Merritt on all cylinders in 50-0 romp over Corn Bible Academy
Tyler Palmateer
Daily Elk Citian
Some days you just can't miss.
So it went for the Merritt Oilers on Friday night, as they beat Corn Bible Academy 50-0 on the road, scoring on all seven of its possessions for the game.
In the first half, the 1-2 punch of running back Cody Pruitt and fullback Pierson Waugh opened up the passing game for Trek Rundle, who hit Brendan Flowers for touchdown passes of 49 and 74 yards, respectively.
"I thought we did a good job of execution on both sides of the ball," Merritt head coach Kevin Schmidt said. "[CBA] always plays hard and we had them at their place."
Defensively, it's the best job of hitting we've done since I've been up here."
Facing a third down and eight on the CBA 24-yard line, Rundle completed a 10-yard pass to Trevor Price, which helped set up Pruitt's 14-yard touchdown run to give the Oilers a 7-0 lead early.
The play was indicative of the rest of the night, as Price caught multiple balls over the middle of the field, while the CBA defense crowded the line of scrimmage to prevent Pruitt and Waugh from gaining ground.
Price and Flowers both had catches over 10 yards in the drive that ended with a Waugh 4-yard touchdown run, which gave Merritt a 28-0 lead with just over five minutes left before halftime.
"They pulled their defense up on us to create pressure, but that's what [Rundle] does best. [CBA] had to respect the power game [of Waugh and Pruitt]. Trek would wait for the defenders to clear then make an excellent throw."
The Merritt defensive line was dominant in most situations. In the second quarter, CBA was down just 8-0 and faced a crucial third down situation, when Francis Potter sacked Crusader quarterback Jordan Penner for a 12-yard loss.
"Our defensive line took care of business, we've been working hard the past few weeks," Waugh said.
Waugh scored two of his three touchdown runs in the third quarter, the second giving Merritt a 50-0 lead and the "mercy rule" win. The senior said two years ago CBA did the same thing to the Oilers.
"We've always kind of had a burning passion to do it against them. We came out here and took care of business."
If Schmidt had the choice, he said he would have put backups in the game. The problem was, reserves are few for Merritt this season.
"The only thing I don't like about the whole thing is the score, but we're in a situation where we don't have eight kids to sub out, and we can't just go out there and play around."
CBA played without quarterback Scott Dick, who isn't fully cleared to play full-contact yet this season, but did kickoff for the Crusaders. Penner is one of CBA's best receivers, so his play under center takes another weapon away from the team.
"They're big and athletic, bigger than us and obviously faster than us at some positions," CBA co-head coach Todd Smith said of Merritt. "They're a good team. You don't want to get beat, but if you get beat you want it to be by a good team."
Merritt will travel to Medford next week, while CBA hosts Cement High School.
MHS 14 22 14 x — 50
CBA 0 0 0 x — 0
Scoring Summary:
6:06 in first quarter
Merritt- Pruitt 14-yard run, 2-point conversion to Price (8-0)
2:50 in first quarter
Merritt- Flowers 49-yard pass from Rundle, 2-point conversion failed (14-0)
11:10 in second quarter
Merritt- Flowers 74-yard pass from Rundle, 2-point conversion failed (20-0)
5:01 in second quarter
Merritt- Waugh 4-yard run, 2-point conversion to Price (28-0)
9.6 seconds in second quarter
Merritt- Pruitt 4-yard run, Rundle run for 2-point conversion (36-0)
8:01 in third quarter
Merritt- Waugh 23-yard run, 2-point conversion to Price, 44-0
5:45 in third quarter
Merritt- Waugh 37 yard run ends game (50-0)