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Broncos can?t solve Dayton |
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Wednesday, 19 September 2007 |
 Bishop quarterback Drew Blumberg heads up field. The junior led the team in rushing, flying down field for a 57-yard gain at one point on Friday night. Photo by Greg Lippincott By Keith Rainville
Sports Editor 9-18-2007
The Bishop football team played another tough opponent on Friday night, hosting the Dayton Dustdevils on the John Schwab field. Bishop took an early lead and scored a pair of second-half touchdowns, but couldn’t mail down the victory, falling 21-25.
The Broncos got off to a fast start, using a solid defensive stand to force an early punt. The low-liner bounced around the field, but Bishop was able to corral the loose ball at the 50-yard line. The offense took the field with excellent starting field position, and quickly turned the break into 7 points.
Drew Blumberg got the start at quarterback, and after a failed option run, found speedy wide-out Jiovanni Santana down the left sideline for the third consecutive game. The 37-yard pass moved Bishop to Dayton’s 16-yard line. Before the Dustdevils could regain their footing, Nick Salas took a sweep right and capped the scoring run with a dive into the end zone. Santana added the PAT and Bishop led 7-0. The three-play drive covered 50 yards in a heartbeat.
Dayton fared better on its second possession, converting a third-and-forever with a long catch and run. However, the Broncos defense stiffened deep in its own territory, forcing a fourth-and-goal attempt from the 9-yard line and falling on the Dayton QB as he chased down a bad snap.
The Broncos offense stalled on the next drive, with Dayton taking over at its own 37-yard line after a nice punt. Throughout the evening, Santana’s kickoffs into the end zone and Salas’ long end-over-end punts, consistently forced the Dustdevils to go long distances for points.
The Broncos were playing without star linebacker Brandon Griffiths, who is recovering from a leg injury which has bothered him throughout the preseason. The young Broncos secondary got a chance to make plays and take a measure of themselves, and the team did quite well. The defensive line led by Frank Shoshone, Steven Puls and Nick Robinson did an excellent job of controlling the middle of the field. Dayton, however, was able to gain some yards on counter plays and passes. The Dustdevils took the ball down the field at the beginning of the second quarterfor a 63-yard scoring drive to tie the game at 7-7. A 42-yard passing play highlighted the drive.
Dayton carried the momentum for the final minutes of the first half, stopping Bishop on a three-and-out, and then driving for another score to take a 13-7 lead. A drag route from left to right capped the drive for a 25-yard touchdown completion.
With three minutes left in the half, Bishop mounted a solid drive. A scrambling Blumberg bought enough time to find Nick Gomez wide open for a 19-yard gain. A 17-yard pass from Blumberg to Josh Reische and a 16-yard pass to brother Joe Blumberg helped the Broncos overcome 25 yards of penalties on the drive. On third-and-two Blumberg found Salas down the left sideline for another big pass play, moving the ball to the Dayton 16-yard line with about 45 second left in the half.
After a run attempt, Blumberg rolled out right and tried to find a receiver in the end zone, but a Dustdevils defensive back jumped the route and intercepted the pass to kill the drive and leave the score at 7-13, Dayton.
The drive, however, seemed to reinvigorate Bishop, and the Broncos came storming out of the halftime break, scoring 14 quick points to re-take the lead. Starting at the Broncos’ 32-yard line, Blumberg ran a quarterback draw, bursting through a huge hole opened up by the offensive line. Blumberg was finally caught on the left sideline, but not after picking up 57 yards on the play. Another draw led to 7 more yards, and then Reische capped the drive with a 3-yard touchdown run behind a heavy Broncos O-line package. Santana’s PAT gave the team a 14-13 lead.
After a great kickoff, Dayton gave the ball back to Bishop three plays later. The Dustdevils’ QB failed to see Bishop linebacker Max Tormohlen in coverage and threw a pass right to him for an easy interception. Bishop took over at the Dayton 13-yard line and punched the ball in. Blumberg kept the ball three times, scoring on a 7-yard bootleg to give the Broncos a 21-13 lead with 6:05 left in the third quarter.
At the end of the quarter, Dayton got a big break to get back in the game. After both offenses had stalled, Bishop started a drive at the end of the third. Unfortunately, a Bishop receiver lost his footing on a pass route and the pass, despite being on target, was picked off by the defender. The defensive back returned the pick to the Bishop 2-yard line, and the Dustdevils punched the ball in on the next play to cut the lead to 21-19.
The Broncos were forced to punt to start the fourth quarter, and Dayton took over at its own 42-yard line. The Dustdevils survived a fumbled snap and used solid north-south running to move the ball 58 yards for the go-ahead score. A run up the middle capped the drive and gave Dayton a 25-21 lead with 8:11 left in the game.
The Broncos had a pair of possessions with which to tie the game. The first drive ended when a Dayton d-back made a great play on a long pass from Blumberg to Santana, knocking the big gain out of the air just in time. A strong defensive stand by the Broncos defense got the Bishop O back on the field with 2:25 left in the game. Starting at the Dayton 43-yard line, Bishop lost yards on a flea-flicker attempt. The Broncos then tried a double reverse flea-flicker, but Blumberg’s pass to an open Santana was a little under thrown. On third-and-18, Blumberg hit Salas sweeping across the field right to left for a 14-yard gain, forcing a fourth-and-four. A surprise snap led to a broken play, and Dayton was able to pressure Blumberg into making a hurried throw for an incompletion. The Dustdevils took over on downs and ran the clock out for the 25-21 win. Like the opener against Truckee, Bishop showed how explosive it can be on offense, but without Griffiths to anchor the defense, Dayton was able to grind out the comeback win.
Both games have been nail-biters, and fans will get to see another excellent match-up next week when Rim-Of-The World comes to town.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 14 November 2007 )
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Go the Bronco Basketball team! Best of luck for the year
from J. Pursell 83' - Jim Pursell
Best of luck to the 2009 Bishop Varsity Girls Soccer team.
Go Get Em and Make it To CIF. To my lil sis Jessica Bedell have a great season, play
your heart out, and most importantly have fun. Ill see you this summer when I get
home from deployment. Best Of Luck, Cheering yall on from Iraq. -Alayna Parkes |
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