Brophy 56
Sandra Day O’Connor 22

By P. Erik Meyer ’14 & Christian Guerithault ’14
THE ROUNDUP

A week ago, Broncos fans were hanging their heads after losing a nail-biting game to Red Mountain.

On Friday night, the team held their heads high after a 56-22 win over Sandra Day O’Connor.

The Broncos came out firing against O’Connor scoring 21 points in the first quarter followed by another 21 in the second quarter.

“It was exactly what we needed, we put 42 points up in the first half,” said head coach Mr. Scooter Molander. “I’m so proud of our second unit, they got a touchdown there late, and we ran out the clock.”

The second unit played the majority of the fourth quarter and scored a late touchdown thanks to 41 rushing yards and an 18-yard touchdown reception by Will Edwards ’14.

Edwards was not the only one to rack up rushing yards in the game; starting running back Marche Dennard ’13 finished the game with 187 yards and three touchdowns.

“Basically the line blocked their butts off for me,” Dennard said. “I just went through the hole, followed the big boys in front of me, they led the way.”

Mr. Molander said Dennard’s performance is improving this season after an injury riddled year last season.

“Dennard is just getting better and better, obviously last year he was banged up, wasn’t with us, but every week he seems to be running harder, he had some really punishing runs on the edge their and it’s inspiring for the offensive line to know that if they just push a little longer, that extends it and he can go the distance.”

On the opening drive, the Broncos marched down the field thanks to a kick return to the Brophy 47 yard line by Devon Allen ’13 and a 29-yard run by Dennard.

Robert Relf ’13 made a tackle to stop the Eagles on fourth down on Sandra Day O’Connor’s first drive.

Relf finished with three tackles and a fumble recovery on O’Connor’s opening play the following drive.

The Broncos finished the first quarter with a 21-0 lead thanks to a 17-yard touchdown catch by Matthew Klein ’13 and a four yard touchdown run from Allen.

Allen finished the game with the touchdown and 22 rushing yards, and had two kickoff returns to the Brophy 47 and 45.

The Bronco defense allowed a 44 yard touchdown pass on Sandra Day O’Connor’s first drive of the second quarter and then the Eagles converted a two point conversion to narrow Brophy’s lead to 13.

The Broncos scored on a quick touchdown drive thanks to a 10-yard touchdown catch by Matt Auran ’13.
Auran had five catches for 48 yards and two touchdowns in the game.

The Bronco defense allowed another long touchdown pass of 53 yards despite a sack by Conner Martinez ’13 on the first play of the drive.

The Broncos scored again the following drive off a one-yard touchdown rush by Dennard to take a 35-15 lead.
Following the kickoff, O’Connor’s first play was intercepted by Zach Kotoske ’14.

Kotoske had the interception, two tackles and three broken up pass plays in the game.

The Broncos scored one more time before halftime, forced a three and out and then were forced into a three and out before the Eagles took a knee to get into halftime.

The Broncos scored again on their second drive of the second half on a Dennard touchdown run.

O’Connor scored their final touchdown on the following drive, making the score 42-22.

Tyler Bruggman’s ’13 final pass of the game was a 66-yard touchdown strike to Clarence Clarke ’13 for a touchdown.

Bruggman finished with 144 yards and two touchdowns, completing seven of his 18 passes.

“We spread the ball around, our senior leadership was really good tonight, those guys stepped up and for us to go and achieve our ultimate goals this season,” Mr. Molander said. “We need to continue to develop that and I’m really proud of our team.”

The Eagles final two drives would end on a failed fourth down conversion and three and out respectively.

Backup quarterback Greg Wirth ’13 connected to Edwards on an 18-yard touchdown pass with 6:02 left in the fourth quarter.

Wirth completed three out his four passes for 40 yards and a touchdown.

The Broncos final drive ran out the last four minutes and ten seconds.

“We had some success tonight, defensively we played well, obviously offensively running the football, throwing the ball,” Mr. Molander said. “We played Brophy football, we really ran to the ball defensively, we had 11 guys to the ball on numerous occasions, really proud of our team and our staff.”

After the loss the week before due to a Red Mountain comeback, the team did not allow Sandra Day O’Connor to have a lead at any point during the game.

“I’m really pleased, we bounced back exactly the way we needed to,” Mr. Molander said. “We won the game, there’s always areas of improvement, coaches are never fully satisfied. What I’m really satisfied with though was our effort in practice this week and the final result.”

The Broncos will face North Canyon at Phoenix College next week Friday, Sept. 21.
Notes:

• Clarence Clarke ’13 not only had a 66-yard touchdown reception, but as the kickoff specialist he kicked seven out of his eight kickoffs into the Sandra Day O’Connor end zone for touchbacks.
• The Broncos had three pass interference penalties, two facemask penalties and two other penalties totaling 100 yards.

“They were effort penalties, they weren’t delay of games, they weren’t offsides, they were effort penalties, you can live with effort penalties,” Mr. Molander said.
Sandra Day O’Connor on the other hand had one facemask, one pass interference and one false start penalty totaling 45 yards.

• The Broncos defense forced the Eagles into two one play drives, and three punts, two were three and outs thanks in part to Kaleb Mosier ’13 who had six tackles and Andrew Curtis ’13 and Jake Petty ’13 who had four tackles each.
• Brophy was forced to punt just once and committed no turnovers.

More photos from the game: