Brophy 17
Red Mountain 7
By Erik T. Masingill ’12
THE ROUNDUP
Heading into the matchup with a three-game losing streak on Oct. 1 at Phoenix College, the Brophy football team wasted no time against Red Mountain scoring 14 points on their first two drives of the game.
The Bronco defense shut out the Mountain Lions in the first half and limited them to one touchdown in the second half, which was enough for the Broncos to beat Red Mountain by a score of 17-7.
“The defense came up with big stops and showed no signs of breaking down against the opposing offense,” said head coach Mr. Scooter Molander.
Brophy’s first drive only required three plays to get 78 total yards as they scored their first touchdown on a Josh Dennard ’11 55-yard run to make the score 7-0 with 10:51 in the first.
Red Mountain’s first play of their first drive resulted in a Matt Cahal ’12 interception that he ran back to the Mountain Lion 24-yard line.
Six plays later, Brophy quarterback Tyler Bruggman ’13 found Matt Auran ’13 for a nine-yard touchdown pass to get the lead to 14-0 with 7:41 in the first.
Cahal had another interception in the second quarter and Red Mountain failed on a fourth down conversion that gave the Bronco defense three turnovers at the end the first half with the score at 14-0.
Red Mountain showed life on their first possession of the second half going 80 yards down the field scoring on a Xavier Parsons three-yard touchdown run narrowing the score to 14-7 with 9:06 in the third.
That was all for the Mountain Lions as they gave the ball up on two more fourth down failed conversions.
After missing a 42-yard field goal in the first half, Zac Bryan ’12 connected on a 19-yard field goal in the fourth quarter to make the score 17-7, which would become the final score.
Bruggman went 11 for 15 passing for 94 yards with a touchdown. Dennard ran for 102 yards on 18 rushing attempts and had eight yards from one reception. Devon Allen ’13 had 22 yards from two catches and 29 yards rushing on three carries.
“I was proud of our guys out there,” Mr. Molander said. “It was still a disappointment concerning the penalties made, but Bruggman played poised and Allen, Dennard and our offensive line all played well.”
Brophy had a total of eight penalties while Red Mountain had a total of four.
Mr. Molander said that the team is becoming better every week after at playing together.
By winning, the Broncos ended their recent three-game skid against St. Mary’s (16-13), Centennial (30-7) and Chandler (43-29). Brophy’s last victory was against the Gilbert Tigers on Sept. 3 winning 18-6.
The Broncos improved their overall record to 3-3 and their in-region play record to 1-1 sitting at fifth place in the Fiesta Region standings.
Next week is bye week for Brophy and Mr. Molander clarified his main objectives for the time off.
“Our priorities are to get our players healthy and rested while continuing to practice the fundamentals of playing football,” he said.
After their bye week, the Broncos travel to Mesa to take on the Jackrabbits. Mesa currently is in sixth, last place of the Fiesta Region with a 2-4 overall record and a 0-2 in-region play record.
Of the four games remaining on the schedule, Brophy has only one more game at home against Desert Vista on Oct. 29 before completing the regular season.
More photos from the game:
