South Callaway head coach Tim Rulo couldn't argue with his Bulldogs' best-ever 6-0 start, but there was a troubling issue that gnawed at him.
A plethora of penalties.
South Callaway remained undefeated and rushed for a season-high 346 yards Friday night, but the Bulldogs were also flagged 11 times for 85 yards in their 18-7 victory over Orchard Farm.
"It's so frustrating to get those (penalties)," Rulo said. "We learned a valuable lesson about playing clean football. We're always excited to get the win, but we have things that we need to work on.
"We want to keep getting better, so we'll have to clean up those mental mistakes. We don't want to have any excuses; we'll rectify it for next week."
South Callaway monopolized time of possession Friday night by running the ball 62 times. Senior back Bryan Lechner rushed for a game-high 99 yards on 14 carries and opened the scoring on a 5-yard touchdown run with 8 minutes, 7 seconds to go in the first quarter to put the Bulldogs up 6-0.
Lechner also had a touchdown run negated by a penalty. Junior back T.J. Buchholz added 77 yards on 21 carries, while junior back Hunter Leeper supplied 67 yards in just six attempts.
Sophomore quarterback Jason Kimminau also finished with 67 yards on 11 carries and scored on a 14-yard scramble with 1:28 left in the third quarter.
"I felt like we saw all of the aspects of our running game," Rulo said. "It was nice to see so many different guys getting touches and positive yardage."
Kimminau completed 6-of-10 passes for 82 yards, including a 12-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Will Brandt with 11:13 remaining in the first half. Kimminau was intercepted once.
Lechner topped South Callaway with two catches for 42 yards, while Brandt also had two receptions for 27 yards.
Meanwhile, the Bulldogs' defense allowed 157 total yards while forcing one turnover. Orchard Farm's lone score came on a 56-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Blake Liscombe to senior wide receiver Delk Webb with 6:39 to play in the first half to make it 12-7.
"It was that philosophy of bend but don't break," Rulo said. "When you're flying around and taking care of business, that makes your defense much more comfortable."
Completing a two-game road trip, South Callaway returns home for a showdown this week against former Mid-Missouri Conference foe Tipton. The Cardinals -- who left the MMC this season to join the Kaysinger Conference -- downed Cole Camp 28-12 on Friday night.
Undefeated Tipton is ranked No. 2 in Class 1.
The guys were happy with (Friday night's) win, you could see it in their eyes," Rulo said. "But they know that they can play better. It was a satisfying win, but it wasn't our best football."