Coming off of positive growth in the past few weeks of the football season including a road win last week, head coach Shaun Bavaro and his Bruin varsity football team ran into the league leading 5-0 South Umpqua Lancers who have averaged over 46 points per game after amassing 234 points of offense in their previous in 5 games.
The Bruins received the kick to start the game, and the Lancer defense shut down the Bruins opening drive quickly, taking over possession on their own half of the field.
On the Lancers first play from scrimmage they tested the Bruin secondary deep, completing a slant over the middle to put them within 27 yards of the endzone. On the Lancers second play from scrimmage, they hit a 27 yard pass to the front right corner of the endzone and took an early 0-8 lead.
The Bruins second possession after the kick-off resulted in a mismanaged punt situation and the Lancers taking possession on the Bruins own 33 yard line. On the next play from scrimmage, the Lancers again stretched the Bruin secondary deep, completing a 33 yard touchdown pass and taking a 0-16 lead late in the first period.
The Bruin defense made the Lancers offense work for positive yards on the ground up the middle, but the Lancers would counter by stretching the Bruin defense to the edges with sweeps and passes to the edges to quickly get their ball handlers in the open field for extra yards.
After South Umpqua scored again at the beginning of the 2nd period, Bruin defensive back Kyler Christensen, #2, stepped in front of a Lancer pass and returned it to the Lancer 15 yard line, but the Bruins offense would be ineffective, and come away with no points.
South Umpqua would go on to put together another extended drive, and find the endzone once more, scoring with 1:48 left in the half. Sitting on a comfortable 0-30 lead, the Lancers would hold the Bruins after the kick, use their time-outs, get the ball back after a Bruin fumbled snap on an attempted 4th down conversion, and score once more covering 40 yards with less than 1:24 left in the half to take a 0-36 lead into the half-time locker room.
The Lancer would gone on to score two more touchdowns in the second half of play and take home the 0-49 win. Things won’t get any easier for the Bruins next week, as they travel to Medford next Friday, October 14th, to take on the 5-1 St. Mary’s Crusaders at 7:00pm.
