Big plays carry BBA over Terriers
MANCHESTER — 52, 68, 68, 75, hut, hut.
OK, so that’s not really a snap count. Those were the lengths of the scoring plays in the first half of Burr and Burton’s stunning 48-7 victory over Bellows Falls in a Division II football game Saturday.
What was expected to be a good contest between D-II contenders at the very least was threatening to go to running time by halftime. Eventually, the clock ran without stoppage in the fourth period.
BBA senior Jake Baker was the primary reason with two 68-yard punt returns for scores and a 75-yard touchdown run from scrimmage.
Logan Morgan ran 52 yards for a score in the first half and had a 71-yard TD run in the second half for 3-0 BBA.
“You love those plays when they happen. You don’t expect them but we have a lot of athletes and you love to get the ball in their hands,” said Bulldogs coach Jason Thomas.
“Big plays is what’s really helped us.”
While BBA has scored 151 points in three games, give some credit to a rugged BBA defense that swarmed all over BF and kept the Terriers off balance until the game was getting out of hand. Most times, when BF was forced to give up the ball in the first half, something exciting happened for the hosts.
It was a sweet win for the Bulldogs over a BF team that beat them in last year’s semifinals.
“Last year I think one of their coaches came out and said when you play Bellows Falls, Bellows Falls is physical football team,” Thomas said. “That was a slight against our kids saying that we don’t play physical football. So that was our message all week: to come out and be the more physical football team today.”
The BBA defense, led by lineman Will Frank and linebacker/defensive end Owen King, bottled up what had been a productive BF ground game and when BF quarterback Griff Waryas went to the air, King picked off a pass in the end zone. Two plays later, Baker ran 75 yards and it was 28-0.
Baker had 232 total yards in the first half.
Morgan scored first and Baker jitterbugged and broke tackles on his two punt returns to give BBA a 21-0 lead. After Baker’s second scoring run, BBA had a 28-0 lead despite having run only seven plays from scrimmage, four of them incomplete passes.
“I don’t know if our team showed up today. I don’t have an answer right now,” said Terriers coach Bob Lockerby. “I know we’re better than that score but we didn’t prove that today so right now that score says they’re that much better than us.”
Morgan had 125 yards on only three carries and Baker 81 on two chances.
Brady Clark had 55 yards on 13 carries and Jed Lober 46 on 17 totes for BF, which saw a good drive end in the second period when King got up in Waryas’ face and batted away his fourth-down pass.
Morgan intercepted a Waryas pass in the second half.
Baker ran 2 yards for a score, Morgan had his 71-yard run and Aldenio Garland ran 13 yards for BBA TDs in the second half.
Harrison Glein had a 15-yard TD run as BF broke up the shutout in the fourth period.
BBA is 3-0 heading into next Friday’s big game at 3-0 Fair Haven, the D-II defending champion.
BF, 2-1, will host 1-2 Springfield on Saturday night, but Lockerby is more interested in what he sees when his team shows up to practice on Monday.
“This is humbling for the boys and humbling for the coaches,” he said. “My seniors have never ever tasted anything like that so how they respond to that is going to be a big part of where we go.
I’ve got to believe they’re going to come back and be ready to go but that’s got to come from inside them.”
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Burr and Burton Academy
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PO Box 498
Manchester, VT 05254
Phone: 802.362.1775, Fax: 802.362.0574
