advertisement

Aurora Central Catholic handles Aurora Christian

While both Aurora Christian and Aurora Central Catholic relied mostly on their ground game to move the ball, it was passing that scored the points in the teams' season opener at Aurora Christian.

Three of the four touchdowns were scored on passes in ACC's 22-9 victory.

The Chargers went to the air only on only 6 of their 49 plays with two them resulting in TDs.

Junior Ryan Cerza gained the most ground for ACC, going 110 yards on 31 carriers.

"It was a great win. Our game plan was not give up big explosion plays," said Charger coach John Belskis. "We ended up giving up only one. We wanted to control the clock and run the ball and we did. "

An 8-yard run by Cerza four minutes into the second quarter put the Chargers in the lead for good, 7-3.

"We had a lot of good blocking and that how we got the run game down," Cerza said. "It wasn't always big yardage but we kept hitting them and hitting them and that's what won us the game."

Aurora Christian ran 13 passing plays to 22 running plays.

The Eagles also had to adjust to a new quarterback when starting signal caller Drew Clippert left the game late in the second quarter with a hip injury. Freshman backup Josh Beetham ran the offense for the rest of the game.

"That was a devastating loss," said Aurora Christian coach David Beebe about Clippert's injury. "The team's captain went down and we just did not have our attitude after that."

Aurora Christian scored first on 26-yard field goal by Trey Madsen with 12 second left in the first quarter.

Cerza's TD gave the Chargers a 7-3 halftime lead.

ACC widened its lead to 14- 3 seven minutes into the third quarter on a recovered fumble in the end zone.

Charger quarter back Johnny Belskis connected with Jorge Yanez on a 44-yard pass. Yanez caught the ball feet from the goal line only to fumble it. Teammate Jimmy Laurenti recovered the ball for the score.

Yanez was not worried when he dropped the ball.

"I trust my teammates I knew (Laurenti) was going to be right there to get the ball," Yanez said.

The Eagles responded with a big play their own on their next series. Beetham connected with wide receiver Ryan Burke on an 87-yard touchdown pass. The freshman QB completed four of nine pass for 122 yards with one interception.

ACC scored it final touchdown with 2:31 left in the game. On fourth and goal, Belskis threw a one-yard pass to senior Brandon Warren in the end zone.

Danny Russell was Aurora Christian's leading rusher, gaining 66 yard on 17 carries.

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.