Burlington Central's offense steps up against Byron
You had to look very hard to find Byron's offense in the second quarter of Friday's Big Northern crossover at Burlington Central.
That's because the Tigers' offensive players were either standing on the sidelines or taking up their defensive positions.
Central's dominant offense kept the ball for all but five plays of that second quarter. The Rockets also scored 2 of their 5 touchdowns in that quarter - a 12-minute stretch that helped propel Central to a 35-13 victory.
"At halftime, I thought to myself, 'I really didn't feel like I was on defense at all,'" Central quarterback-defensive back Tim Maroder said. "We really were on offense the whole time."
The win is Central's first of the season after tough lopsided losses to Kaneland and Sycamore. But with BNC East play still two weeks away, the Rockets still have a number of team goals still within their grasp.
"We're getting closer and closer to our goals of being conference champs and being a playoff team," Maroder said.
The Rockets still have one more nonconference game before entering BNC East play. Next week, the Rockets visit Oregon.
"We said all along, we thought we had a decent team," Central coach Aaron Wichman said. "We felt if we could get some momentum and get some things going, guys could feed off other guys making plays - and good things would happen for us."
Central led 7-0 entering the second quarter thanks to a Kevin Kellish 12-yard reception from Maroder. And the Rockets got the ball after Byron's first play, an incomplete pass on fourth down at the Central 20-yard line.
On that drive, that started with 11:56 to go until halftime, the Rockets used 15 plays and worked 8:16 off the clock and yet failed to score when Brandon Westergaard was stopped at the Byron 1.
Two plays later, the Rockets had the ball back. The first Byron play was a no-gain run and the second was a pass that was intercepted by Michael Kellenberger.
This time, the Rockets needed three plays to score when Maroder took a rollout and was never touched.
"It felt good," Maroder said. "When we turned the ball over, we got it back and marched it right in."
After taking the ensuing kickoff, Byron got off one play - its fourth of the quarter - and fumbled the ball. Central recovered and scored four plays later when Tre Llanes took a pitch up the left sideline into the end zone.
That touchdown came with 24 seconds left and Byron's next snap was the final play of the half.
"That's one of the things we take pride in, long drives," Wichman said. "If we can have a drive of 10 plays or more, that's something we take pride in. We're not always going to be an 80-yard scoring run type of team. But if we can get 3 or 4 yards and control time of possession and wear teams down, that's the type of football we like to play."
Maroder ran in from 25 and 61 yards in the second half to open a 35-0 lead. Byron's touchdowns came late in the second half. Jared King ran in from 61 yards and Nelson Ziel scored from 1 yard with 12 seconds to play.