Central Loses Barn Burner vs Burlington

October 26, 2020November 2, 2020 Paul Clark

Toe-to-Toe Battle with #2 in State

The young Falcons battled toe-to-toe with the #2 team in the state on Thursday night. Unfortunately, the Falcons couldn’t stop Burlington’s all-state running back in the 4th quarter, and lost 56-49.

The Falcons are just beginning a full and complete re-build. They have a new coach. They have a new quarterback. They have first-year players. Their veterans are playing new positions. The starting lineup is loaded with juniors and two sophomores.

They are at about the same point an NFL team is after a pre-season. They are just starting to figuring things out. And they’re able to compete with the best in the state, right now.

On Thursday night the Falcons scored first, led 35-27 at halftime, and 42-34 to start the 4th quarter.

Central quarterback, Michael Mulholland, put up 229 passing yards, threw for 2 TDs, and rushed for 3 more TDs.

The game was tied at 49-49, late in the 4th quarter, when Burlington’s Zach Wallace powered into the end zone from 3-yards out, giving the Demons a 56-49 lead with 1:28 remaining. The Falcons couldn’t score on their last possession and had to take the tough loss.

Coach Jared Franz said, “Our offensive staff was phenomenal. They called a great game. The kids executed a great game. You score 49, you expect to be walking off with a victory…. Burlington’s a helluva team. They’re ranked #2 in the state. Their #12 Wallace, there’s a reason that he’s an all-state running back. So, we’re disappointed in the result. We’re proud of the effort. And we’ll get better.”

The teams exchanged scores all night, and the Falcon defense couldn’t contain Wallace, who bounced off and ran over would-be tacklers, and went off for 283 rushing yards and 5 TDs. The Falcons also got beat deep on a couple of key 3rd downs, that extended Burlington drives.

Franz said of the defense, “At the end of the day, when you get tacklers to the ball carrier, you have to bring him down on contact. When it’s 2nd-and-long and 3rd-and-long, you got to get off the field. I don’t know how many times we put ourselves in great position on a 1st down, or 2nd down, to get off the field and give the ball back to our offense. And if we just make, 2 or 3 of those plays, over the course of the game, it’s probably a 14 or 21 point victory. But that didn’t happen. So we have to, A, find a way in the short-term to try to make it happen, and B, I think our kids are really taking to heart the last two weeks, on the defensive side, that sometimes we are just getting out-physicalled. And we are young. We’ve got a lot of juniors and sophomores on that defense. So they’re going to grow…. We have to find answers in the short term. We need to get better at tackling. But we also need to understand, that we need to make sure that we focus when we get into the off-season.“

Jakob Simmons recorded 8 tackles, 4 Tackle-for Loss, 1 QB sack, rushed for 83 yards and scored a TD. He said of the outcome, “We’re just going to get back to practicing. Work harder. That was a really good team, but there’s no excuses for that loss.” He then added about the offense, “I felt like we started off good. That is something we struggled with all season. So, once we put it together all four quarters, we’ll be scary. The line is playing great. Our line is phenomenal, and one of the best lines around.”

Here are the links to the Central highlights, and also the Burlington highlights:

https://www.hudl.com/team/v2/91310/Central-Varsity-Football

https://www.hudl.com/team/v2/31302/BHS-Varsity-Football