Laramie, Hampshire upend Burlington in OT
With the game on the line, Hampshire went to its seniors. Ron Laramie scored from a yard out on fourth down as the Whip-Purs celebrated homecoming by defeating Burlington Central, 12-9, in overtime Friday night.
Laramie, the senior tailback, took the handoff from senior Ryan Burke and went left behind senior fullback Caleb Kendrick and seniors Jared Wienke, Ryan DeChant, Chris Toman and center Kyle Hemmila to give the Whips (3-5, 2-2) the Big Northern East victory.
The game-winning drive started inauspiciously with a delay-of-game penalty. But then Burke hit Kendrick at the 3-yard line. Two runs by Laramie got the ball inside the one before the Whips called timeout to set up the game's final play.
"We held them to a field goal, and we knew we could score," said Laramie.
"We knew we could move the ball, if we just stayed focused and didn't make any mistakes from there on," said Burke. "We put it in on fourth down."
Laramie finished with just 53 yards on 16 carries, but scored both Hampshire touchdowns.
"The year didn't start out the way these guys anticipated," said Hampshire coach Dan Cavanaugh, "But these guys have hung together and they deserve this."
The Rockets (3-5, 2-2) got the ball first in overtime, but had to settle for Tim Vincent's 22-yard field goal.
Before that, the game was a defensive struggle. The Rockets were able to move the ball, but couldn't finish drives and made some critical mistakes.
"We just lack that killer instinct," said Central coach Aaron Wichman. "We didn't finish drives, we didn't make key stops, and we lost the turnover battle."
The Rockets scored first on a 20-play, 92-yard drive that consumed more than 10 minutes. Tim Maroder finished it off from a yard out.
Central stopped Hampshire on the next series, but muffed Burke's punt. Hampshire recovered at the Burlington 12 and needed only 3 plays to score. Laramie took it in from 2 yards out.
Tre Llanes led Central with 139 yards on 25 carries.
The loss ended the Rockets' playoff hopes. They will finish the season at Harvard next week while Hampshire hosts Marengo.