Neuqua Valley cruises past Bartlett

Neuqua Valley is riding high.

Thanks to 5 touchdown passes from senior quarterback Broc Rutter, the Wildcats put a 54-29 victory on the board against Bartlett at home on Friday to remain undefeated in Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division play.

"We're feeling good but we're not satisfied yet," Rutter said. "We know we have a big one next week (against Waubonsie Valley). We have a lot of improve on. We scored 54 tonight, but I feel like we left a few out there and we struggled a little bit running the ball, so we're going to fix that this week."

The Wildcats (5-2, 5-0) scored their first five touchdowns on their first five series of the game. Rutter had three TD passes in the first half, two to sophomore Isaiah Robertson and one to Zachary Herdman.

Neuqua added two on the ground from Dominick Muoghalu to take a 34-7 lead at halftime.

At the start of the second, the Hawks (3-4, 2-3) started to get the offense going. Bartlett put back-to-back touchdowns on the scoreboard, with the help of a successful onside kick.

Junior quarterback Brenner Wallace had two of his three touchdown passes in that span, one of them going to Jordan Flint, another quarterback who was moved to tight end.

"We put Flint at tight end because we needed a tight end," Bartlett coach Tom Meaney said. "The quarterbacks, they're both good quarterbacks, but Flint's a better tight end. He did a great job. He must have had over 100 yards. Good to have Flint. He can play anywhere."

The quick second half start - and Flint's 121 receiving yards - wasn't enough for Bartlett. Rutter tossed two more TDs, one again to Robinson and another to Brett Borske to keep the lead at 27.

The teams added a touchdown each in the fourth, but with Neuqua's defense forcing four turnovers and the offense putting 50-plus points on the board, they certainly take momentum into next week.

"We feel good about rolling into Waubonsie," said Neuqua coach Bill Ellinghaus. "The thing about this team is nobody lost focus when we were 0-2. We played two good teams and we didn't come out the way we wanted to the first two weeks of the season… .

"I feel like we're starting to click offensively, and defensively we've been playing well all year long. The scoreboard is not really indicative of how our defense played tonight."