The Bruins were on the road Friday, traveling to Merlin to take on the #7 OSAA ranked, 5-2 North Valley Knights, coming off a lopsided win against Douglas last Friday night and looking to make a statement as regular season play comes to an end.
The Bruins, coming off a strong performance both offensively and defensively in last weeks nail-biter last week, the Bruins ran into a well tuned play-off team, hitting their marks as they fine tune their gameplan going into post season.
North Valley elected to receive to open the game and promptly went into their power rush game, pounding the ball up the middle, stretching the Bruin interior defense with sweeps and pounding into the Bruins defensive secondary in a drive that set the tone for the rest of the game after a decisive 3:00 minute drive topped off with a sweep and 15 yard pass to the endzone giving the Knights a 0-7 lead.
The Bruin offense took the field and the North Valley interior line and defense, consisting of all upper classmen, overpowered the Bruins line, disrupting plays in the backfield, forcing the Bruins into a three and out situation. The Knights, testing their special teams assignments, blew into the Bruin backfield, blocking the punt, setting up another scoring opportunity, taking a 0-14 lead just 6:30 into the game.
North Valley would hold a 0-21 lead to start the second quarter and would continue to punish the Bruin interior line, stunting and countering as the Bruins struggled to get any offensive traction or consistency even with the offensive successes the Bruins did create. The Bruin offense, missing some key players, still made plays run game and freshman quarterback Grady Maylin stood in a fleeting pocket and took some big hits to get some success in the passing game.
The Knights would go on to run up a 0-50 score, overpowering the Bruins from whistle to whistle in a physical game that this young Bruin team will remember I’m sure, should the two teams meet again in the feature.
“They were way more physical than us and we couldn’t be more proud of these kids for stepping up and giving effort.” coach Bavaro said after the game. “We need to have great week of practice, get healthy and finish the season on a positive note.”
The Bruins final game of the regular season will be at home in a rare Saturday afternoon challenge from the Douglas Trojans, next Saturday afternoon, October 28th, with kick-off at Elmer Bankus field at 3:00pm.
