Burlington Central knocks off North Boone
POPLAR GROVE – Things looked grim for Burlington Central at North Boone on Friday night.
The Rockets allowed a touchdown on the opening drive and followed that with a fumble on their own 10-yard line. The Vikings cashed in two plays later to put the Rockets in 12-0 hole with 6:49 left in the first quarter.
From then on, it was a whole new ball game as Central's defense buckled down and its offense rattled off 20 straight points to earn a 20-12 win to open Big Northern Conference East Division play.
"We changed our coverage just a little bit," said Central coach Aaron Wichman. "They were doing some things that were giving us a hard time and we changed what were doing up front and both of those things paid off."
Quarterback/safety Tim Maroder did not feel any anxiety on the sidelines when the team faced an early deficit.
"I didn't really see the guys getting down," Maroder said. "We just had to hunker down and play better on both sides of the ball."
The Rockets (2-3, 1-0) struck right back with an eight-play, 70-yard drive, punctuated by a touchdown run from Tre Llanes from 12 yards out. Tim Vincent's extra point try was no good and Central trailed 12-6 with 3:54 left in the first quarter.
The Vikings (3-2, 0-1) ran their entire offense through quarterback Alex Albrecht. There was only one play from scrimmage all night that did not feature Albrecht running or passing.
North Boone seemed to be on track to strike back when Albrecht fumbled the ball at the Central 23-yard line. It would prove to be an omen of the stellar work the Rockets defense would do all night.
"We gave them some big plays here and there," Wichman said. "But I thought our defense did a great job tonight."
Llanes had 121 yards rushing on 14 attempts in the first half, but battled with cramping for the remainder of the game and the burden of leading the offense fell on Maroder.
Midway through the second quarter, after Charley Fletcher intercepted an Albrecht pass, the Rockets struck again when Maroder rolled to his right and hit Joey Lange for a 30-yard touchdown pass. Michael Kellenberger ran in the two-point conversion to give the Rockets a 14-12 lead with 5:28 remaining in the half.
Maroder struck again near the end of the third quarter when Central started a drive with the ball on its own 45-yard line. Maroder ran for gains of 11 and 19 yards to start the drive, and eventually plunged into the end zone from 1 yard out to give the Rockets a 20-12 advantage with :18.7 left in the third quarter.
"Tim's only a junior, but this is his third year on the varsity," Wichman said. "I think he's finally starting to understand what it means to be the leader out there. You can't always try to make every play a home run, you have to take what people give you, and he did a great job reading the defense and contributing offensively for us tonight."
But North Boone did not go quietly. The Vikings were mounting a potential comeback on a drive that began at their own 7-yard line. On second down at midfield Albrecht launched a pass that appeared to be intercepted by Maroder before flags went flying. Central was penalized for pass interference, giving North Boone a fresh set of downs.
"I thought we got it clean," Maroder said. "But they said Kellenberger was pushing (the receiver). I just thought if we did it once, we could do it again."
Maroder was proven right, as North Boone stalled and turned the ball over on downs four plays later.
Maroder finished with five completions on eight attempts with a touchdown and an interception, as well as 92 yards rushing on 11 attempts.
Llanes had 137 yards on 20 carries.
The Rockets rushed for 304 yards on the night.
BURLINGTON CENTRAL 20, NORTH BOONE 12
Burlington Central 6 8 6 0 — 20
North Boone 12 0 0 0 — 12
NB — Gvist 9 pass from Albrecht (pass failed), 7:51
NB — Albrecht 2 run (pass failed), 6:49
BC — Llanes 12 run (kick failed), 3:54
BC — Lange 30 pass from Maroder (Kellenberger run), 5:28
BC — Maroder 1 run (kick failed), 18.7
Team statistics BC NB
First downs 22 16
Comp.-att-int. 5-8-1 16-34-1
Passing yards 62 173
Rushing-att-yds. 48-304 21-94
Total yards 364 267
Fumbles-lost 1-1 1-1
Penalties-yards 10-80 5-31
Individual statistics
Rushing:
BC — Llanes 20-137, Maroder 11-92, Westergaard 13-71, Kellenberger 1-4.
NB — A. Albrecht 20-91, Gvist1-3.
Passing:
BC — Maroder 5-8-1, 62.
NB — A. Albrecht 16-13-1, 173.
Receiving:
BC — Lange 1-30, Kellenberger 3-19, Llanes 1-13.
NB – Johnson 4-60, Anderson 6-49, J. Albrecht 1-27, Gvist 2-12, Boemke 1-11, Nelson 1-8, Mischung, 1-7.
