With a new-look no-huddle spread offense, a healthy Eli Jackson and a more seasoned Charlie Bohannon, the Sikeston Bulldogs showed just how explosive they can be during the final minutes of the first half of Friday night's game with Charleston.

Sikeston scored three touchdowns in the final 2½ minutes before intermission to stretch a seven-point margin into a 29-point lead on the way to a 48-6 victory.

The game marked the 100th anniversary of the first meeting and 123rd meeting in the series, of which Sikeston now has won 85.

A brief ceremony before the game recognized former players from both schools as they lined up on their respective sidelines.

Sikeston's dominance Friday needed some time to take hold, but the Bulldogs broke the Bluejays' backs late in the first half. After Jackson scored his third touchdown of the night on an 11-yard run with 2:08 to go in the second quarter, Sikeston forced a Charleston punt and Jackson broke off a 35-yard TD run as Sikeston ran a quick-strike offense (and Niquavious Dixon made a nice juggling catch). Bohannon ran in the two-point conversion.

The Bulldogs then recovered an onside kick, and on the final play of the first half, Bohannon passed 41 yards to Jordan Williams for a touchdown. Jackson ran in the two-point conversion to make the halftime score 35-6.

Jackson, who scored the opening touchdown on a 58-yard run three plays into the game, finished with 221 yards on 14 carries. He had 169 yards on 11 carries in the first half.

Last season, Jackson had 194 yards in the opening game and suffered an injury that limited him to just three carries the rest of his junior year.

Bohannon was 12-for-19 for 161 yards and two touchdowns.

Last year as a junior, Bohannon played part time at quarterback and completed 21 of 65 passes for 344 yards, no TDs and four interceptions. Through two games in 2008, he is now 15-for-26 for 264 yards.

Sikeston was 2-0 at this point last year and, without Jackson, lost the rest of the games.

The Bulldogs, who scored 29 points and lost the opener at Fredericktown last week, may be better, but they will have a challenge to pick up more wins than last year with remaining games against Dexter, Jackson, Cape Central, New Madrid County Central, Kennett, West Plains, Poplar Bluff and Farmington.

Charleston (0-2) was down just one point after one quarter, answering Jackson's first jaunt with a drive that began in Sikeston territory. Claude Armstrong capped it with a short plunge, set up in part by Jerquawn Sherrell's 14-yard run.

But the Bluejays managed just 107 yards of offense, led by Sherrell's 35 yards on nine carries.

Sikeston's second scoring drive, which concluded on the first play of the second period, featured two fourth-down conversions -- a fourth-and-9 at its own 41 and a fourth-and-one at Charleston's 21. Jackson ran 18 yards for the touchdown.

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As bonus coverage, I saw the closing quarter of Scott City's 26-0 victory at Portageville.

The Rams improved to 2-0 overall and 2-0 in the SEMO South, which puts them in a first-place tie with Hayti.

Chaffee has not played a conference game yet.

Scott City had two running backs at 100 or more yards -- Jake Campbell and Caleb Gray -- and a defense that contributed three takeaways, including Alex Eichhorn's 45-yard interception return for a TD.

The Rams, who lost 11 senior starters from last year, travel to East Prairie for a Week 3 game against the Eagles (1-1, 0-1).