Blanchet Rolls Over Ballard

Blanchet Rolls Over Ballard
By Colin Caruso

In both team’s opener, the Blanchet Braves dominated the Ballard Beavers by a final of 43-0. Blanchet started early and kept the pressure on Ballard for the entire game. The Braves’ first play from scrimmage was a halfback pass that went for 48 yards, followed by a 12 yard touchdown run by senior running back Chamroeun Pen. On the next Braves drive, quarterback Alex Freeman hooked up with senior wide receiver Greg Petschl for a 6 yard touchdown catch. The Braves took an early 14-0 lead, less than 5 minutes into the contest.

Both team’s defenses picked up the pressure for the remainder of the first quarter and the first ten minutes of the second quarter, until Blanchet found themselves on the right side of a few favorable plays. A Blanchet reception on the sideline followed by a clear tackle was missed by the official, and the Braves receiver got up from the tackle and ran for an additional 35 yards on the play. Two plays later, a fumble on the goal line that was picked up by Ballard was overturned and called down by contact. Blanchet running back Oshea Trujillo ran the ball in the next play, to send the score to 20-0 at the half.

Despite being down 20 points going into half, Ballard was competitive and the line of scrimmage battle was equal. Neither team showed great success moving the football, but mistakes by the Beavers put this game out of reach. The opening kickoff of the second half was fumbled by Ballard and returned for a touchdown. The next two offensive plays for the Beavers also resulted in fumbles, one of which again returned for a touchdown, and the other giving Blanchet great field position to capitalize on a field goal. Amazingly, Blanchet had 18 yards of offense in the third quarter, but scored 23 points, to seal the game at 43-0.