Hunter Furr was the spark, and the Mount Tabor defense fanned the flames last night in a 41-0 rout of visiting Reagan.
Furr finished with 147 yards and three touchdowns on 18 carries, and the defense held Reagan in check by recording six sacks and holding the running game to minus-24 yards.
"We decided early on in the preseason that we wanted to put some pressure on people this year," Coach Laymarr Marshall of Mount Tabor said. "We came out and did that tonight, and you really couldn't ask for much more than a shutout."
In addition to the punishing running of Furr and the stifling defense, Mount Tabor had an emerging weapon on offense in sophomore quarterback Bradley Morton. He completed 10 of 14 passes for 165 yards despite playing just the first half. He was dehydrated at halftime and didn't play in the second half.
"I thought we did a lot of things well up front tonight, which allowed Brad (Morton) to do some things early," Marshall said. "Last week, we wanted to run the ball a lot to keep Southern Durham's offense off the field, and this week, I wanted us to be a little more balanced."
Mount Tabor (2-0) built a 21-0 lead by halftime on the strength of a 10-yard touchdown run by Denard Jones and 4- and 7-yard scores by Furr. Furr's brother, Lawson, made all three extra points, and the Spartans moved the ball at will.
They also got a little help from the Raiders.
After Mount Tabor's first score, K.C. Murphy of Reagan fumbled away the kickoff at his 35. After a 31 yard completion from Morton to Hunter Somerville, Furr rumbled in from 4 yards for his first touchdown.
The Spartans added their third touchdown on the first play of the second quarter, on a 7-yard run by Furr. Reagan's three second-quarter possessions resulted in three punts and minus-3 total yards.
Mount Tabor, with Jones at quarterback, had some trouble with the center exchange in the third quarter. But the Spartans put together a 13-play, 85-yard drive on their second series, and Furr capped it with a 4-yard run. The point after made the score 28-0, and the Spartans' special teams added to the total later in the quarter.
After a 39-yard punt by Reagan, Des Parker fielded the ball at the Mount Tabor 49 and made the first two tacklers miss. He found a seam along the left sideline and sprinted into the end zone for a 35-0 lead.
D.J. McCain added the final points on a 69-yard run with 29 seconds left in the game.
The Spartans finished with 302 yards on the ground and 468 yards of total offense.
Quarterback Carson Smith was one of the few bright spots for Reagan, completing 8 of 16 passes for 160 yards.
Coach Greg King commended his team for its effort.
"We made a couple of mistakes early, and they just got on a roll," King said. "It was hard for us to dig out of the hole. We made a lot of mistakes up front and did some things we don't normally do, but we'll work hard to be better for next week."
The only negative Marshall found in his team's performance was its penalties. The Spartans had 15 for 129 yards, with calls varying from holding and blocking in the back to false starts.
"We've got to improve on that," Marshall said. "It's still early in the year, and I thought a lot of those penalties were aggressive ones, ones when we were trying to make some things happen. Offsides, false starts -- those are the kinds of things that really irk you as a coach. But we'll work on that as we approach the meat of our schedule."
Reagan 0 0 0 0 -- 0
Mount Tabor 14 7 14 6 -- 41
MT -- Jones 10 run (L.Furr kick)
MT -- H. Furr 4 run (L.Furr kick)
MT -- H. Furr 7 run (L.Furr kick)
MT -- H. Furr 4 run (L.Furr kick)
MT -- Parker 51 punt return (L.Furr kick)
MT -- McCain 61 run (kick failed)
Records -- Reagan 1-1, Mount Tabor 2-0
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