Burlington Central slips to 2-4 for season

The Burlington Central football team marched 57 yards and scored a touchdown Friday night in its first possession.

Central, however, would get less than 100 more yards of offense on its final 11 drives as Richmond-Burton dominated BC and left Rocket Hill with a 48-14 Big Northern East victory.

"They changed up their defensive fronts quite a bit," Central coach Aaron Wichman said. "They did a few things different than we saw on film. But those are things, by Week 6 of the season, you should be able to adjust to."

R-B (5-1, 2-0) took the opening possession 61 yards in less than 2 minutes, capped by a 43-yard touchdown run by Chad Okane, for a 7-0 lead.

Central (2-4, 1-1) answered with a 7-play, 57-yard drive of its own. Tre Llanes opened the drive with a 35-yard run up the middle. The junior finished the drive on a fourth-and-goal from the 2, taking a toss around the right side with 6:39 left as Central tied the score 7-7.

"We're not doing what we need to do early defensively," R-B coach Patrick Elder said. "We've got to address that and get it fixed."

Central gained only 3 more offensive yards in the first half, punting four times and and turning the ball over on downs twice.

"We're always finding ourselves having to fight back," Wichman said. "Instead of taking it to the defense a little more, we're always trying to catch up."

Richmond-Burton, ranked No. 9 in Class 4A in the state poll, had no trouble moving the ball. It scored 27 unanswered first-half points to take a 34-7 lead into halftime. Justin Russell had touchdown runs of 15 and 23 yards and caught a 46-yard pass from Adam Pittser for a score. Okane, who finished with 114 rushing yards, also caught a 54-yard touchdown pass from Pittser.

Llanes gave Central a bit of momentum in the third quarter, scoring on a 28-yard run one play after a muffed punt by R-B with 8:14 left in the third. Llanes finished with 120 yards on 23 carries.

"I think every week Tre is getting better," Wichman said. "He's learning a little bit about that tailback position. I was happy with the way he ran the ball."

Central finished with 149 total yards, 146 on the ground on 50 attempts.

R-B finished the scoring with two fourth-quarter touchdowns, a 5-yard run from Russell for his fourth touchdown of the game and an 85-yard run from Joshua Banwart.