The victory was the Bobcats' eighth straight this season after a 2-0 start and was Bell's 17th straight win over district opponents.
The Bobcats simply ran over the overmatched Tigers, racking up 407 yards on 52 carries with sophomore T.R. Christopher and senior Jeff Howard leading the way.
Christopher, who was slowed in last week's win over Knox Central by an ankle injury suffered two weeks ago at Perry Central, ran for 180 yards and four touchdowns on 18 carries.
Howard broke the 100-yard mark for the second straight game with 111 yards on 11 carries.
Clay County took to the air in an effort to upset the Bobcats, attempting a whopping 55 passes on the night. Tiger quarterback Zach Lewis completed 34 passes for 276 yards and one touchdown. Matt Dobbs caught 10 passes for 117 yards.
Bell opened the scoring a little over two minutes into the game as Christopher found the end zone on his very first carry, a 25-yard scoring run.
Clay answered quickly, scoring with 8:21 remaining in the half on a 6-yard run by Byron Bragg, who finished with 55 yards on 17 carries to give him 984 yards rushing on the season.
Bell scored in the final seconds of the first quarter and reeled off 35 unanswered points to turn the game into a rout.
Freshman fullback Matt Simpson started the barrage with a 6-yard scoring run with four seconds on the clock.
Howard picked up a touchdown midway through the second quarter with a 17-yard jaunt and Christopher scored on a 2-yard burst with 2:40 remaining in the half. Bell went into the break with a 28-6 lead.
The Bobcats pushed their lead to 35-6 two minutes into the second half on a 24-yard scoring run by Christopher. The sophomore added another TD three minutes later on a 25-yard scamper. Christopher eclipsed the 1,000-yard plateau in the game. He finished the regular season with 1,114 yards rushing and 16 touchdowns.
Clay finally got back in the scoring column with 43 seconds remaining in the third quarter with a 11-yard touchdown pass from Lewis to Dobbs, trimming the margin to 42-14.
Freshman fullback Tyler Harbin scored Bell's only fourth-quarter touchdown on a 4-yard run with 4:34 to play.
Bragg capped the scoring with a meaningless 4-yard touchdown run with 39 seconds remaining.
Bell County (8-2 overall, 6-0 district) locked up home-field advantage through the regional finals. The Bobcats will play host to Lawrence County (4-6, 2-3) on Friday in the opening round of the playoffs.
Clay County (6-4, 3-3) will visit District 8 champion Ashland on Friday.







