Bradley Central didn’t succumb to a look-ahead scenario Friday night.
The Bears exploded for 41 first-half points behind strong efforts by wide receiver Nick Howell and quarterback Dylan Standifer and routed visiting William Blount, 51-27, at Bear Stadium in a Region 2-6A football game.
Howell scored five touchdowns, three on runs of 1, 31 and 13 yards and snagged two TD catches covering 9 and 36 yards from Standifer.
The Bears’ signal caller, who was 14 for 17 for 260 yards, also threw two touchdown tosses to Lameric Tucker for 66 yards and Saylor Clark for 32 yards.
Bradley Central (5-0, 8-1), winning its eighth straight game after a season-opening loss in overtime, will conclude the regular season next Friday at Maryville (5-0, 8-1) for the region championship.
Just like their matching records, the Bears’ all-time series record with the Rebels is 6-6-2, but Maryville has won the previous six meetings and claimed two state titles in that span.
Howell rushed seven times for 81 yards and caught three passes for 54 more. He goes into the regular-season finale with 809 total yards and 11 touchdowns.
Once again Tucker was Standifer most productive receiver, catching six passes for 141 yards and a TD. Tucker, a UT-Chattanooga commitment, has 53 receptions for 1,203 yards and 11 scores. He has 93 yards rushing on 20 carries.
Standifer continued a season of remarkable accuracy, hitting 72.3 percent of his passes (133 for 184) for 2,388 yards and 24 touchdowns.
SCORING
William Blount 0 14 7 6 – 27
Bradley Central 21 20 8 2 – 51
First Quarter
BC – Nick Howell 1 run (Clay Shoemaker kick), 9:23
BC – Saylor Clark 32 pass from Dylan Standifer (Shoemaker kick), 5:45
BC – Lameric Tucker 66 pass from Standifer (Shoemaker kick), 1:39
Second Quarter
BC – Howell 31 run (Shoemaker kick), 8:42
WB – T.J. King 3 run (Ryan Ballard kick), 3:21
BC – Howell 36 pass from Standifer (Shoemaker kick), 1:00
Third Quarter
BC – Howell 13 run (Clark pass from Standifer), 9:16
WB – King 1 run (Ballard kick), 1:57
Fourth Quarter
BC – Team safety
WB – Damien Love 46 pass from Trey Clemmer (Ballard kick), 6:41
INDIVIDUALS
YARDSTICK
WB BC
First Downs 12 23
Plys-Yards 21-129 35-226
Passing Yds 190 278
Plys-Tot Yds 43-319 58-504
Fumbles-Lost 2-1 0-0
Penalties-Yds 1-89 12-122
INDIVIDUALS
RUSHING – William Blount: Kalib Sugden 3-77, T.J. King 15-59, Trey Clemmer 3-minus 7; Bradley Central: Nick Howell 7-81, Ricky McCleary 11-5, Adam Mullis 9-45, Dylan Standifer 2-22, Devon Moore 3-21, Tucker Carpenter 1-4, Tray Curry 1-4, Kam Arrowood 1-0.
PASSING – William Blount: Clemmer 11-22-2-190; Standifer 14-17-0-260, Carpenter 0-1-0-0.
RECEIVING – William Blount: Damien Love 5-157, Drew Blair 3-14, Nick Yoakum 1-11, Ryan Ballard 1-6, Sugden 1-2; Bradley Central: Tucker 6-141, Stephen Muhonen 4-33, Clark 1-32, Howell 3-54, Curry 3-9, Ashton Boyd 1-9.
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)