Burnet football gets 43-13 win with strong defensive effort

DANIEL CLIFTON • PICAYUNE EDITOR

TAYLOR — A team that coughs up three fumbles on punts and one on a kickoff doesn’t typically put a mark in the win column, but then those teams probably don’t have a defense such as the Burnet Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs beat the Taylor Ducks, 43-13, in Taylor thanks in part to a gutsy defensive effort.

Burnet found itself facing several tough spots after its special teams fumble three punt returns and couldn’t come up with a Taylor short kick, all in the first half. Despite that, the Bulldogs improved to 4-1 on the year.

A lot of that win boiled down to the Bulldogs defensive play. After the third fumbled punt by Burnet special teams, the Ducks took over on a short field. A pass interference call on the first play of the drive put the Ducks at first-and-goal on Burnet’s three-yard line. Points seemed assured with the Ducks only trailing 14-7.

But the Bulldogs defense didn’t break, or even bend. Three successive Taylor rushes ended with no positive yards. The Ducks went for it on a fourth down, but the Bulldogs defense, led by Jarrett Thornley, stopped Taylor’s drive.

It was a defensive stand that told the story of Burnet’s first half.

Two drives later, Taylor found themselves punting, but again Burnet couldn’t hold onto the ball and coughed it up. This time, the Ducks took over on Burnet’s 22-yard line but still failed to get in the end zone. A field-goal attempt fell short for the Ducks, and Burnet breathed a sigh of relief.

But the relief didn’t last, because on the next drive, Taylor’s Jorge Camarillo picked off an Austin Moore pass and raced 60 yards for a touchdown. The point-after attempt failed, but Taylor only trailed, 14-13.

On the next drive, however, it was the Burnet offense’s turn to come up with a big play.

The Ducks sacked Moore for an eight-yard loss, but on the next play, he connected with Eric Walker for a 22-yard pass. A fumble on the next play, one which rolled out of bounds, pushed Burnet back to its own 31-yard line and into a second-and-35 situation.

Moore, however, simply hit Cody Jones who raced for a touchdown and a 21-13 lead for Burnet.

In the second half, Burnet’s defense continued punishing the Ducks. But the offense clearly found its rhythm with a nice 59-yard touchdown drive to take a 27-13 lead.

Burnet’s defense came up with some points of its own in the third quarter when Travis Freeman sacked Taylor’s quarterback Terrell Reynolds in the Ducks’ end zone for a safety.

The Bulldogs added two more touchdowns on the night: a Moore-to-Jones touchdown pass and a one-yard run (set up by Brock Foster 46-yard run) by Moore to close out the game.

The Bulldogs get next Friday off before heading to China Springs on Oct. 10.

editor@thepicayune.com

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Burnet: 14-7-8-14 – 43

Taylor: 7-6-0-0 – 13

TEAM STATS

(BURNET) Total yards: 475 — Rushes-yards: 31-212 — Passing: 263 — Interceptions: 1 — Comp-att-int: 15-25-1 — Turnovers: 6 — Punts-yards: 9-90

(TAYLOR) Total yards: 238 — Rushes-yards: 34-176 — Passing: 176 — Interceptions: 0 — Comp-att-int: 10-38-0 — Turnovers: 1 — Punts-yards: 12-120

INDIVIDUAL STATS

RUSHING – (Burnet) Wesley Shackleford 2-(-4), Steven Gallardo 3-17, Brock Foster 11-138-2 touchdowns, Eric Walker 13-61-1 touchdown

PASSING – (Burnet) Austin Moore 15-25-263-2 touchdowns-1 interception

RECEIVING – (Burnet) Joel Johnson 2-40, Cody Jones 7-146-2 touchdowns, Steven Gallardo 2-12, Brock Foster 1-24, Eric Walker 3-41