Burnet football takes the fight out of Battlin’ Billlies

DANIEL CLIFTON • PICAYUNE EDITOR

BURNET — If you were to pick one play to define the Burnet High School football team’s 55-7 win over Fredericksburg on Sept. 12 at Bulldog Stadium, it would have to be Eric Walker’s 18-yard pounding run in the first drive of the third quarter.

After taking the ball from Burnet quarterback Austin Moore’s hands, Walker ran into a line of Billies defenders. It looked as if Walker would gain a couple of yards before the mass of Billies stopped him, but then Walker wasn’t alone. As he kept churning his feet forward, the Bulldogs offensive line joined in the battle as did a few other Bulldogs.

What looked like a sure short-yard gain turned into a Burnet scrum that pushed the Billies back on their heels. And when it was all over, Walker gained 18 yards and a first down and put Burnet first-and-goal on the Billies’ 10-yard line.

Three plays later, Moore hit Jarrett Thornley, an offensive lineman but eligible on this particular play, for a 10-yard touchdown pass that gave the Bulldogs a 41-7 lead over the Billies.

It was a complete team effort on the play, the drive and the game that put Burnet (2-1) back in the win column.

“Relentless” is how Burnet head coach Kurt Jones described his team during the week of practice leading up to the Fredericksburg game. The Bulldogs were coming off a loss to Abilene Wylie but didn’t let that defeat sneak up and bite them a second time.

“I’m proud of the kids for bouncing back like they did,” Jones said. “Our kids came back and really worked hard this week. They put in a relentless effort during practice.”

And they continued that relentless effort against the Billies – on both sides of the ball and special teams. The Bulldogs gave up four turnovers in each of their previous two games, but the Burnet offense protected the ball against Fredericksburg.

The Burnet defense, however, wasn’t quite as generous to the Billies’ offense. The Bulldogs returned two interceptions for touchdowns. The first came in the second quarter when Burnet’s Darius Johnson snagged Kyle Grona’s pass and returned it about 20 yards for a touchdown to give the Bulldogs a 14-0 edge.

Then, in the third quarter, Trent Rockafellow snagged a Grona pass and returned it 34 yards for a Burnet touchdown and a 48-7 lead.

And it wasn’t just the Burnet interceptions that caused fits for the Fredericksburg offense. The Bulldogs line and linebackers pressed Grona relentlessly throughout the night and pursued the running backs at every step. On a third-and-28 play for the Billies in the third quarter, Grona dropped back, drawing the Bulldogs lineman on him. Then, he dropped a delayed screen over the center to one of his backs, but Burnet’s Jake McElroy sniffed out the play and lit up the Fredericksburg back for a 4-yard loss, setting up a fourth-down-and-forever.

“Grona’s a great dual-threat quarterback, but our defense did a great job containing him and putting pressure on him, and that was pretty important for us,” Jones said.

On the offensive side of the ball, the Bulldogs kept pounding away at the Billies’ defense. Moore exercised a lot of discipline when dropping back or rolling out, throwing the ball away when necessary but putting it in the right place for his receivers as well.

At no time was that more telling than late in the second quarter after the Burnet defense forced Fredericksburg to punt it away with 33 seconds left in the half. On the first play from Burnet’s 45-yard line, Moore tossed a nice pass over the top of receiver Joel Johnson, who had a step on his defender, for a 55-yard touchdown that gave Burnet a 34-7 lead going into the half.

“Of our games this year, this is definitely our most complete,” Jones said. “It’s early still in the year, but we’ve made some nice improvements. There’s still some things we need to work on, but give our kids credit. They worked extremely hard this week, and it showed tonight.”

The Bulldogs host Waco University on Sept. 19 at Bulldog Stadium, 1000 The Green Mile in Burnet. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m.

daniel@thepicayune.com

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Fredericksburg: 0-7-0-0 — 7

Burnet : 0-34-14-7 — 55

SECOND QUARTER

B – Eric Walker 1-yard run (Alex Melvin kick), 11:56

B – Darius Johnson 22-yard interception return, (Melvin kick), 10:36

B – Brock Foster 3-yard run (Melvin kick), 5:50

F – Bryce Beard 2-yard run (Jacob Eckhardt kick), 3:15

B – Foster 18-yard pass from Austin Moore (kick failed), 1:37

B – Joel Johnson 55-yard pass from Austin Moore (Melvin kick), :24

THIRD QUARTER

B – Jarrett Thornley 10-yard pass from Moore (Melvin kick), 7:56

B – Trent Rockafellow 45-yard interception (Melvin kick), 1:30

FOURTH QUARTER

B – Steven Gallardo 4-yard run (Melvin kick), 9:31

TEAM STATS

FREDERICKSBURG

Total yards: 117

Rushes-yards: 26-52

Passing: 65

Interceptions: 2

Comp-att-int: 17-30-2

BURNET

Total yards: 460

Rushes-yards: 34-244

Passing: 216

Interceptions: 0

Comp-att-int: 17-23-0

INDIVIDUAL STATS

RUSHING – Burnet, Eric Walker 13-111-1 touchdown, Austin Moore 3-37, Wesley Shackelford 8-34, Brock Foster 6-21-1 touchdown

PASSING — Burnet, Austin Moore 17-23-216-3 touchdowns

RECEIVING – Burnet, Joel Johnson 3-77-1 touchdown, Brock Foster 4-43-1 touchdown, Steven Gallardo 4-43, Cody Jones 3-35.