Burlington Central rally falls short
OREGON – A furious rally came up short for Burlington Central on Friday night, despite a gutty all-around performance from quarterback Tim Maroder. The Rockets fell 16-14.
From the outset, Oregon (2-2) was intent on prolonging drives and controlling the clock with its grinding running attack, grabbing a 14-0 lead on touchdown runs of 6 and 2 yards by Jeff Wehmhoefer.
Central (1-3) finally got its offense going in the waning minutes of the first half when Maroder found Kevin Kellish in the end zone for a 10-yard score with just 7.5 seconds remaining before intermission.
Just one play prior to the score, Maroder converted on fourth-and-four from Oregon's 13 to keep the drive alive.
In the second half, Central's defense tightened considerably as Oregon had to work for every yard it gained but could not sustain a drive, culminating with a clutch defensive stand during which the Rockets defense stopped the Hawks four straight times from the 3-yard line.
"We challenged our defensive linemen a little bit at halftime," said Central coach Aaron Wichman. "We weren't disappointed in the effort, but we wanted to control the line of scrimmage a little bit more and in the second half I feel like we were a little bit more successful."
The Rockets took over at their own 1-yard line, but were faced with a fourth down seven plays later. As Maroder prepared to take the snap, it sailed over his head and into the end zone. Maroder jumped on the ball and was tackled for a safety to push the Hawks' lead to 16-7 with 6:28 left in the game.
"That's high school football for you," said Wichman. "Sometimes you're on the winning side of those types of plays and sometimes you're not. The thing is, that safety never happens if we align correctly on the front and we don't get a procedure penalty on the play before that. As a coach, those are the things you're more frustrated with."
The Rockets defense came up big again on the possession following the safety, forcing the Hawks into a three-and-out.
Maroder took over on the Rockets' next drive, completing a nine-yard pass to Kellish before breaking off a 40-yard run down to Oregon's 10-yard line. Two plays later, he rolled to his right and hit Brandon Westergaard with a touchdown strike from 8 yards out to pull within 16-14 with 3:49 left in the game.
"All week we worked on what we had seen on film," Maroder said. "But Oregon came out in a different look. It took a while to scheme them back up, but in the second half we came out and we were able to scheme them perfectly and move the ball."
The problem for Central was that it only had the ball 3:28 of the second half. After the touchdown, the defense could not come up with another stop as the Hawks were able to run out the clock.
"We were on defense entirely too much," Wichman said. "I couldn't ask for anything else from a physical standpoint, but at the same time, we're not going to win a lot of game when we're on defense for that long."
Maroder finished the game with 80 yards on 15 carries and was 6-of-10 passing for 62 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.
Oregon 16, Burlington Central 14
Burlington Central 0 7 0 7 — 14
Oregon 0 14 0 2 — 16
ORE — Wehmhoefer 6 run (Yount kick), 11:55
ORE — Wehmhoefer 2 run (Yount kick), 5:43
BC — Kellish 10 pass from Maroder (Vincent kick), 0:7.5
ORE — Safety, 6:28
BC — Westergaard 8 pass from Maroder (Vincent kick), 3:49
Team statistics BC OREGON
First downs 11 15
Comp.-att-int. 6-10-1 2-5-1
Passing yards 62 29
Rushing-att-yds. 30-144 57-206
Total yards 206 235
Fumbles-lost 2-2 1-1
Penalties-yards 7-40 1-5
Individual statistics
Rushing:
BC — Maroder 15-80, Westergaard 8-53, Llanes 6-10, Billek 1-1.
ORE — Wehmhoefer 21-123, N. McKeown 19-56 Skoumal 11-13, Miller 4-13, C. McKeown 2-1.
Passing:
BC — Maroder 6-10-1, 62.
ORE — Barringer 1-4-1, 6, Noble 1-1-0, 23
Receiving:
BC — Kellenberger 1-28, Llanes 2-17, Kellish 2-19, Westergaard 1-8.
ORE – Shaulis 1-23, Wiggins 1-6.
