Clark breaks brother's BHS rushing record

Homecoming is always a special night. It's made more special when the home team wins. Blytheville's Demekko Clark made the night even more special with a record setting performance in the Chickasaws' 56-23 win over the Greene County Tech Eagles at Haley Field.

In front of a large Chickasaw crowd that flooded over to the visitors side of the stands, Clark set the school rushing record with 431 yards and scored five touchdowns. He shattered the old record (328) by more than 100 yards almost a year to the day that his brother, DeMadre, set it last year on Oct. 10 at Greene County Tech in a 42-40 Chickasaw win.

"I told DeMadre that I was going to beat his record," said Clark after the game. "I just want to say thank you to the coaching staff and to my teammates for playing hard tonight and winning this Homecoming game."

Clark said his performance on the field was set up with plenty of preparation off of the field.

"I took notes this week and studied to make sure I could execute out there and it all just happened."

Clark's big night was part of an enormous night on the ground for the Chickasaws. Throwing just one pass all night, Blytheville pounded the ball on the ground to the tune of 665 yards much to the delight of head coach, and former offensive lineman, Ben Fisher.

"Coach (Deerick) Smith's an old offensive lineman too. We were talking and said we should just go out there and just smash the ball," said Fisher. "It's our kind of weather. It was cold and raining and that was our goal."

The Chicks were without starting quarterback, Terry Northern, who was sidelined with an ankle injury. Even so, Fisher said the game plan would have been the same.

"It didn't matter who was at quarterback," he said. "Our game plan was to come out and run. From what we had saw on film, we were pretty confident in our running game tonight."

Blytheville (4-2, 2-1 5A-East) set the tone on the very first drive. Malik Smith (four carries, 64 yards), who started in place of Northern, rushed for 25 yards on the first play from scrimmage setting up the Chicks at first and 10 from the Tech 30 yard line. It took Clark just two plays to get the ball in the end zone ending with a 23 yard score and the first of four first half touchdowns. It was the shortest scoring play for Clark and Chicks all night. Clark scored on runs of 23, 74, 49 and 95 in the first half alone as he racked up 268 of his yards before the marching band had a chance to come out on the field for halftime.

While the Chicks moved the ball at will on the ground, Tech (1-5, 1-2 5A-East) had early success as well and even led midway through the second quarter. The Eagles matched each of the Chickasaws first two scores and added a third to take a 20-13 with just over six minutes to play in the first half.

"We talked all week about not watching all of the mess going on in the backfield," said Fisher. "We had to be gap-responsible. What I was afraid of happening, happened in the first half. We started watching all of the motion and we weren't playing our gaps. Once our guys realized that they better start doing what Coach G and Coach Kirk and Coach Lemke are telling them we kind of shut them down."

Logan Cato got Tech on the board with a one yard run with 6:30 to play in the first capping an 11-play drive. Quarterback Tyson Bayird connected on a pair of touchdown passes for the Eagles next two scores both coming on fourth and goal. The first was a six yard strike Noah Murray on the first play of the second quarter capping a 14-play drive that went 67 yards in nearly six minutes and the second was a five yard pass to Cameron Harrison capping an 11 play 50 yard drive with 6:41 left in the half, giving Tech the lead, 20-13, after a missed PAT.

The Chicks got the lead right back and it only took two plays as Clark rushed for one yard on the first play of the drive and 49 on the second play and ending up in the end zone. He ran the two point conversion in as well giving the Chicks a 21-20 lead with 5:54 to play in the half. It was a lead they would never relinquish.

Jordan Jackson intercepted Bayird's pass on the first play of Tech's ensuing possession setting up the Chicks longest drive of the half. Desmond Moore's (four carries, 132 yards and two touchdowns) 47 yard touchdown run capped a six play 64 yard drive giving the Chicks a 27-20 lead with 4:01 to play in the half.

Tech's was forced to punt on their next drive. The punt landed at the Chickasaw five yard line with 50 seconds left in the half. On this night, that was more than enough time for Blytheville. On the very first play, Clark took the handoff 95 yards to the house to give the Chicks a 34-20 lead. Instead of running out the clock, Tech tried to advance the ball over the last 17 seconds. Timarcus Bohannon nearly made them pay picking off Bayird's pass and almost converting a pick-six as time expired.

Moore opened the second half with a what appeared to be a 44 yard touchdown but the ball was knocked loose by the Eagles at the goal line giving the ball back to Tech. The Chicks got the ball back with no harm done and Moore atoned for his previous fumble. This time he took the ball securely 41 yards to pay dirt upping the Chicks lead to 40-20 with 5:02 left in the third quarter.

Clark scored on a 45 yard touchdown run on the Chicks ensuing possession making it 47-20 and the defense sealed the deal on Tech's next drive. The Eagles drove 71 yards and a third and goal from the one yard line. Blytheville held strong on third and fourth down with Bohannon making the key tackle on Cato on fourth down giving the ball back to the Chicks 99 yards from the end zone. Clark nearly went the entire 99 yards on one play but was tripped up after thirty yards breaking the 400 yard barrier with nine minutes still to play in the game. Issac Kelly finished this drive with a six yard touchdown run with 6:57 to play in the game. A late Bayird touchdown run ending the scoring for the evening.

"Our O-line blocked them (Tech) better than anybody all year," said Fisher. "I can't say enough about them. They were firing off on the ball. They knew what was going on. They were picking up stunts. It was great. I'm extremely proud of every one of them."

The win puts the Chicks at 2-1 in the conference with a trip to Valley View up next week.

"Last year, we lost our first two conference games and we were playing catchup the rest of the year," said Fisher. "Now, we're what we call 'ahead of the sticks' but we can not let up at all."