Newton County 58-0 on Friday night.
The Cougars fall to 0-3 on the season while Scott Central improves to 3-0 and has outscored opponents 154-14.
“We can say what we want about the first three weeks but those three teams are 8-1,” County coach Gene Mitchell said. “We have played some pretty good football teams. But we just can’t seem to get all 11 people on the same page at the same time. That’s sort of our story right now.”
Newton County had opportunities early as Scott Central gave the Cougars the ball at their own 26 after a bad snap. But the Cougars weren’t able to convert on the short field and ended up turning the ball over on downs.
After forcing another Scott Central punt, the Cougars were again three-and-out on offense. This time, Scott Central moved 44 yards in six plays and scored on a 33-yard run with 10:15 left to play for a 7-0 lead.
County again moved the ball down the field on the Rebels but turned the ball over on downs at the Scott Central 24. This time, the Rebels needed only one play to find the end zone as T.J. Wash scored on a 76-yard touchdown for a 14-0 lead that lasted to the half.
“For about a quarter, we played with them and had some opportunities that we didn’t take advantage of,” Mitchell said. “As soon as they made a big play on offense, we just sort of folded from there. The reality of the situation is we are three games into this and not playing well right now. We can still turn this thing around, it’s just going to take everybody we got getting on the same page. This is a week where that could happen if we do those things.”
The Rebels started to roll in the second half as they scored 20 points in the third and 24 in the fourth for the final margin.
On offense, the Cougars continued to struggle as they had 111 yards rushing on 29 attempts and just 14 yards passing for 125 total yards and just six first downs, most of those in the half. But the Cougars also turned the ball over three times on lost fumbles.
Makindal Evans led County with 61 yards rushing on six carries while Chrisshun Burks had 52 yards rushing on 13 carries.
Jarious Huddleston led the County defense with 11 tackles and a sack while Tucker Hillman had 10 stops. Skylar Porter had eight tackles and was credited with blocking a field goal. Noah Cutway also had seven tackles and a tackle for loss.
Scott Central had 398 yards of total offense with 300 on the ground. Senior T.J. Wash led the Rebels with 181 yards on nine carries with two touchdowns. Wash was also 4-of-6 passing for 73 yards.
