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October 30, 2009

St. Clair breaks record

No. 1 Rockhurst builds 28-0 first-quarter lead

By Jim Fryar

jfryar@joplinglobe.com

Devin St. Clair won’t soon forget the final pass of his prep football career.

With an 87-yard rainbow to a streaking Zentrell Shannon, St. Clair became the career passing leader in Joplin prep football Friday night.

St. Clair’s pursuit of a pair of school records was the second-half focus for the Eagles in a game that was out of hand early.

No. 1-ranked Rockhurst dominated the first half and rolled to a 49-19 victory in a District 6-7 game at Junge Field.

The Hawklets led 49-7 when St. Clair hooked up with Shannon, who outran the Rockhurst secondary the final 30 yards for the score. That gave St. Clair an unofficial 210 yards passing in the game and 4,983 in his career.

The previous record of 4,959 passing yards was set by Corey Rector, who quarterbacked the Eagles in 2006-07.

St. Clair also needed 263 yards of total offense to pass former Parkwood High School star Alan Cockrell’s total of 5,950 yards. But Rockhurst sacked the Joplin quarterback six times for 56 yards in losses and he finished, again unofficially, with minus-1 yard on the ground.

The Eagles’ offense never touched the ball again after the long touchdown pass. Joplin actually got the ball back with less than a minute remaining, but kept it only the seconds it took senior Gates Sanders to return an interception 41 yards to the end zone.

“Everybody on the football team is a part of this,” St. Clair said of the career passing record. “If it wasn’t for the line and the receivers, none of this would have happened.

“Rockhurst is a phenomenal team,” St. Clair of Joplin’s early offensive struggles. “Our line did step up and start picking up the blitzes. But they made some big plays on defense and we couldn’t contain their offense.”

The Hawklets scored on their first four possessions to lead 28-0 by the end of the first quarter, forcing the first two of Joplin’s eventual four turnovers in the process.

When Rockhurst was forced to punt for the only time all night, Joplin took quick advantage. St. Clair hooked up with Sanders on a 64-yard touchdown pass at the 10:02 mark of the second quarter.

But Rockhurst drove 67 yards in just seven plays on its next possession, then came up with another turnover. A 47-yard touchdown run by Josh Sykes put the Hawklets ahead 42-7.

“They have some great athletes out there and when they got into space, they made some plays,” said Joplin coach Doug Buckmaster.

“We did some good things and we did some bad things,” Buckmaster said. “We didn’t play great. ... The ballgame was out of hand at halftime.

“We struggled in pass protection at times. When we pass protected, we made some plays. We did some good things, but not enough good things, obviously. But the kids competed and they played hard.”

Rockhurst, which will take an 8-2 record into the playoffs next Friday, finished with 372 yards of total offense. The Hawklets had 184 yards on the ground and 188 through the air.

Quarterback Frank Arbanas completed 5-of-10 passes for 156 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Junior slotback Scott Herring caught a 56-yard touchdown pass and also scored on a 40-yard interception return. Senior fullback Sal Belfonte had touchdown runs of 2 and 30 yards.

Joplin lost its fourth straight game and finished the season 4-6.

Shannon had four catches for 104 yards and Sanders had two for 90.

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