Burnet throws enough ‘punches’ in 40-35 win vs. Robinson
DANIEL CLIFTON • EDITOR
BURNET — Resiliency.
That’s one of the things Burnet head football coach Kurt Jones believes his team learned Oct. 16 in its 40-35 victory over Waco Robinson.
“This was a game about resiliency, about hanging in there,” Jones said. “You just keep throwing punches until you get the other guy on the ground. We just did that tonight.”
With the win, Burnet is 5-2 overall and 1-1 in District 13-4A Division I.
While Robinson entered the game at 1-5 overall and 1-0 in district, those numbers were a bit deceiving. It was something Jones noted after the game.
“They have a couple of losses that are by two or three points,” he said. “They were really sharp tonight.”
And it showed.
Rockets quarterback Chase Allison guided Robinson to the first touchdown of the game at the 5:56 mark in the first quarter. He hit Grant Reel for a six-yard pass that ended up as six points. With the extra point, Robinson took an early 7-0 lead.
A couple of drives later, Allison again began leading Robinson down the field. But on a pass, Burnet forced a fumble with Peyton Utsey coming up with the ball for the Bulldogs.
Starting on Robinson’s 45-yard line, the Bulldogs began marching down the field. Quarterback Austin Moore capped off the drive with a 19-yard strike to Steven Gallardo, tying the game.
On the ensuing kickoff, the Bulldogs recovered a Robinson fumble but couldn’t take advantage of it. The good part, however, was it kept a very efficient Rockets offense off the field. Robinson did get the ball back, but Burnet’s defense stymied the Rockets and forced a punt.
This time, Burnet would work its way down the field. Preston Reeves pounded out yards on five carries during the drive. But on Robinson’s 19-yard line, it looked as if the drive was going to falter as Burnet faced a fourth-and-6 situation.
Moore dropped back with pressure quickly coming and tossed a short pass to Joel Johnson on the right side of the field. Johnson raced back toward the middle of the field, cut toward the end zone, broke through several Rocket defenders and forced his way into the end zone for a 14-7 Burnet lead.
On the Rockets’ next possession, the Bulldogs forced Robinson to punt again, giving Moore and the offense the ball back. This time, Moore connected with Steven Gallardo on the third play of the drive for a 46-yard touchdown and 20-7 lead with 51 second left in the half.
But here’s where Robinson showed their tenacity. If it appeared Burnet had them on the ropes, the Rockets weren’t going down yet.
Allison took advantage of a short field after the kickoff. He quickly moved Robinson down to Burnet’s seven-yard line with time winding down. Then he found 6-foot-4-inch Braxton Ashcraft in the corner of the end zone for a touchdown as the buzzer sounded to end the first half.
The Bulldogs led 20-14 going into the locker room, but they still had some punches to throw.
Burnet threw the first punch of the second half with a 71-yard scoring drive finished off by a Brock Foster one-yard touchdown run. Now up 27-14, Burnet looked like it had thrown the knockdown punch.
But Robinson bounced right off the mat and scored on its next drive. Again, it was an Allison-Ashcraft connection that put the Rockets back in the fight, trailing Burnet 27-20.
The Rockets defense responded by forcing Burnt to a three-and-out situation. But Moore’s punt pinned Robinson against the ropes again on its own seven-yard line.
It didn’t take long for the Rockets to work themselves off the ropes and into Burnet territory.
This time, Robinson delivered a hard blow to Burnet when Allison hit Grant Reel for a 22-yard touchdown and 28-27 lead.
Now it was time to see if Burnet would get off the mat and into the fight.
And they did.
It only took Burnet five plays, including a Gallardo 29-yard reception, to set the Bulldogs up in striking distance. Then Moore connected with Johnson again for a 23-yard touchdown and a 34-28 lead.
The two teams traded jabs for a bit without much damage, but in the fourth quarter with about seven minutes left, Burnet’s Cullen Ferrill dealt the Rockets one of several knock-down blows.
Allison threw a pass over the middle to the Burnet five-yard line, but Ferrill stepped in and grabbed the pass, wrestling it away from the Rocket receiver. With the ball on its own five-yard line, it looked as if Burnet had some work to do to move down the field or at least run time off the clock.
But it didn’t take long at all.
Moore hit Johnson again. This time the senior wide receiver went the distance, 95 yards, for the touchdown.
Burnet was up 40-28.
Then Robinson started moving down the field on its next drive. With more than six minutes on the clock, the Rockets had plenty of time to get back in the game with their quick-paced offense. And they looked to be doing just that as Allison dropped back for a pass. He lobbed it over the middle, but this time, Ferrill didn’t have to wrestle anybody for it. He just jumped up and caught the pass.
He returned it for about 18 yards, giving Burnet’s offense good field position from its own 38-yard line. The Bulldogs couldn’t turn the interception into points, but they managed to thwart the Robinson drive and get Allison and his quick-moving offense off the field for a bit.
It was enough of a punch to put the Rockets against the ropes, though they came out swinging for one more touchdown with 51 seconds left in the game for a 40-35 final score.
While Burnet didn’t throw one knockout punch, the offense and defense combined with enough solid blows to earn a unanimous decision in the fight.
Jones liked the fight and resiliency he saw in his team.
“I’m proud of the boys,” he said. “(Robinson) is a good team. Their record doesn’t necessarily reflect that, but they are. We stayed in there, we fought hard and didn’t give up.”
The Bulldogs hit the road Oct. 23 when they travel to Gatesville for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff. Listen to the game on 106.9 powered by KBEY or at KBEYFM.com starting with a pregame show at 7 p.m.
daniel@thepicayune.com
SCORING AND STATS
FIRST QUARTER
R – Jaeson Martinez six-yard pass from Chase Allison (Adrian Ceballos kick), 5:56
SECOND QUARTER
B – Steven Gallardo 18-yard pass from Austin Moore (Tyler Torres kick), 9:21
B – Joel Johnson 19-yard pass from Moore (Torres kick), 3:49
B – Gallardo 46-yard pass from Moore (kick missed), :51
R – Braxton Ashcraft nine-yard pass from Allison (Ceballos kick), :00
THIRD QUARTER
B – Brock Foster one-yard run (Torres kick), 9:20
R – Ashcraft 15-yard pass from Allison (Ceballos kick), 6:55
R – Grant Reel 21-yard pass from Allison (Ceballos kick), 2:57
B – J. Johnson 23-yard pass from Moore (Torres kick), 1:32
FOURTH QUARTER
B – J. Johnson 95-yard pass from Moore (two-point attempt failed), 6:42
R – Ashcraft 7-yard pass from Allison (Ceballos kick), :51
TEAM STATS
Burnet — Total yards, 478; rushes-yards, 30-86; passing, 392; interceptions, 1; comp-att-int, 25-36-1
INDIVIDUAL STATS
RUSHING – (Burnet), Preston Reeves 9-29, Austin Moore 6-22, Brock Foster 10-20-1 TD, Steven Gallardo 4-13, Wesley Shackelford 1-2.
PASSING – (Burnet), Moore 25-36-392-5 TDs-1 INT
RECEIVING – (Burnet), Joel Johnson 7-180-3 TDs, Gallardo 9-136-2 TD, Sterling Galban 9-76