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Burlington Central secures its spot in playoffs

ROCKFORD - The Rockets spread the wealth. Six different players scored and Burlington Central tuned up for the playoffs with a 55-12 rout of Rockford Christian here Friday night.

The defense forced 4 turnovers and accounted for a touchdown, and held the Royal Lions to 3 yards rushing in Big Northern East action.

After being shutout last week by Johnsburg, the BC offense was firing on all cylinders. Trevor Davison and Bradley Sorensen scored 2 touchdowns each. Brenden Bushy, Jason Berango and James Fay scored offensively for Burlington (6-3, 5-1), and Kyle Blankenburg returned a fumble for a touchdown.

"We made it perfectly clear to our kids that the game was important, that they would play with pride, we had to be doing things right," said Central coach Rich Crabel. "From a momentum standpoint, for us to be 6-3, we think we should be a little better, so we still have some incentive to go out and prove a little something."

The Rockets wasted no time. After Johnny Frederickson intercepted Christian quarterback Patrick McMahon on the Lions' first series, Davison scored 6 plays later.

The Rockets broke the game open with 3 touchdowns in the final 4:01 of the first half. Berango scored 2 plays after a Kyle Schebel fumble recovery. Rockford Christian fumbled again on its next possession, and Blankenburg scooped it up and rumbled into the end zone.

After the Lions (0-9, 0-6) got on the board to make it 34-6, David Streder returned the ensuing kickoff 68 yards to the 5-yard line, and Sorensen took it in on the Rockets' next play.

Davison finished with 89 yards on 16 carries, one of 4 Rockets' runners with at least 40 yards. Robert Doubek completed 3 of 7 passes for 63 yards, including a 41-yard scoring strike to Bushy.

The Lions had negative rushing yards until McMahon broke at least 3 tackles on a 19-yard run on Christian's final possession. McMahon completed 12 of 26 for 167 yards and 2 long TD passes.

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