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Broncos roundup Knights for second straight year

Broncos roundup Knights for second straight year

Brophy 58
St. Mary’s 6

By P. Erik Meyer ’14
THE ROUNDUP

Photo by Spencer Lund '13 - Devon Allen '13 makes a touchdown catch in the third quarter Oct. 12 against St. Mary's. Brophy defeated St. Mary's 58-6.

The football rivalry between Brophy and St. Mary’s is nearly evenly split since the two teams began the series in 1959, but the 2012 rendition was a one-sided affair in Brophy’s favor.

St. Mary’s leads the series 27-26 according to the Arizona Republic but on Friday Oct. 12 the Broncos came one step closer to closing the gap with a 58-6 victory at Phoenix College.

“You know what, they beat us two years ago and it is a rivalry game and you better come prepared. St. Mary’s is a good football team and they have a long tradition and I respect the heck out of those guys,” said head coach Mr. Scooter Molander. “They still have one more victory in the rivalry than us and so we recognize that. They beat us for 17 years in a row so it has been a long standing rivalry.”

The Knights came out in the first quarter with two consecutive solid drives.

On their second drive they marched down to the Brophy six yard line, but three penalties totaling 15 yards and a missed field goal rendered their efforts fruitless.

The Broncos were explosive in the first quarter, Devon Allen ’13 had a 31-yard touchdown reception from Tyler Bruggman ’13 and Matt Klein ’13 had about a 50-yard punt return for a touchdown.

Bruggman finished 12-19 with 187 yards and four touchdowns and was pulled from the game early in the third quarter.

“You’re not going to find a smarter quarterback in the country, he knows the game plan inside and out, he knows the offense as well as I do,” Mr. Molander said. “He’s a great young man and we are fortunate to have him.”

The Broncos shut out the Knights again in the second quarter thanks to an interception by Brian Woodward ’14, and tackles by Joe Nauert ’14 and Kaleb Mosier ’13.

Nauert finished with eight tackles and Mosier finished with seven.

Marche Dennard ’13 ran for a 30 yard touchdown and finished with 123 yards and one touchdown.

Bruggman and Clarence Clark ’13 also connected multiple times during the quarter.

Clark finished with seven receptions for 96 yards, one touchdown and rushed two times for 25 yards.

:He’s a great athlete and once he gets the ball in space he’s dangerous,”  Bruggman said of Clark. “He can make people miss.”

At halftime the Broncos were in command with a 38-0 lead.

On the opening drive of the second half the Broncos put together a prolonged touchdown drive capped off by a 20-yard touchdown pass from Bruggman to Allen.

“It was a team effort, the o-line did a great job and the receivers, when they play as well as they do it makes my life easy,” Bruggman said.

Allen finished with five catches for 84 yards and two touchdowns.

Saint Mary’s scored for the first time in with 2:11 left in the third quarter off a 32-yard touchdown run.
They attempted a two-point conversion and after initially converting it, the score was called back due to a penalty; the extra point was missed.

Photo by Jordan Bruner '13 - Brophy's Marche Dennard '13 stiff arms a St. Mary's defender Oct. 12. defeated St. Mary's 58-6.

The Knights recovered an onside kick on the ensuing kickoff but any hopes of another score were thwarted by an interception by Andrew Curtis ’13 four plays into the drive on the first play of the fourth quarter.

Besides the touchdown the defense was stout in the third quarter with another interception by Jake Petty ’13 earlier in the quarter.

Petty’s interception set up a touchdown run by Will Edwards ’14 and the final quarter began with the Broncos leading 52-6.

By this point in the game, most of the second string was in the game for the Broncos.

“We played a lot of guys, there were a ton of guys who played so we’ll take a look at the film,” Mr. Molander said. “That was a good thing, just about everyone on the team played tonight.”

Clarke Attaway ’13 scored the final touchdown for the Broncos on a 15-yard touchdown run but the extra point was missed

“It’s about winning games but it’s also about getting better. There were plenty of mistakes made tonight that we need to clean up, but overall it was a good victory on both sides of the ball,” Mr. Molander said.

For Bruggman and other seniors this was the last game against St. Mary’s of their careers.

“We had a lot of sophomores then that are now seniors on the team, we had some guys who actually played and experienced it, so to actually be on the sidelines left a bad taste in our mouths. So it was good for us to come out and get a win,” Bruggman said about the loss two years ago and this year’s win. “It’s nice, my dad went to Brophy, my mom went to Xavier so I always watched both the St. Mary’s rivalries. It makes it extra special.”

Notes:

  • St. Mary’s started on average on their own 21 yard line off kickoffs thanks to three touchbacks by Clark.
  • Matt Auran ’13 punted twice for a 39.5 yard average
  • Saint Mary’s punted five times for a 23.3 yard average with one returned for a touchdown by Klein.
  • Brophy’s primary field goal and extra point kicker Phillip Mourikes ’14 left the game in the 3rd quarter after making a 29 yard field goal and making all his extra points.
  • Backup kickers Aiden McCabe ’14 and Tyler Godbehere ’14 took Mourikes’ place. McCabe went 1-2 on extra points and Godbehere went 1-1.
  • “I felt like on special teams we did a good job as well getting a nice field goal there, pinning them deep inside the 20,” Mr. Molander said. “I felt like the kickoff team did a good job tackling for the most part so it was a good victory,”
  • St. Mary’s had only about 30 football players suited up for the game compared to the Broncos 70 plus.

More photos from the game:

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