FLORA — There is a reason Tri-County is regarded as one of the top four teams in MAIS Class A. They have depth in the backfield. They can play physical or spread you out.

The Rebels celebrated homecoming by thrashing Porters Chapel 35-14 Friday night. The win keeps the Rebels unbeaten at 8-0, while the Eagles slip to 4-4.

Tri-County overwhelmed PCA’s four-man defensive front, rolling up a 28-7 advantage in the third quarter. The Eagles got back in the game with a solid scoring drive and a defensive change to a five-man front but a blocked punt with eight minutes left stopped their comeback hopes.

“They are a good football team,” PCA coach John Weaver said. “They are 8-0 for a reason. We switched up defenses and maybe we waited too late. We talked about that all week. We just hurt ourself in the first half. We missed a field goal that could’ve made it 7-3, instead we get down 14-0.”

Tri-County coach David Blount hoped he could keep the Eagles guessing on what front they should play.

“We were a completely different offense tonight,” Blount said. “We threw the ball a good bit against Canton. Tonight, we wanted to run it and we were really successful against the four-man front. Then they go to a five and that’s when we should start passing it. But we had the lead so we stuck with it.”

Tri-County piled up 293 yards rushing using eight different backs. Caleb Creel did most of the damage with 142 yards and two touchdowns on runs of 26 and 2 yards. Quarterback Trainor Story added a pair of TD runs of 1 and 10 yards and threw a 14-yard TD pass to Allen Campbell to account for Tri-County’s scoring.

PCA came out trying to run the ball and the result was two three-and-outs. Creel’s 26-yard run opened the scoring with 6:46 left in the first quarter.

PCA had a chance to get on the board late in the quarter, but DeWayne Russell pulled his 26-yard field goal wide.

Tri-County countered with an 80-yard drive which featured 10 straight runs until Story’s 14-yard TD pass made it 14-0 after Trace Lane’s kick. Another three-and-out by the Eagles and a shanked punt gave the Rebels a short field at the PCA 30 and Story cashed in with a TD run.

The Eagles answered by finally getting the ball to Chris Marshall. On his first catch, the senior speedster gained 47 yards to the Rebel 18. A 13-yard gain and a face mask penalty got it to the 2 and Jonah Masterson plunged in from there to make it 21-7 after Russell’s kick with 40 seconds left before halftime.

Masterson hit a 50-yard bomb to Jake Boyd and three other short passes to set up his 1-yard TD run to cut the lead to 28-14 with 5:05 left in the third quarter.