Bulldogs Rout Tigers on the Road in Weather Shortened Game
MIDDLEBURY - Staring at a fourth-and-5 from the Middlebury 24-yard line, Burr and Burton quarterback Jack McCoy didn't flinch in the pocket when he flicked a pass toward the end zone, taking a big hit in the process.
Touchdown, BBA.
After gobbling up 65 yards on four carries, McCoy delivered a strike on third-and-long to a wide-open receiver.
Touchdown, BBA.
Through the air or on the ground, Middlebury had no answer for yet another McCoy wearing the BBA No. 34 jersey.
Behind the senior signal-caller's five total scores and 364 yards from scrimmage, the Bulldogs raced to a 35-7, weather-shortened victory over the Tigers in a Week 2 high school football showdown on Friday night. The contest was called with 33 seconds left in the third quarter due to a fast-approaching storm.
McCoy went 15 of 19 for 202 passing yards and four scores while rushing for 154 yards on 16 carries — a performance reminiscent of McCoy's older brother, Joey, who carved up Middlebury for a 54-39 win in the 2019 semifinals at Doc Collins Field en route to the program's first Division I title.
"Jack’s a special kid. He’s been playing this game for a long time. And when you do something for a long time, you get pretty good at it," said father Tom McCoy, BBA's head coach. "I’m proud of him."
Jack McCoy's first two TD passes flipped an early deficit, and his 1-yard QB sneak on the final play of the first half gave the Bulldogs (2-0) a 21-7 edge entering the intermission break. In the third quarter, McCoy found Kaleb Gabert (five catches, 88 yards, 2 TDs) on a wheel route for a 18-yard score and James Wright on a 6-yard connection to cap BBA's 35-point unanswered run.
Zakariah Chani was McCoy's top receiving threat with seven catches for 87 yards and a TD.
"We had trouble with our power run game. Middlebury was tough, stout," McCoy said. "Spreading out the defense helped us and Jack made some good reads and some good cuts."
Middlebury (1-1) gained the early momentum, stopping BBA at the goal line on fourth-and-short on the game's opening possession. The hosts then put together a 12-play, 97-yard scoring drive, capped by Gavin McNulty's untouched 33-yard TD dash on the third play of the second quarter.
But after that series, Middlebury managed only 45 yards of offense. McNulty finished with 78 rushing yards on eight carries. Aside from a couple tweaks on the defensive line, BBA settled in against Middlebury's tried-and-true offense.
"As much as you rep it in in practice, when you’re playing a double Wing-T team like (Middlebury), until you are actually out there doing it, it’s hard to get a feel for the speed of it and the reads and where all the blocks are coming from," McCoy said. "I think we just got better at it as the game went on."
A week after beating defending champion Champlain Valley, BBA earned a measure of revenge in Friday's triumph: the Bulldogs suffered a 14-9 loss to Middlebury in last year's semifinal round.
"I tell the boys it’s not how you start, it's how you finish. We had a great start to the season last year and we didn’t make it the championship game," McCoy said. "It’s all about trying to stay healthy and trying to get better every week and playing our best football at the end of the season."
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