MERIDIAN — A week off did wonders for Porters Chapel Academy.

The Eagles scored early, often and then some in a 63-0 rout of an outmanned Russell Christian squad. The win evens PCA’s record at 3-3 and keeps alive its playoff hopes with a 2-1 district record. PCA must beat Newton Academy in the season finale on Oct. 30 to reach the playoffs. The Eagles host Tri-County next week.

“This should help us for next week,” PCA tackle Caze Brewer said. “We got off the ball really well tonight.”

Russell Christian (2-4, 0-2 District 5-A) could not keep Brewer out of its backfield. He had six tackles for loss, including a safety.

“I felt good. The week off brought us together. We worked the kinks out,” Brewer said.

PCA spent nearly the whole first half inside Russell territory. Twice the Warriors went for fake punts and both were stopped well short. An 8-yard completion on the first fourth down attempt was Russell’s longest play of the game. It was held without a first down and had minus-42 yards in total offense for the game.

Montana McDaniel opened the Eagles’ scoring assault on a 29-yard TD run 2:17 into the game. That was followed in quick succession by scores on an 11-yard run by Kreuz Federick, a 13-yard TD by John Michael Harris, Brewer’s safety, a 13-yard TD run by McDaniel and Federick’s 18-yard TD run to cap a 36-0 first half.

Federick threw for a 2-point conversion and made three PAT kicks in the first half.

The second half saw the Eagles work on the passing game. Colby Rushing threw touchdown passes of 36, 13 and 10 yards to three different receivers. He also had a 23-yard rushing score. Reed Gordon caught the first TD pass while Andrew Wall and Dwayne Russell got the others. Federick made 3-of-4 kicks to close the scoring.

“We really tried not to run up the score. We really didn’t want the last two scores, but you can’t stop kids from trying,” PCA coach Bill Fleming said. “We felt we needed to work on our passing game in the second half. We’ve had trouble on our short and intermediate routes and that’s what we worked on.”

The Eagles rushed for 258 yards with McDaniel getting 96 on just eight carries.

Rushing finished 10-of-16 passing for 107 yards and three touchdowns — two more than he had in the first five games of the season. He had one interception.

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Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com