Dorial Green-Beckham breaks national receiving yardage record

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - The dream ending for Dorial Green-Beckham came to pass Thursday night in his final regular season home game at Hillcrest (Springfield, Mo.).

The nation's No. 1 recruit, according to CBS/MaxPreps recruiting expert Tom Lemming, broke the national receiving yardage mark with 1 minute, 6 seconds left in the second quarter of the team's game against Republic with an 81-yard touchdown catch and run. 

He went on to have another mammoth game with 11 catches for 303 yards and four touchdowns in a 35-7 victory.

Green-Beckham, a 6-foot-6, 225-pound uncommitted senior, entered the game needing 62 yards to breaking the National Federation of High School Associations Record Book mark of 5,867 receiving yards set by Abram Booty of Evangel Academy (Shreveport, La.) set from 1993-96.

Green-Beckham now has 276 career catches for 6,209 yards and 69 touchdowns, and finished the regular season with 98 catches for 1,986 yards and 21 scores. Hillcrest now enters the playoffs and 9-1 and with a strong run,  Green-Beckham will only pad to his now national mark.

"I feel real good right now," he said. "This means a lot to me. I'm real excited to have this record stand in my name for however many years. I'm real excited. This is the most exciting thing for me."

The long, strong and lean receiver, who has been compared to Randy Moss as a prep, took a short 5-yard pass over the middle from quarterback Matt Futrell, broke a couple tackles and out-sprinted the secondary for an 81-yard touchdown to break the record.

The close-to-capacity crowd erupted as he crossed the goal line. 

It was vintage Green-Beckham, who had four catches for 121 yards in the first half. The touchdown gave Hillcrest a 14-0 lead. After the catch and run, the game was stopped and he was presented the game ball in a ceremony at midfield.

"After I caught the pass I thought this could be it right here," Green-Beckham said. " I just came out here and tried to do the best that I could to get into the end zone."

In the second half he added touchdown grabs of 36, 63 and 44 yards. It was Green-Beckham's second career game with more than 300 receiving yards and his third with at least four touchdown catches. 

All three quarterbacks that played catch with Green-Beckham during his outstanding prep career were in attendance Thursday, including present day signal-caller Futrell who racked up his 6,000th passing yard early in the first half. Tim Williams and Mitchell Jenkins also took their turns throwing the ball to Green-Beckham.

Over the course of the past two seasons, Futrell has taken advantage of Green-Beckham's speed and ability to run over people to put up eye-popping numbers.

"He is something else," Futrell said. "I mean you have to lead him so much more than any other receiver. He just gets behind those safeties super fast."

As he lined up across from Green-Beckham, Republic defensive back Beau Allen knew he and his teammates were going to have their hands full.

"We knew he was going to get some catches," Allen said. "But you know we wrapped all of the routes and double teamed – whatever it took. We just tried to stay over the top and that's what we tried to do all night.

"I mean he's big. He's fast. But it was just playing football – man-on-man coverage. We just took it to ‘em."

Despite the loss, Allen still enjoyed the competition and the great football environment.

"What a great atmosphere," he said. "I loved it. I mean having everybody here – the crowd makes it better. It was a great game."

While Green-Beckham's freshman campaign was his least productive as far as numbers are concerned, it laid the framework for who he has become as a receiver. Green-Beckham racked up just over 800 yards that season and since then has produced a little bit more each season.

Green-Beckham first realized he was within striking distance of the national career receiving record at the start of the 2011 season. That's when he and his adopted father coach John Beckham decided they were going to go after the mark.

"Coming into this game, I was real excited because this would be the game for me to break the record," Green-Beckham said. "I came out here to just do the best that I could. I want to keep going with my teammates and finish the year real strong."

Follow the game here on Quixscore.