Brophy 29
Chandler 43

By Brett Mejia ’13
THE ROUNDUP

Josh Dennard’s ’11 122 rushing yards and two touchdowns were not enough for Brophy to hold off the Chandler offense.

The Broncos headed to Chandler Sept. 23 for a Thursday night grudge match against the Chandler Wolves. Last year when Brophy played Chandler, Brophy won 27-26 at home in overtime.

It was the second Thursday night game in a row for the Broncos and like the last, it resulted in a loss.

Chandler’s quarterback Brett Hudley showed that he can run and convert on third downs by scrambling for 107 yards and passing for 275 yards, getting the win for Chandler with the final score of 43-29.

The Broncos are now 2-3 for the season for with their third straight loss.

“We had trouble stopping the run,” said Brophy head coach Mr. Scooter Molander.

Chandler led off the game by winning the coin toss and choosing to receive, which was followed by a 10-play drive that produced three points from a field goal.

Now it was Brophy’s turn to start up the offense and received the ball at their own 35-yard line. They then drove the ball all the way to Chandler’s 22-yard line when quarterback Tyler Bruggman ’13 threw a touchdown pass to Frederick Gammage ’12. Brophy took the lead at 7-3 with 4:41 remaining in the first quarter.

Four minutes later Chandler’s Hundley handed the ball off to the running back John Bishop for a 1-yard touchdown. Chandler decided to try for two extra points, but was denied those points by Brophy. Chandler led 9-7 at the end of the first quarter.

The Wolves took advantage of their run game by rushing 52-yards to get another touchdown and brought their lead to 16-7 with about 5:30 minutes left in the second quarter.

Brophy responded to this touchdown with a long breakaway run by Josh Dennard for a 59-yard touchdown, cutting the Chandler lead to 16-14 with 5:08 minutes left in the second quarter.

But with four minutes left in the quarter Chandler was able to score two more touchdowns. At the half, Chandler was leading 29-14.

Brophy received the ball at the start of the third quarter, but quickly turned it over with an interception. Brophy’s defense showed its strength by forcing Chandler to punt the ball on their next drive.

This led to a 5-yard rushing touchdown from Dennard, giving life back to Brophy and cutting Chandler’s lead to 29-20 with 5:37 left in the third quarter.

On the next drive for Chandler, linebacker Robert Relf ’13 sacked Hundley for a loss of four yards and led to Chandler punting the ball.

Bruggman then got Brophy’s offense going again by throwing a 14-yard pass to Devon Allen ’13 for a touchdown. Brophy tied the game at 29-29 with a two-point conversion pass to Gammage with about 3 minutes left in the third quarter.

Chandler responded with a touchdown that put them ahead 36-29 with 1:06 minutes left in the third quarter.

Chandler would get one more touchdown that would give them the victory by the score of 43-29.

Bruggman threw for 165 yards and two touchdowns. Dennard had three catches for 34 yards and ran for 122 yards with two touchdowns. Gammage had six catches for 71 yards and had one touchdown. Allen had five catches for 60 yards and ran for 17 yards with one touchdown.

Brophy only had two turnovers from one fourth down incompletion and one interception.

Mr. Molander said that although Chandler’s quarterback was hard to stop, he was proud of how the offense and defense went to work right after halftime.

“Chandler’s QB ran around in the backfield a couple of times and was able to escape. Our defense was able to add plays and did a good job along with the offense,” Mr. Molander said.

Brophy seeks to get a win against the Red Mountain Mountain Lions next week in their homecoming game Oct. 1 at Phoenix College.

More photos from the game: