The Brookings-Harbor Bruin boys varsity football team started their season on the road while taking on three of the toughest teams in their league who combined have lost only one game.
Friday night the Bruins were on the road in Medford taking on the undefeated Cascade Christian Challengers. The Challengers kicked to the Bruins to start play Friday night, and the Bruins would start their first offensive drive from the 20 yard line. The Cascade Christian defense set the tone early, forcing a Bruin punt after 3 downs, before Challenger sophomore Deryk Farmer, #12 received a short pass in a wide-receiver screen and broke away for 35 yards to start the scoring for Cascade Christian.
The Bruins struggled early after the Challengers successfully pinned the Bruins deep in their own territory. The Bruins second possession started on their own 4 yard line, and the Cascade Christian defense forced the Bruins into a third and long situation that resulted in an interception and return quickly putting the Challengers up 13-0. A blocked punt on the Bruins next possession would give Cascade Christian a short field before putting the ball in the endzone again taking a 21-0 after the first period.
To start the second quarter and the Bruin defense began to get into the Challenger backfield, and as the Bruin defense pushed closer to the line, Cascade Christian took advantage and threw over the top, quickly scoring to extend their lead. The Challengers then took control of the game defensively, putting the Bruins in third and long situations and jumping passing routes scoring on the following two Bruin possessions before going on to take a 0-56 lead into the locker room at the half.
The second half of the game was mostly played between the 30 yard lines as the the Bruin defense held the Challengers to only 7 points in the half.
Talking with Bruins head coach Shaun Bavaro after the game, he told the Compass “We had too many turnovers tonight and we really couldn’t match their speed. We had some bright spots” he said, “and we saw some of our kids get better tonight. We’re proud of these kids, they played with great effort all night, and we’re excited for our first home game next Friday.”
The Bruins will host the 1-2 Sutherlin Bulldogs next Friday who are coming off a 42-35 win over Douglas, at 7:00pm Friday night at Bruin’s Elmer Bankus stadium.
