Sometimes the stats sheet doesn’t tell the whole story.
In the first half of Friday night’s game between Caldwell County and Union County it was right on the money.
Caldwell totaled 334 yards of offense in the first half. Union had 21.
The Tigers took a 36-0 lead to halftime and went on to rout the visiting Braves 50-13 on Homecoming night at Tiger Stadium in Princeton.
DeEric Hollowell ran for 233 yards and scored four touchdowns for Caldwell, which improved to 4-1 on the season.
Meanwhile, the Tiger defense gave up next to nothing on the night before reserves took the field with Caldwell up 50-0 in the second half. Union quarterback Ben Shreve was sacked seven times as the Braves struggled to mount any offensive attack.
Hollowell started the night’s scoring on a 31-yard touchdown run with 7:49 left in the opening stanza. Blake Vivrette’s extra point put Caldwell up 7-0.
Quarterback Russ Beshear did the honors on Caldwell’s next possession, scoring on a 2-yard run. That helped make it 14-0 at the 2:30 mark of the first period.
The Tigers would strike again before the quarter ended. Hollowell’s 28-yard scoring run came with just one second remaining, pushing Caldwell’s lead to 21-0.
Beshear hooked up with Logan Smiley for a 29-yard touchdown pass with 6:15 left in the half.
Hollowell added a 38-yard TD sprint with 2:22 remaining in the half. He then ran for the two-point conversion to make it 36-0, reaching the mercy rule in high school football. That resulted in a running clock for the rest of the evening.
Hollowell highlighted the rout in the third quarter with a 67-yard scoring jaunt that saw him break to the outside, race down the sideline, then make several defenders miss while weaving his way into the end zone over the last 20 yards. That came just 1:21 into the second half and made it 43-0.
Tate VanHooser caught a 3-yard scoring pass from Beshear at the 4:30 mark of the third quarter. Vivrette’s kick made it 50-0.
Union (2-3) put up a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns after Caldwell subbed on both sides of the ball.
Shreve scored on a 1-yard run early in the fourth quarter while Kristopher Hughes had a 2-yard TD carry with just seconds remaining in the game.
The win was Caldwell’s 10th straight in the series, pushing the Tigers’ all-time advantage to 21-9.
Beshear was 14 of 16 passing in the contest for Caldwell for 169 yards and two touchdowns.
VanHooser caught five passes for 48 yards and a score while Smiley had four grabs for 51 yards and a touchdown.
Caldwell finished the night with 478 yards.
Hughes ran for 102 yards and a TD for Union, which finished the contest with 139 yards rushing yards and 176 total yards. But most of that came in the fourth quarter.
Ben Holt led the Caldwell tackle sheet with eight stops. Elijah Shaheen had six tackles and 2.5 sacks.
The Tigers will travel to Ballard Memorial next week for their first Class 2A 1st District game of the season.
The Bombers are off to a rough start this year following a 41-7 setback to Madisonville-North Hopkins on Friday. Ballard is 0-4 this season and has scored just 27 points in four games.
