Brophy 17
Chaparral 9
By Andrew Howard ’17
THE ROUNDUP
In an up and down game featuring everything from muffed punts to a safety, Brophy held off the Chaparral Firebirds 17-9 Oct. 17 at Camelback High School.
The game was marked by solid defense and just enough key plays on offense for Brophy to get the win, but also a total of 15 personal fouls and another 14 procedural calls between the two teams.
“We had a few, but fortunately they had more,” head coach Mr. Scooter Molander said of penalties in the game. “We knew we needed to play disciplined, and I think overall, we did.”
The Firebirds were missing starting quarterback Sean-Paul Brophy, out with an injury, giving Brophy the chance to pay more attention to the run game.
Chaparral won the toss and deferred, giving the Broncos the ball to start the game.
With 4:45 left in the first quarter, Jack Haddon ’15 intercepted the ball, but on the next possession the Broncos fumbled and could not capitalize on the timely turnover.
Chaparral, however, took advantage of a fumble with a score giving them a 7-0 lead at the end of the quarter.
With 11:52 left in the half, quarterback Cade Knox ’16 completed a pass to Isaiah Oliver ’15 for a 33-yard touchdown. Oliver finished with 147 yards.
“He’s a two way player, a tremendous player, and he needs more offers from division one schools,” Mr. Molander said of Oliver.
Later in the half Knox slipped in his own end zone, giving the Chaparral team two points and the ball, but the Brophy defense forced another punt. After a muffed punt the defense was immediately back on the field, and forced another punt.
“Our defense crushed them, we knew we were going to win,” said defensive end Dakota Ducar ’15 after the game. Ducar had two sacks.
With a missed field goal attempt towards the end of the first half, the Broncos went in to halftime with the score still 9-7 Chaparral.
The defense would again take the field to start the second half. With a punt hitting the back of a Bronco and being recovered by Chaparral, the defense was forced to stay on the field. Again they held their ground.
The game continued back and forth until Oliver intercepted a pass with 1:57 remaining in the third quarter.
The interception set up a 16-yard completion from Knox to Robert Brooks ’17 with 9 seconds left in the third quarter giving the Broncos a 14-9 lead.
Jack Katzman ’15 had a booming 60-yard punt pinning Chaparral on their own five yard line with 6:20 remaining.
With 3:36 left in the game, Streator Bates ’15 hit a 36-yard field goal, the same distance he had missed from previously, to give the Broncos an eight-point lead.
“It was a great feeling, but this was a team win, those were just three points put on the board,” Bates said when asked about the field goal.
Mr. Molander also credited the win to the defense saying that they “really stepped up, especially when forced to deal with a short field.”
Gary Philips '70 • Oct 20, 2014 at 9:52 am
Looks like a sign I made and hung across the hallway back in ’68 is still appropriate. It said, “Our defense is in the poultry business. They manufacture goose eggs quarterly.”