Seneca rolls past East Newton to remain undefeated
Oct. 8—SENECA, Mo. — The Seneca football team remains undefeated.
Seneca thrashed East Newton 56-7 at home Friday night in Big 8 West Conference action at Tom Hodge Field.
The Indians, improving to a perfect 7-0 and 4-0 in the league, play at McDonald County next Friday before closing out the regular season with a home date against Nevada.
This is the fastest start for Seneca since the 2017 team won eight straight to open the season. The Indians have not gone unbeaten during the regular season since MSHSAA started tracking records in 2010.
Seneca wasted no time against East Newton. On the first play from scrimmage, Ethan Altic ran 66 yards for the touchdown as the Indians pulled in front 7-0 with 8:37 to play in the first quarter.
Then with 11:15 to play in the second stanza, Jackson Marrs scored on a 7-yard TD run up the middle, giving Seneca a 14-0 cushion.
Quarterback Gavyn Hoover completed a TD pass on fourth down to wide receiver Conner Ackerson to swell the Indians' advantage to three scores with 8:24 to play before half. Hoover followed with his second TD strike to Ackerson as Seneca marched in front 28-0 less than three minutes later.
On the next scoring drive, a 31-yard run from Eli Olson set up a 4-yard TD scamper for Marrs right before halftime. The Indians went into the locker room with a 35-0 lead.
Altic added a 19-yard TD run early in the third quarter, staking Seneca to a lopsided 42-0 cushion. Ty Bowman accounted for East Newton's lone score, a 4-yard TD run to trim the deficit to 35 with 2:41 to play in the third quarter.
But the Indians cruised to the win thanks to the running clock in the fourth quarter. Kaden Clouse ran a 28-yard TD run and Roman Miller capped Seneca's big offensive game with a 3-yard run to paydirt.
Seneca netted nearly 500 yards of total offense, 422 of which coming on the ground. Marrs ran the ball 13 times for 94 yards, while Altic had three carries for 78 yards.
Clouse and Hoover added 43 yards rushing apiece. Hoover did it on six carries, while Clouse only had two attempts.
Hoover completed 4 of 8 passes. The junior finished with 54 yards through the air with Ackerson leading the Indians' receiving corps with three catches for 42 yards.
