Brophy 50
Sandra Day O’ Connor 0
By Erik T. Masingill ’12
THE ROUNDUP
Thanks to a 40-0 lead at halftime, the Broncos’ first and second string players all contributed to a 50-0 shutout win against the Sandra Day O’ Connor Eagles Friday, Sept. 16 at Phoenix College.
“It’s about us getting better, and we did,” said head coach Mr. Scooter Molander of the performance of the entire team.
“We played like we practiced. We had a really good practice Monday. We had a really good practice Tuesday. Wednesday was a little flat. Thursday was an excellent practice. It was the best Thursday practice, and generally you play like you practice,” he said.
The Broncos scored the first touchdown of the game on a 45-yard pass from Tyler Bruggman ’13 to Devon Allen ’13 with 2:46 left in the first.
Five seconds into the second quarter on a fourth-and-one, Marche Dennard ’13 ran in his first carry of the season for a seven-yard touchdown rush to give the Broncos a 14-0 lead.
Dennard broke his left foot over the summer and spent the first three games on the sidelines recovering.
After an offensive pass interference penalty on the Broncos on the first play of the ensuing drive, Bruggman threw a 70-yard touchdown pass to Clarence Clark ’13 with 9:47 in the half.
A missed extra point meant only six points, but now a 20-0 lead.
Next it was D’ Amani Grayer’s ’13 turn to score a touchdown off a 43-yard run to give the Broncos a 27-0 lead.
Two minutes after, Bruggman connected on a 27-yard touchdown pass to Allen. After a missed extra point, the Broncos led 33-0.
On the last drive of the half for the Brophy offense, Bruggman converted a fourth-and-10 with a 15-yard pass to Fred Gammage ’12 that set up a 13-yard touchdown pass to Allen on the next play with 20 seconds left.
The Broncos led 40-0 at halftime, and the entire second half, second string players were pulled in to replace the productive first stringers.
Brophy’s first drive of the second half, Zach Hudson ’12 scored with a 28-yard field goal with 6:17 in the third to increase the score to 43-0, initiating the mercy rule of not stopping the clock.
Andrew Simon ’12 scored the last points for the Broncos with a six-yard touchdown rush at 8:10 left in the game.
The Bronco defense made stop after stop, and forced the Eagles into eight three-and-out drives along with one turnover on downs.
The Eagles had the ball in Brophy’s territory for one drive in the entire game, which resulted in the turnover on downs.
Bruggman went 16-22 passing for 286 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions.
Allen caught four passes for a total of 92 yards and three touchdowns.
Gammage caught five passes for 64 yards while Matt Auran ’13 caught four for 55 yards. Clark received three catches for 80 yards and a touchdown.
Dennard had two carries for 24 yards and a touchdown while Grayer had five carries for 52 yards and a touchdown.
“I’m very proud of all our second group guys that got in there, and they really played well as well,” Mr. Molander said. “Our second group guys kept the goose egg, and our second group guys went down and got ten points in the second half so I’m very proud about that too.
Mr. Molander said that he is happy to have Dennard back on the field.
“It’s great to have that 1-2 punch for sure,” he said. “Marche’s a big strong kid. Marche believes in what he does. He’s an amazing player, and D (Amani) is just such a great patient runner.”
Dennard said that he and Grayer both impact each other on the field.
“It’s great,” he said. “We feed off each other. If he gets in, I get in. If I do something good, he does something good. We just feed off each other.”
The Broncos improve to 4-0 on the season and will head to North Canyon Friday, Sept. 23 to play the 3-1 Rattlers.
