By A.J. Watson

Monroe Academy volunteered a 48-6 beating on the Pike Liberal Patriots Friday night.

All of the 54 points were scored in the first half.

Monroe struck first after five consecutive first downs to make it a 7-0 game with less than two minutes into the first quarter.

After a Patriot third and out Colt Carroll blocked a Dustin Newman punt on the Patriot 20 to and recovered the pigskin for a touchdown to put Monroe Academy up 14-0 with 9:30 remaining in the first.

Pike Liberal then chugged 80 yards in a 14-play, six-minute drive that resulted in the Patriots only score for the night with 3:36 in the first quarter.

Patriot wide receiver Dustin Newman ran a 5-yard screen from quarterback Russ Thomas.

Thomas, Newman and senior wide receiver Michael Carroll would gain all but one of Pike Liberals offensive yardage, tallying up 85 yards and one touchdown for the Patriots – 82 of those yards came in the first half.

Monroe Academy would then score on every possession until the end of the half.

The Volunteers racked up 259 yards in the first half, with most of those coming from running back Justin Rowell and quarterback Jake McKenzie.

Rowell and McKenzie would gain 106 yards and two touchdowns and 121 yards and three touchdowns, respectively.

Rowell would create almost half of his total yardage on the night off of a last minute 54-yard touchdown scramble before halftime.

The Volunteers would go on to gain just 30 yards in the second half, totaling their yardage up to 289 for the night.

The win keeps Monroe undefeated on the season and they will keep their No. 2 ranking in the AISA.

Pike Liberal looks to beat Ashford Academy for their final game of the season next week, something head coach Wayne Grant said would be a nice way to end the season.

“Our last game is homecoming, and everybody always hopes to win the homecoming game,” Grant said. “Hopefully we can come out next week and do a little bit better offensively. We made some good strides in the first two quarters offensively and moved the ball pretty well, we just couldn’t finish a of couple drives … our punter got a concussion last week so that’s hurting us. We just need to try to continue to get better at what we’re supposed to do. That’s about all that’s left for us right now.”

Kickoff for Friday’s game is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Pike Liberal.