Photo by Kim North Barnesville’s Taison Starr (1) takes a pitchout from Casey Carpenter as teammate Trey Toliver (26) applies a block and Koby Jones (9) looks for someone to block.

BARNESVILLE — Despite rolling to its 11th straight victory this season, Barnesville is still trying to prove to the doubters that it can play with the Division V teams.

The No. 3 seeded Shamrocks entered Friday night’s first-round playoff game against visiting South Point with a chip on their shoulders.

Scoring on eight of its nine offensive possessions, Barnesville (11-0) rolled to a convincing, 56-20, triumph over the No. 14 Pointers (5-6) on the artificial surface at unseasonably warm Shamrock Stadium.

The outcome was never in doubt as the hosts reeled off the first 22 points and never looked back.

They piled up 474 yards of offense on 54 snaps, with 252 coming through the air and the remaining 222 and five TDs on the ground.

“We’ve tried to be as balanced as we can on offense. I think we’re averaging about 200 yards rushing and 200 yards passing,” Barnesville head coach Blake Allen said. “That makes us pretty hard to defend.

“I thought our offensive line did a great job. Taison ran hard and Casey made the right reads,” Allen added. “A total team effort.”

Allen said his team is playing for respect.

“When people question our schedule it ticks the kids off,” he stressed. “They are trying to earn everyone’s respect by going out, playing hard and winning.”

The Shamrocks won the pre-game coin toss and took the ball. They methodically marched 55 yards on 11 plays and ate up nearly five-and-a-half minutes. Tailback Taison Starr did the honors with a 2-yard run behind center Marshall Meade, left guard Hank Johnson and left tackle Christien Hannahs. The PAT snap was bobbled as the score remained 6-0.

After forcing South Point to punt after three ineffective plays, Barnesville quickly made it 14-0.

It took just five plays to go 85 yards as Starr burst through a gaping hole that right guard and tackle – Dillon Lucas and Braden Butler – created and sprinted 40 yards to the end zone. Starr is also the long-snapper and caught the two-point conversion pass from Luke Detling in a spread out formation for a 14-0 advantage.

The Shamrocks needed just one play to add to their margin. On first-and-10 from the South Point 41, quarterback Casey Carpenter found Duker Castello streaking down the far sidelines and delivered a strike that made it 20-0. Detling, once again in the spread formation, ran for the two points and a 22-0 lead.

The TD pass was Carpenter’s 27th of the season and broke the school mark of 26 set in 2006 by current assistant coach Steven Shumaker. Carpenter now has 28.

The Pointers got on the board when Eli Wilburn returned the ensuing kickoff 90 yards to the house. The PAT kick failed for a 22-6 reading.

Koby Jones got into the scoring act when his 1-yard TD run capped a 7-play, 52-yard drive. Aiding the march were a pair of 15-yard personal foul penalties against the visitors. Carpenter also found Detling for 16 yards. Detl;ing bobbled the snap on the placement and rolled to his right and just inside the pylon to make it 30-6.

Castello intercepted a pass in the end zone to snuff out a Pointers’ drive. The Shamrocks needed a mere three plays to go 80 yards as Starr caught a screen pass from Carpenter and weaved his way 42 yards into South Point territory. A 15-yard personal foul on the Pointers advanced the ball to the 23 and Starr did the rest for his third rushing TD of the game.

Winland once again excited the South Point faithful when he went 96 yards to the house on the ensuing kickoff, something that didn’t please Allen.

“If we don’t get our special teams cleaned up, especially our kick coverage and extra points, they are going to get us beat,” Allen noted. “There’s no call for those returns.”

Casey Carpenter scored on a 1-yard sneak and Evan Lough kicked the PAT as the Shamrocks took a 43-14 lead into the half.

Carpenter tossed a 11-yard TD strike to Bradey McIntire for the only scoring in the third quarter as the lead grew to 50-14.

The final Barnesville touchdown came on a 3-yard pass from Colby Carpenter, Casey’s younger brother, to Ethan Carpenter.

Wilburn closed the scoring with a nifty 25-yard run as time expired.

Starr finished with 20 carries for 150 stripes which put him over the 1,000-yard mark for the season. He now had 1,039 and 18 touchdowns.

Casey Carpenter went 12-for-15 for 235 yards which put him at 2,134 yards for the season, which just slips past Shumaker for the most in a single season. Shumaker had 2,125 in 2006.

Castello also became the school’s all-time leader in interceptions with 11. He had two last night.

“A lot of these kids are going to break records. They’ve played a lot of games,” Allen said. “That’s nice, but they’ve all got one goal, and that’s the team goal. They know that comes first.”

Barnesville will now host Gahanna Columbus Academy next Friday. It defeated Utica last night, 34-18.