Rockets soar to 1st win

Burlington Central defeated North Boone 41-14 in Big Northern East Conference action Friday night to earn its first win of the season.

The Rockets (1-4, 1-0) benefited by several outstanding performances by Tommy Gast and Jeremy Lee in their first conference game of the season.

"Jeremy had a good game for us on both sides of the ball tonight," Burlington Central coach Aaron Wichman said. "He's (Gast) a great athlete. He's very fast and doesn't need a lot of room to make something happen. We worked quite a bit on our passing game and tonight it worked pretty well for us."

"The team really executed tonight," Lee said. "It feels really good to get a win at home in front of our fans who come out and support us."

Lee helped the Rockets get on the board early, catching a short pass from quarterback Tim Botsford, who was playing for the injured Tim Maroder, and then barreling over would be tacklers for the final 6 yards into the end zone.

Botsford and Lee hooked up again late in the second quarter on a 21-yard pass, and the Rockets increased their lead to 21-0 when Gast hit a leaping Kevin Kellish on a halfback option play with seconds left in the half.

"We worked on that play all year long, and he can throw it too," Wichman said. "Give the kids credit because they really executed tonight."

"I was playing as hard as I could tonight because we really needed a win," Gast said. "We have a lot of good athletes on this team. Rocket football has always been a good program and it's always fun to go out there and get a win."

The Rockets' defense set the tone in the first half, limiting the Vikings (2-3, 0-1) to 9 total yards and not allowing a first down.

Burlington Central made it 29-0 midway into the third quarter when Gast caught Botsford's third touchdown pass of the day from 37 yards out, and Botsford added a 2-point conversion.

North Boone finally got its offense on track late in the third quarter, driving 82 yards and finishing the drive on a Colton Friemuth 1-yard touchdown.

On the Rockets' next series, Addem Wynstra stripped the ball right out of Botsford's grasp and scampered 57 yards to close the gap to 29-14.

However, the Rockets added two more scores midway through the fourth quarter to seal the game. Gast scored with 9:04 remaining in the game from 1 yard out after an interception, and Nick Smith took it to the house from 48 yards out with just over 2 minutes left for the Rockets' final score.