BALDWYN – Booneville took to the ground on Thursday night against Baldwyn, and the ones grinding out the yards were the smallest on the field.

Booneville’s 5-foot-5, 160-pound tailback, Brandon Pannell, carried the ball 28 times for 203 yards and two touchdowns, while 5-3, 123-pound teammate Xavier Rogers ran for two more touchdowns to lead the Blue Devils to a 37-27 road win over the Daily Journal’s top-ranked small school.

“After the mistakes we made last week (against New Albany),” said Booneville coach Mike Mattox, “we tried to simplify things. We looked at what we could do and what we thought we could do against them, and that was pretty much our game plan: to try to get us some little seams in there (at the line of scrimmage) and try to hit them.”

For Mattox, it was his first victory as the Blue Devils’ head coach after taking over for legendary Jim Drewry.

Pannell and Rogers gave Booneville (1-1) a 14-0 lead in the first quarter on scoring runs of 3- and 2-yards, respectively.

Rogers rattled off a 17-yard TD run and Estes added a 2-yard score on the ground in the second quarter.

The two accounted for 185 of the Blue Devils 204 rushing yards in the opening half.

“We worked on it all week,” Baldwyn coach Michael Gray said about defending Booneville’s running game. “We were fitting, but the next level – defenses are based on levels – the second level, they (his defenders) were getting out-run and were taking poor angles” to the ball.

Lorenzo Hill did have a productive first half running the football for Baldwyn, gaining 102 yards on just six carries. Bradley Boose had a 25-yard scoring run to put the Bearcats on the scoreboard with 7:03 left in the second quarter.

Tyler Estes scored his first of two rushing TDs on a 2-yard gain with two minutes, 31 seconds to play in the half.

Tyler White added a 30-yard field goal with 5 seconds left in the half to give the Blue Devils a 23-13 advantage.

Booneville quarterback Clint Hawkins got in the scoring act with 10:51 to go in the game as he scored a 1-yard plunge.

Pannell scored his final touchdown on the night with a 3-yard run with 4:09 remaining.

Baldwyn quarterback Tyler Wildmon found the end zone on a 12-yard scamper with 9 seconds left, and after Booneville didn’t recover the ensuing kickoff near its own end zone, Estes would score on a 2-yard run to make it 37-27 with 5 seconds to play.

Twenty-eight of Booneville’s points came off Baldwyn turnovers.

“Enough said,” said Gray. “The first two possessions of the second half when we had our opportunities to get right in the ballgame and even take the lead, we didn’t capitalize.”