Published: October 11, 2008 12:56 am            

Rams clinch district

RACELAND — The Raceland Rams dominated the Paris Greyhounds 55-13 Friday night to remain undefeated at 6-0 and, in the process, clinched the district championship.

The Rams’ potent running attack piled up 393 yards in the district-clinching victory. Raceland is 3-0 in district play with one game remaining at Nicholas County.

However, the Rams already have locked up the title with tiebreakers.

Raceland’s duo of John Scott Carver and Bret Denton combined for 215 yards and four touchdowns. Carver had three TDs and 100 yards rushing and Denton 115 yards and a TD.

Although it was a convincing win, coach Randy Vanderhoof said there was room for improvement.

“We had a few alignment issues we need to get taken care of, and we had the punt return called back, so we need to clean that up,” he said. “Our kids played hard and you can’t fault our effort.”

It did not take the offense long to get going, scoring 27 seconds into the game on a Carver 20-yard run, which was set up by Cody Kelly’s 49-yard run.

Raceland would add two more touchdowns in the first quarter — a Carver 11-yard run as well as a Kelly 2-yard run — to make the score 20-0.

The Greyhounds found the end zone for the first time with a little more than eight and a half minutes to go in the half when Cody Maggard hooked up with Tion Thomas for a 30-yard touchdown reception. Thomas later added a

5-yard TD run later in the quarter and finished with 178 all-purpose yards.

The Rams would answer with three scores of their own in the quarter, the first coming on a Bret Denton 13-yard scamper, followed by two TD passes from Tyler Boyles to Todd Selvage of 9 and 12 yards. Boyles finished 8-of-14 passing for 55 yards.

The Greyhounds were unable to get much going on offense in the second half because of five fumbles.

“Our defense moved really well to the ball, something we weren’t doing at the beginning of the year,” Vanderhoof said.

Raceland scored twice after the intemission on a Carver 6-yard run in the third quarter and Dylan Scaggs’ 48-yard scamper in the fourth quarter.

Even with the district clinched, it will be business as usual, Vanderhoof said.

“We’re going to enjoy it this weekend,” he said. “The coaches will meet like we always do, and we will go back to work on Monday.”

Raceland will have its homecoming game on Friday against Paintsville. The game will also be Webcast on wazoo.com.

        

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