BLOOMINGTON - Junior running back Derrick Simmons was more concerned with earning his quarterback's trust than he was yards in Friday night's Big 12 Conference matchup at Fred Carlton Field. | Photo gallery | Box scores, schedules and stats

Simmons ended up earning plenty of both as Bloomington High School defeated the Urbana, 35-6, in front of a rain soaked crowd.

"I want my quarterback to have faith in me," Simmons said. "If they have faith it doesn't matter, we just keep the faith and keep doing our thing."

Simmons did his thing to the tune of 110 yards on 14 carries and two rushing touchdown.

The junior scored a touchdown in each half, and ran for 80 second-half yards.

It was vital that the running game stepped up for the Raiders (2-1, 2-1) as senior quarterback Mykul Pearson missed the game for disciplinary reasons.

"We were kind of iffy," Simmons said. "The quarterbacks stepped up and did their job. We're happy about that. Now we know we have backups in case anything happens."

Sophomore Tyler Dicken got the start behind center and was relieved after halftime by junior Donnie Bogle.

Dicken completed two passes on nine attempts for 46 yards. Bogle rushed for 24 yards.

Simmons wasn't the only Purple Raider looking down the road as coach Rigo Schmelzer saw Friday's game as an opportunity to start planning for the future.

"For the most part we tried to stay pretty conservative," said Schmelzer. "We're going to be seeing some 4-3 defenses down the road. I wanted to use this as an opportunity to look at what we run against that defense."

Simmons got the Raiders ahead three minutes into the first quarter on a toss left that he took for a 14-yard touchdown run. It was Bloomington's second play from scrimmage.

In the third quarter Simmons weaved through a depleted Tiger defense for an 11-yard score to put the exclamation point on an 8-play, 47-yard drive. Simmons started the drive with a 17-yard jaunt, his longest run of the night.

A 66-yard bomb down the middle of the field from Urbana's Trey Russell to Kyle Clevenger set up the Tigers' (0-3, 0-3) only score of the game which came on a 4-yard run by Tyrece McCurry.

"We barely got enough kids that can walk and we played toe to toe with them for two quarters," said Urbana coach Mike Hoskins.