Burlington Central 41, Richmond 12

It's not about how many plays a football team runs. It's about what a team does with the plays it has.

The Burlington Central football team ran 30 less offensive plays than Richmond-Burton did Friday night. But Central made the plays it had count and came away with a 15-12 Big Northern Conference East victory at Rocket Hill.

"Defensively we were on the field way too long," Central coach Aaron Wichman said. "To our offense's credit when they did get the chance, especially there at the end, it's good that we could march down the field and put it in."

Central (4-2, 2-0) took its opening drive 67 yards on 10 plays for a touchdown. Senior quarterback Dan Hagberg had a key 24-yard scramble on 3rd-and-8 to keep the drive going. He then found Jason Wagner for a 29-yard touchdown pass on a 3rd-and-21 play for a touchdown with 2:03 remaining in the first quarter for a 7-0 lead. It was Hagberg's only pass of the game.

"When we get our big plays off of passing the ball, that's really not our offense," Hagberg said. "It worked for us."

After forcing Central into a three-and-out on its next possession, R-B gave everyone in the stadium a lesson in ball control. R-B (2-4, 0-2) got the ball on its own 34-yard line with 8:52 remaining in the first half. When the drive was over there was just 1 second left in the half. R-B ran 17 plays, only one for more than 8 yards, a 13-yard run by Mike Anderson. On 3rd-and-goal from Central's 3, David Jewell hit Shawn Wismer for a touchdown. The extra point was block as Central led 7-6 at halftime.

Richmond-Burton, which ran 63 offensive plays, took the lead with 8:05 left in the game after an 11-play drive that covered 34 yards, this time only one play went for more than 5 yards. R-B converted on a 4th-and-goal from the 3 after Central declined an illegal motion penalty that would have set up a 3rd-and-goal from the 8. Instead, Brandon Sanko capped the drive with a 3-yard touchdown run. R-B attempted a fake extra point run by the holder, Caleb Sheedlo, but was stopped so R-B led 13-7.

Central responded with a 13-play touchdown drive to take the lead with 1:40 remaining. Hagberg, who finished with 101 rushing yards, dove in from 2 yards out for the go-ahead score and got into the end zone for the 2-point conversion to give Central a 15-12 lead.

"To their kids credit when they had to have a drive in the football game, they came out and scored," R-B coach Pat Elder said.

Frank Wleklinski's interception with 34 seconds remaining ended R-B's final drive.

Central ran only 33 offensive plays before two kneel downs to finish the game.

Some bad news for Central was Wagner injured his right leg in the second quarter and did not return. Wichman was uncertain of Wagner's status after the game.