Burlington gets big win over Stillman
STILLMAN VALLEY — Burlington Central’s football team just keeps moving forward.
The Rockets took another big step in the playoff direction with a 35-7 dismantling of defending Class 3A runner-up Stillman Valley in a Big Northern crossover here Friday night.
The Rockets (3-1) walked into the Cardinals’ house and chucked them under the chinstrap. They did it with solid line play on both sides of the ball, suffocating defense, and balanced offense.
Joel Bouagnon and Zach Ranney scored twice apiece, Ryan Ritchie threw a pair of scoring passes, and Cody Wallace kicked a 36-yard field goal for Central.
The Central players are buying into the one-step-at-a-time philosophy.
“Our kids believe that’s what they need to do,” said Central coach Rich Crabel. “We go into practice every Monday thinking we have to be better. This is a great win for us, but we have to be better next week. Or if we’re not better, we feel like we took a step backward.”
Bouagnon ran 23 times for 147 yards, including touchdown runs of 7 and 22 yards. Ritchie completed 10 of 16 passes for 112 yards and 2 scores. One was to his favorite target, Zach Ranney, who also returned an interception for a score. Andrew Yarwood caught the other scoring pass.
Wallace’s field goal was the only score of the first quarter. The Cardinals answered with a long scoring drive to take their only lead of the game, 7-3.
A long kickoff return by Joe Breeden following the Stillman touchdown led to a 2-play scoring drive by Central, with Bouagnon taking it the final 7 yards. Ritchie then hit Yarwood to make it 15-7 at halftime.
Stillman was still in striking distance at that point, but the Rockets opened the second half with an 80-yard scoring drive. Most of the yards came on the last play, a short pass over the middle that Ranney turned into a 47-yard score.
“Halftime is always a big game-changer,” said Bouagnon. “After halftime we stopped them. We hit them hard, and we scored on our first series.”
After Bouagnon’s second TD put the Rockets safely in front, Ranney iced it 2 plays later by picking off Jeff Cialkokwski pass after it caromed off a Stillman player.
Breeden had a first-half interception. Other than those two, the Rockets’ defense didn’t come up with a lot of big plays, but the Rockets swarmed to the ball. The Cardinals’ longest run of the night was 15 yards, and that came on the game’s last play.
After the Rockets’ first drive sputtered, Crabel challenged his offensive line, and they responded.
“We’re getting better on our offensive line every week,” said Crabel. “We’ve got a little bit yet to go.