By David Kvidahl ~ Special to Semoball.com

St. Louis -- Caruthersville never stood a chance.

A surprise entrant in the Class 2 quarterfinals, the Tigers were overmatched and outmuscled as Maplewood-Richmond Heights showed why it's the top-ranked team in the state with a 44-0 victory Saturday at Mehlville High School.

The victory moved MRH (13-0) into Saturday's semifinal against Clark County, which slipped past Blair Oaks 19-18.

Caruthersville ended its season at 5-8.

On the field, it was a game to forget for the Tigers. They turned the ball over seven times in the first half on a variety of fumbles. They managed two first downs the entire game and only one didn't come as a result of penalties on MRH. The one time Caruthersville did get a sniff of the end zone, the play was called back on a penalty.

MRH wracked up all 44 of its points in the first half as senior quarterback Les Williams completed six of his seven passes for 131 yards and a touchdown. Senior tailback Fred Taylor rushed 13 times for 123 yards and three touchdowns.

Up front the younger Tigers couldn't match up with the stronger Blue Devils.

Caruthersville is a sophomore-dominated team and it showed.

"We got beat today by a better team," Caruthersville coach Brad Gerling said. "Youth and inexperience caught up with us today."

When the game ended, Gerling huddled his guys together and told them how proud he was of their effort. After an 0-5 start, Caruthersville regrouped and won four of its last five games to capture a district title and reach the quarterfinal round.

The Tigers lose five seniors from this year's team. They'll be missed but they've helped lay the foundation for what should be better days.

Gerling talked about how the team had grown over the course of the season. He said they recently rewatched their first live scrimmage and it wasn't pretty.

"It was not good at all," he said with a half smile. "We told them all season it's not where you start but where you finish."

The Tigers finished with a flurry. After going 0-10 last season and struggling at points this year, they managed to hit a hot streak at the right time.

"There weren't a whole lot of expectations (leading into this season)," Gerling said.

Gerling estimates there are eight or nine starters returning on either side of the ball. He expects those returning players to take this experience and become better because of it.

"We'll go into next season with more confidence," Gerling said. "We have work to do if we want to get past this level. This is motivation for next season."