CLEVELAND — Shelbyville Central’s Golden Eagle offense continued to roll after claiming a dominating 50-14 win on the road in a non-region matchup on Friday night.

“What a setting for high school football here at Cleveland. They have an awesome stadium and it’s a great place to play high school football. The weather was great and our team performed well in every aspect of the game. Overall, it was just a good night for us,” first-year head coach Josh Puckett said. 

“It was great to see us play good defense again and I’m very, very proud of them. We went to work on defense this past week and we were physical and tackled and really got after it. Our coaches really did a great job coaching this past week and all that shows tonight.”

The Eagles (5-2, 3-0) racked up 614 yards of total offense, including 402 on the ground and 212 through the air.

Junior standout quarterback Kade Cunningham turned in another fine performance, rushing for 219 yards on 15 carries and a pair of touchdowns.

He also connected on 8-of-11 passes for 198 yards and two touchdowns.

Senior running back Demarcus Smalls rushed for 129 yards on 14 touches.

Gavin Donegan hauled in two passes totaling 108 yards and a touchdown for the Eagles.

“I’m really proud of our offense. Our quarterback, Kade Cunningham, had another great game and our running backs and receivers all did a great job. We believe in running the football. When you look at our offensive line, they are not the biggest, but goodness gracious, those guys show up every week and we are rushing for a lot of yards ,” Puckett said. 

“We were a little more balanced tonight. When teams have to cheat to stop our run. it opens up the passes one-on-one. We’ve got some guys that can run out there on the edge and when they get one-on-one coverage, they can burn some people.”

The Eagles jumped out to a 16-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Cunningham scored on a 22-yard run, the Eagle defense collected a safety after a quarterback sack in the end zone, and then Demarcus Smalls rushed for a 44-yard touchdown.

The Blue Raiders got on the board when quarterback Destun Thomas threw a 90-yard pass to Drew Lambert early in the second quarter.

Shelbyville Central responded with a pair of touchdowns, a 37-yard strike from Cunningham to Donegan, followed by a Cunningham six-yard run for the 30-7 halftime advantage.

The Eagles increased the lead in the third quarter when Cunningham scored on a 25-yard run then hooked up with Angel Juarez on a 12-yard touchdown pass.

Harrison Canter was a perfect 6-for-6 on extra points.

Cleveland added a touchdown late in the third stanza when Tetoe Boyd found the end zone on a 68-yard run.

The Eagles added a touchdown in the fourth quarter off a Smalls 42-yard run. 

“One area we have got to clean up are penalties,” Puckett said. “I’m all right with hustle penalties but all the other stuff has got to be cleaned up.”

Shelbyville Central travels to Summit for a key region matchup on Friday night at 7.

Shelbyville Central     16   14   14   6 — 50

Cleveland                      0     7     7   0 — 14

First Quarter 

SC – Kade Cunningham 22 run, (Harrison Canter kick), 7:39.

SC – Safety, 6:41.

SC – Demarcus Smalls 44 run, (Canter kick), 0:09.

Second Quarter 

C – Destun Thomas 90 pass from Drew Lambert, ( kick), 11:09.

SC – Gavin Donegan 37 pass from Cunningham, (Canter kick), 10:33.

SC – Cunningham 6 run, (Canter kick), 1:14.

Third Quarter 

SC – Cunningham 25 run, (Canter kick), 8:32.

SC – Angel Juarez 12 pass from Cunningham, (Canter kick), 3:44.

C – Tetoe Boyd 68 run, (kick), 2:06.

Fourth Quarter 

SC – Smalls 42 run, (kick failed), 11:49.

THE YARD STICK

                                     SC            C

Rushing Yards                        402           89

Passing Yards                         212           144

Total Yards                             614           233

Return Yards                           137           62

First Downs                             24             10               

Penalties-Yards                       13/145      4/30

Turnovers                                1               1            

3rd Down Conversions            5-of-8      3-for-10  

4th Down Conversions            0-for-1     1-for-2