As Orrick running back Kalija Rogers walked to the locker room during halftime of his team&rsquo;s Missouri Class 1 sectional game Monday against Hamilton Penney, he noticed the unfamiliar looks on the faces of his teammates.</p><p>He saw disappointment. He saw confusion. Some optimism, too. But mainly&hellip;</p><p>&ldquo;There was shock,&rdquo; Rogers said. </p><p>Indeed. For Orrick, a team that entered the game with the longest active winning streak in Missouri (40 games) and hadn&rsquo;t lost in almost three years, the halftime scoreboard on its home field &mdash; which read Hamilton 35, Orrick 6 &mdash; looked ridiculous. So imagine how Orrick&rsquo;s players felt at the end of the game, when the Hornets put the finishing touches on a 51-13 victory.</p><p> A standing-room-only crowd saw the Bearcats&rsquo; winning streak end and, worst of all, ended their dreams for a third consecutive state title.</p><p>The game was supposed to be close. Both teams entered undefeated, with Orrick ranked No. 1 in Class 1 and Penney ranked No. 2. Both teams had power-based running offenses, and tough, physical defenses. And don&rsquo;t forget, Orrick beat the Hornets 18-0 in last year&rsquo;s playoffs. </p><p>But by halftime of this year&rsquo;s game, it was obvious that Penney was simply more physical than the Bearcats. The stats reflected as much, as Penney accumulated 371 first-half yards while Orrick had been held to only 76. </p><p>&ldquo;They did to us what we do to other people,&rdquo; said Orrick coach Pat Richard, whose team dropped to 11-1. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s be fast and be physical. They beat us off the football, and we haven&rsquo;t been beat off the football in long time.&rdquo;</p><p>On the first play from scrimmage, Penney quarterback Keagan Prather raced outside and blew past several defenders for a 67-yard touchdown. Prather struck again on the Hornets&rsquo; next drive, this time on a 41-yard touchdown run that put the Hornets ahead by 14 only 3 minutes into the game. </p><p>The Bearcats appeared to be on the verge of taking back some of the momentum when they recovered a muffed punt and got the ball at the Hornets&rsquo; 49 moments later, but Penney&rsquo;s defensive line &mdash; which dominated the entire half &mdash; quickly went to work, stonewalling the Bearcats on a fourth-and-1 run a few plays later, giving its offense the ball back. </p><p>Prather responded by capping another scoring drive with an 11-yard touchdown run that put the Hornets ahead 21-0 heading into the second quarter, but things only got worse from there for Orrick. </p><p>With its offense unable to move the ball on the ground against Penney&rsquo;s strong defensive front, the Bearcats went on to punt or turn the ball over on downs in their first three possessions of the second quarter. </p><p>Meanwhile, the Hornets added touchdown runs of 59 and 25 yards by junior running back Trevor Dixon and took a commanding 35-0 lead with 5 minutes left in the half. Orrick added a touchdown just before halftime, but Penney went into the break with a 29-point lead.</p><p>Afterward, the Bearcats huddled in the end zone one final time. While the disappointment was evident, Richard did all he could to remind his team of the positive things it had accomplished over the last four years. </p><p>Two state titles. A 51-2 varsity record. One of the longest winning streaks in Missouri history. </p><p>That, Richard said, was plenty to be proud of.