By DAVID A. FARRELL

Item Staff Writer

CARRIERE — The Stone County Tomcats beat the Pearl River Central Blue Devils 45-0 in a Class 3-5A district contest here on Friday night at Hendrix Memorial Stadium.

The loss by Pearl River left Coach Jeremy Weir’s Blue Devils still looking for their first win of the season. They are now 0-6 going into another tough district contest at Brookhaven on Friday night.

The class 3-5A district is probably one of the toughest in Mississippi.

Stone’s win left Coach Brian Oakes’ Tomcats 4-2 overall and 1-1 in district play as they meet district opponent Picayune Friday night in Wiggins in a crucial district game. Picayune beat Forest Hill Friday night.

A scrappy Blue Devils in the first quarter went toe-to-toe with the powerful Tomcats, who at one time were ranked No. 5 in the AP poll, but a 57-yard burst up the middle by running back Darian Arrington — who is big, quick and fast at 6-2, 215 lbs. — for the game’s first TD a minute into the second quarter set Stone off on an offensive thrust that piled up an additional 38 points through the remaining three quarters.

Oakes admitted after the game that what he termed a “scrappy Blue Devil team” stymied his Tomcats in the first quarter and surprised him.

“We had our hands full in that first quarter. We got off to a slow start. They are a scrappy football team and it was a lot more intense than we thought it would be,” he said. “It forced us to make some adjustments.”

But the Blue Devils could not sustain that first-quarter fire, and the Tomcats relentlessly put the game out of reach.

Arrington was a big part of the Blue Devils’ problem. He piled up 146 yards rushing, and his partner, running back Patrick Wilson, who also weighs in at 215 lbs., piled up 121 yards rushing. So the Tomcats had two backs rushing for over 100 yards each and each scored two touchdowns.

The overall stats told the story. The Blue Devils had 81 total offensive yards, 60 rushing and 21 passing, and the Tomcats piled up 481 total yards, 331 rushing and 150 yards passing, off the arm of QB Clint Hatten.

Looking at it another way, Arrington and Wilson were responsible for 81 percent of the Tomcats total 331 yards rushing.

And Hatten’s passing game wasn’t bad either. Hatten threw for 150 yards and hit for two touchdown aerial strikes.

In first quarter action, Blue Devil linebacker Dustin Wactor pounced on a Tomcat fumble on the Tomcat 30 only minutes into the game to put the Blue Devils in great field position and threatening to score.

But the Blue Devils’ chance faded when QB Bryce Spence’s flip out to running back Trey Wynn was bobbled and Stone recovered.

The Blue Devil defense stuffed the powerful Tomcat offense twice in the first quarter but could not generate any offense.

Midway in the first the Devils held the Tomcats in short yardage at the Devil 32 and later defensive lineman Desmond Michael, a freshman moved up from the junior high team, and Darrien Covington sacked Hatten for a 22-yard loss to put the Tomcats out of reach of the Devil end zone.

Then Blue Devil Garret Penton pounced on a Tomcat fumble to end that drive late in the first period at the Devil 31. But again the Devils were unable to mount any offense.

Then Arrington scored on his 57-yard burst a minute into the 2nd period.

Other Tomcat scores:

Midway in the 2nd quarter on the first play from the 27, Wilson blasted up the middle of the line for a 73-yard jaunt for a TD with 5:19 left in the first half. Joey White’s kick for the extra point was good.

Next White kicked a 19 yard field goal with 11 seconds to the half to give the Tomcats a 17-0 lead at the break.

The Tomcats posted 21 points in the third period.

Arrington capped a 47-yard drive with a 3-yard plunge into the endzone at 8:45, Hatten put together another 47-yard drive and capped it by hitting receiver Darrius Galloway for a 5-yard TD at 5:49 and Hatten hit wide receiver Fred Boggs for a 73-yard pass play and a touchdown at 3:06, in third quarter play. White hit all three extra point kicks, to make it 38-0 going into the fourth.

The last score came on a 16-yard dash up the middle by Wilson at 6:30 in the fourth quarter. White’s kick was good. It was Wilson’s second TD for the night.