Prep Football: Rangers pitch shutout, handle Herrin 39-0
Keegan Glover accounted for three touchdowns and Reid Baumgarte added two more for Benton in a 39-0 win at Herrin Friday night to open up Southern Illinois River-To-River Ohio action.
The win moves the Rangers to 4-0 overall and 1-0 in league play and Benton has now outscored the opposition 176-6 this season and has pitched three straight shutouts.
Baumgarte, a 6-foot-1, 155-pound senior caught a 30-yard strike from Glover to put Benton on the board in the first quarter. Baumgarte then rattled of a 14 yard run as the Rangers went up 13-0 after the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Glover scored on the QB keeper from one-yard out as Benton held a 19-0 first half lead.
Glover went back to work in the third quarter, scoring from 13 yards out and Wyatt Upton added a five-yard run to give Benton a 33-0 lead.
The lone score in the fourth quarter came off a Jacob Kinsman 10-yard run with 2:29 left to play.
"I'm just really proud of our effort tonight," Benton head coach Justin Groves said. "We knew Herrin was going to be much improved over the last three weeks and anytime - it doesn't matter the records - Benton and Herrin get together, it seems like its a hard fought game.
"We struggled with some things in the first half," Groves added. "They gave us a few fits, but we buttoned some things up. We have a lot to work on this week, but just really thankful our guys played hard."
Benton racked up 317 all purpose yards on the night as the Rangers rushed for 227 and passed for 90.
Glover led the ground game with 107 yards on 14 carries, while Upton had nine carries for 43 yards. Kinsman tacked on 31 yards on five carries, while Landon Bolen had 18 yards on five carries. Baumgate had his lone run for 14 yards and Isaiah Ward had one carry for 14 yards as well.
Under center, Glover was 7-for-14 for 90 yards and two TD's as Baumgarte had three receptions for 42 yards. Chase Thomas (34 yards), Kinsman (10 yards), Upton (three yards), Bolen (one yard) all had one catch.
Defensively, Benton held Herrin (0-4, 0-1) to 125 yards as the Tigers ran for 37 and passed for 88. Herrin was 2-for-10 on third down conversions and finished the night with two fumbles and one interceptions.
Brody Reagan had three yards on one reception for Herrin, while Reese Billingsley had 10 carries for 40 yards. Cameron Evrard was 9-of-13 under center.
"The last couple of weeks we have been getting better on offense," Herrin coach Taylor Perry said. "We're moving the ball at will and had a good game plan coming in. Obviously, we wanted to keep the ball out of Benton's hands and the first half, I thought we did a pretty good job of that, but we just couldn't finish."
<i>Spyder Dann covers prep and college sports for the Southern Illinois LOCAL Media Group. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.</i>