Brophy 9
Mesa 7
By Brett Mejia ’13
THE ROUNDUP
Brophy’s defense flexed their muscle Oct. 15 against Mesa by causing three fumbles and recovering two of them in route to a 9-7 win.
The Broncos headed to Mesa Oct. 15 for a Friday night lights showdown. Last year the Mesa Jackrabbits took away the Broncos chances of making it to the championship game by defeating Brophy 13-3 in the quarter finals.
The Broncos had just come off a bye week in which they lost their starting quarter back Tyler Bruggman ’13 to an injury. But that didn’t keep the Broncos down as they pulled out a victory without two backups taking the snaps.
“The backup quarterbacks played great; Frederick Gammage ’12 has been a wide receiver all year and he made some really athletic plays and Greg Wirth ’13 and his intelligence showed that he understood the offense” said Brophy head coach Mr. Scooter Molander.
Mesa started off the game by receiving the ball at their own 20 yard line. Mesa rushed for 49 yards on 10 plays but the defense recovered its first fumble of the night to end the drive.
Brophy was only able to run four offensive plays in the first quarter.
At the start of the second quarter Mesa went 23 yards on two plays when Brophy caused another fumble.
Josh Dennard ’11 ran for 50 yards on 10 plays in Brophy’s next drive to lead them to a touchdown. The drive also included a 22 yard pass from Gammage to Marche Dennard ’13 and a six yard run by Devon Allen ’13. The point after attempt was no good and Brophy took a 6-0 lead with 5:13 remaining in the second quarter.
Brophy got the ball back with 1:30 left in the second quarter at their own 49 yard line. The Broncos gained 40 yards total, but could not get into the end zone before the second quarter ended.
Brophy received the ball at their own 20 yard line to start off the third quarter and moved 21 yards on five plays before they were forced to punt the ball.
Mesa took the ball 62 yards for a touchdown and the extra point making the score Mesa 7, Brophy 6 with 3:57 left in the third quarter.
Brophy had a chance to take the lead two drives later on a 50-yard field goal, but a bad snap gave the ball back to Mesa.
The Bronco defense held Mesa to just three plays and forced an 11-yard punt. Brophy moved into field goal range and Zac Bryan ’12 kicked the ball through the cross bars for three points. Brophy took the lead 9-7 with 3:08 left in the fourth.
Brophy ended the game by getting the ball back from Mesa and taking two kneels to wind down the clock.
Dennard led the offense with a total of 101 rushing yards and one touchdown.
“We overcame obstacles and Wirth and Gammage are great quarterbacks, and if we just keep working together as a team we can have a powerful team,” said starting center Alex Rosner ’13.
“I’m just really proud of our guys because they stayed the course and we overcame a lot of emotion over the past 28 hours and we were able to pull out a victory,” Molander said.
Brophy’s record improves to 4-3 as they take on the Hamilton Huskies next Friday at Hamilton Oct. 22.
More photos from the game:
