[10/9/04]MIZE St. Aloysius drove the ball 77 yards in 14 plays to open the game with a touchdown drive. But the Flashes got 88 yards the rest of the game as No. 5 Mize (7-0, 5-0 Region 4-1A) proved to be as strong as advertised in a 53-12 thumping of the Flashes on Friday.

Five different Bulldogs ran for touchdowns and Trell Hagans ran two punts back for scores. Jasper Ducksworth led the Bulldogs with 102 yards on four carries for two touchdowns, and Mize piled up 272 rushing yards on 36 carries.

The officials moved to a running clock late in the third quarter and no passes were thrown by either team after halftime.

“They’ve just got too much manpower for us, it’s that simple,” St. Al coach Jim Taylor said. “We knew we weren’t a match. Our goal was to try to play hard, and we did play good in spots.”

The Flashes (1-6, 1-4) marched out strong, mixing runs between Rob Jones and Alex Halinski. St. Al quarterback Daniel Halinski finally punched it in from 5 yards out with 5:38 left in the first quarter.

“They came out on offense and got a good drive going,” Mize coach Kenny Robinson said. “After that it seemed like we kind of picked it up a little bit.”

Mize took three plays to respond when Perry Jones rumbled for a 28-yard touchdown. After the Mize defense held St. Al, Hagans had a 46-yard punt return for a score that gave the Bulldogs the lead for good at 12-6. Hagans followed with another return minutes later, this time for 35 yards.

The scoring then began to snowball in the second quarter. Ducksworth had a 58-yard touchdown run. Travis Autry then added a 10-yard TD, and backup quarterback Isaiah Keyes added an 8-yard score as Mize took a 39-6 halftime lead.

“I know they didn’t have a lot of depth, and as the game went on they got tired a little bit. That helped us out a lot,” Robinson said.

Ducksworth opened the second half with a 27-yard touchdown, and Mize began to substitute its bench into the game. Hagans stripped the ball from Chip Donald on the ensuing kickoff, and Mark Thompson brought in a 5-yard TD run. After Thompson’s score put the Bulldogs ahead 53-6 with 3:54 remaining in the third quarter, the officials started running the clock the rest of the way.

Chip Donald scampered 44 yards for the Flashes’ final touchdown late in the fourth quarter.