This week's bizarre high school football score

In a Missouri eight-man game this year, there was an 84-2 final. 76-0 at half.

The winner from the game above upset the top-ranked team in the state a couple of weeks ago 92-88. It was reported to be the highest-scoring high school football game in Missouri history.

 

There was a 6-man game out here last year that ended 118-85.

 

Eight-man football is awesome. My son played this year as his school fielded a team for the first time. First game, no one really had a grasp on what to expect. Our D forces a 3-and-out, then scores on our first offensive play. We go up 40-0 after one quarter and 56-0 at halftime. Running clock in the second half, took less than 30 minutes to play, won 68-8. Everybody thought, “Wow, we’re good.” Well, we finished 2-6, and both victories were over teams that finished winless. But to be fair, we were close and actually held a lead in every game. Worst loss was 73-46, but we were down 52-46 entering fourth quarter. Fun times.

 

A New York school trounced an undefeated team 61-13. Apparently, if you win by more than 42 points, you have to give an explanation to the governing body about how you tried to not run the score up. The body rejected the coach's explanation and suspended him.
New York high school football coach suspended for running up score on undefeated opponent

There's a link to the original story in the story included but it is behind a pay wall. The coach's explanation is below, which is objectively a little weak. The other coach, however, didn't have a beef. I will buy, however, the coach's assertion that the rule was intended to not run it up on teams that have no business being on the field with another but his game-specific reasons were kind of bad.

 

I honestly think programs having problems attracting enough players for 11-man should consider 8-man. It keeps players active in the game and is a lot of fun.

 

Agreed.

 

Agree, too. Eight-man can be a bit gimmicky (way too many onside kick attempts), but it’s fun to watch.

 

Just reading through it all now so I don't know if it's mentioned elsewhere in this thread, but the 14 point-after kicks tied a state record that dated back to 1894.

 

Back before I came to the area, a local school had a really good team. Wound up winning two state titles and taking second once in an eight-year span, along with several playoff appearances.
In 1991, the year they went 14-0 and won their first state title, they beat a team 76-0 only because the opponent quit after the third quarter. They won 63-0 the next week. That losing coach said he was just happy the winning coach didn't want the quarter he was owed from the previous week.

 

A local Class 5A team last week was up 84-0 on an outmatched inner city team and would have scored 100 easy if the other team hadn’t thrown in the towel.

 

Michigan has had a running clock any time a lead gets over 35 in the second half for 25 years now.

It's very rare that any margin reaches 60. Once that running clock starts running, it runs fast.

When a margin does go higher, it's almost always due to one or both of two factors: 1, the losing team tries a bunch of crazy wild-ass Hail Marys to get on the board, resulting in pick sixes, and 2, the losing team absolutely dead-dog quits, especially on defense.

The losing coach always has the option to pull his team off the field if he thinks there is a serious safety problem.

So the argument that wipeout routs endanger player safety can be generally discounted; eliminating that option, the alternative question is, how far do the rules makers have to go to coddle the precious feelings of quitters?

Obviously the biggest issue is that the coaches and ADs and principals and superintendents need to realign their leagues, playoff divisions, etc etc., and quit scheduling lopsided mismatches.

 

We revive this thread and take you to Cedar Falls, Iowa for the state semifinals in 8-man football.

Final of the first semifinal: No. 2 Remsen St. Mary's 108, No. 5 Montezuma 94

Yes, that's the actual final score. It's the highest-scoring game in Iowa high school football history.